Writers Are Odd

On February 27, I attended the ANWA writer’s conference, Start Write Now, and one of the more humorous speakers, J Scott Savage, commented that writers are odd. To emphasize his point, he revealed his list of oddities: writer’s talk to their characters in the shower, cry over the characters they kill themselves, write down their dreams, and have crazy egos. We all laughed over his slide presentation, illustrating the various quirks. Despite his humor, I’ve thought about his comments over the last couple of weeks, and I’ve come to the conclusion he’s more correct than not.

I came up with my own list of idiosyncrasies to prove he’s hit the mark. I’m sure if you thought about it awhile, you might come up with some weirdness yourself. Please share if you do.

• Writers Emote - I’ve always been a drama queen. My husband (now ex-husband) used to tell me all the time, “You’re not on the stage,” when I reacted to life’s curve balls. I went around the house emoting and feigning the end of the world often. My children ogled at me, marveling at the woman banging her head on the computer keys and crying, “I’ll never get it! Never!” When I think back on my moments of drama, well, I'm sure I'd have repeated the same things over again.
• Writers Are Superstitious - Charles Dickens placed objects on his desk in exactly the same position, always set his bed in north/south directions, and touched certain objects three times for luck. I recently learned about Feng Shui, and now I won’t write facing the south, my worst direction of all.
• Writers Roll Play - Whether on a bus or in a grocery store line, you can find a writer acting out their characters’ lives in the strangest ways. Perhaps you’ve taken up skydiving or asked your children to tie you to a chair so you know how your character feels. On a good day, you can find me throwing punches in the air and dancing with my houseplants.
• Writers Rather Type Than Eat - A writer is always rushing to meet deadlines or yearning for the right word to replace another one from their last writing session, thus they’d rather be typing than doing just about anything else. I’ve skipped meals often when the flow is erupting from my depths. My stomach grumbles on, and I can’t stop writing until the walls start moving behind my computer.  

Sound familiar? At all? I hear a resounding, “Yes!!!!” Because writers ARE odd. It’s the nature of the zillions of beasts that roam around inside our heads. But, hey, rather than tame the invasive creatures, I’ll do whatever it takes to get to the end of my novel.