Signs That You Are a Writer
• You covet office supplies. Sticky notes, pens, notebooks, pencils-your hands itch to touch them. The stationery aisle in the office supply store is a wonderful place.
• You regularly eavesdrop on conversations in the park, in coffee shops, in lines…and store away bits of dialogue and expressions like a squirrel gathering nuts for winter.
• You stop in mid-sentence when an interesting character crosses your sightline so you can memorize the details for later. If you can get away with it, you scribble it down in the ever-present notebook.
• You get distracted by poor spelling and grammar on a menu or a sign. On more than one occasion, you have offered to fix a presenter’s slides because misplaced apostrophes were driving you batty.
• You not only have an opinion on the Oxford comma, you have held a spirited debate about it on more than one occasion.
• You own more than one dictionary and use them regularly for their intended purpose.
• You prefer an actual thesaurus to the online version because there’s a satisfying feeling to turning the pages and running your finger over the lines of words to find the right one.
• At least once in your writing career, your characters have taken over the story and refused to do what you wanted them to do according to your outline. You also talk to your characters when they are refusing to toe the line.
• You can clearly articulate the difference between your and you’re, its and it's and there, they’re and their. You judge people who cannot.
• You use proper grammar and spelling in text messages and tweets. Your speed might be slower, but you are rarely misunderstood although the 140 character thing is challenging.
• Your google search history would raise eyebrows and cause law enforcement to look at you more closely.
• Brilliant writing makes you catch your breath, and then cry with longing at being able to craft a sentence like that one day.
• You express yourself with words on the page, rather than speaking. You are much more witty on paper and rather a disappointment in person. It's okay though, you would rather stay home!
