12 Signs You May Be a Writer

Afraid you might be a writer? You are not alone, there are many others with this difficult condition. Here are some signs and symptoms to look out for:

1) Frequent Daydreaming.
You may drift away in the middle of an important lecture at work, or phase out in the middle of a boring conversation. You can't help but dream up fantastic, twisting plots and heroic protagonists whenever you get a spare second. People may accuse you of not listening, or having your head in the clouds.

2) Everyone is a Potential Character.
You stare for too long at that old bag lady walking by with her shopping cart, and your knobby-kneed neighbor makes you jerk your little notepad out of your pocket and start scribbling. Strange people fascinate you, and every word out of their mouths is whisked away into your memory bank for future dialogue.

3) You Spend More on Books Than on Essential Items.
You don't need food that badly, and that sweater is hanging on by its last threads, but it will be fine. That new book is coming out on Monday, and you can survive on Mr.Noodles for a few more days.

4) Office Supplies Make You Strangely Excited.
You spend too long in the aisle at Staples, and the clerk is starting to eyeball you. But you're not causing trouble, you just want to run your fingers over the blank pages of that beautiful white notebook, and test out the new ball point pens they got in yesterday. You'll just sign your name a couple times on the sample page. The clerk can sell it later when you get famous. He'll be grateful then, won't he?

5) Neil Gaiman is Your Brad Pitt.
Wait, who is Brad Pitt?

6) You Would Rather See a Book Signing Than a Rock Concert
Because writers are your rock stars.

7)You Don't Sleep
Your brain is too stuffed full of brilliant ideas, and you have to keep getting up to write them down.

8) You're Slightly Mad
From lack of sleep, food and obsessing over a single thing for 90% of your life. For a complete list of WHY you are mad, click HERE.

10) You Both Love and Hate the Internet
Because it's a time-sucking vortex. It allows you to interact with fans, helps with questions and provides hours of entertainment when you SHOULD be writing.

11) You'll use ANYTHING For a Bookmark
Bills, money, pencils, other books...if your cat would sit still long enough you'd shove him in there. As long as it marks your place while you make lunch. Occasionally an actual bookmark will be put to use.

12) You Narrate Things Occasionally
This dinner is burnt, I say angrily, as I throw the pot roast in the sink. I'm not eating it. Oh look, my husband comes in the door and looks at me strangely. Why am I talking to myself? he asks.


If you feel that you match one or more of these symptoms, you can report to any bookstore or library for treatment. You cannot be cured of writing, but you can manage the symptoms over your lifetime so you remain sane, healthy and happy.

Mostly sane, anyways.

If you have any symptoms that are not listed, please report them in the comments below.

Most Beautiful Libraries

   As a kid I loved to watch Beauty and the Beast. Maybe normal little girls would watch and wish that they had Belle's beautiful dresses, or a handsome prince to sweep them off their feet. Not me, I would wait eagerly until my favourite part came. Beast would open the door and lead Belle into the giant library, and I would watch with wide eyes, wishing and praying that someday I would have a library just like that!

   But just like other little girls grow up and realize that prince charming is really just a guy who sits on the couch in his tighty-whities and drinks beer and farts a lot, I realized that I was probably not ever going to have that library. What I can do though, is go through pictures on the internet and torture myself with libraries I'm probably never going to be able to afford to have in my lifetime. Admit it, you do it too...

   I was searching Beauty and the Beast library and found THIS:

    Thankfully the drool didn't short out my keyboard. This is someone's personal library. I couldn't find the name of the person who owns this, but I wonder if they spent their childhood pausing the tape at the part where Belle walks into the library. Probably. 

    Of course, a library doesn't have to be decorated like a frosted wedding cake. I love the old fashioned libraries the best. All done in burnished oak or dark cherry wood. I want a library where you walk in and imagine that Tolkien and Lewis may have just been sitting there in the old arm chairs by the fire, pipe smoke curling up to the ceiling.

      This lovely library is the personal library of Steampunk Couture seamstress, Kato. I frequent her facebook fan page to drool over the amazing steampunk clothing she makes, and then I found this and went into fits of jealousy. 

    Speaking of fits of jealousy: Here is the personal library of Jay Walker (inventor and entrepreneur).  It looks like some glorious mash up of mad scientist lab/library.

    This drool-worthy beauty is owned by none other than George Lucas. It's the library at Skywalker Ranch, where all the Star Wars bigwigs get together. I wonder if they play dress up and have epic light saber battles on the balcony. I would.

    This one is mainly coveted because it belongs to one of my all time favourite authors: Neil Gaiman. I can just imagine him in there, creating the magic, making up fantastical stories. Hiding from the hordes of rabid fans on his doorstep. Neil is famous for having crazed fans who think of him as a sort of literary rock star. Not me though, I'm not crazed. Nope.

    And then there's this one. It's no beauty and the beast library, but it has funny hats and spooky pictures, ticking clocks and dripping candles and best of all: My favourite books all in one place. Do you have a library, or a coveted picture of a library you plan to make your own one day? Or do you just watch Beauty and the Beast over and over until the VHS starts to wear out?

Edited to add: The second picture is not in fact a personal library, but the Admont Abbey library in Austria.