10 Quirks Only Writers Understand

Photo credit: kurichan+ on Flickr
Writers are weird.

As someone who embraces the titles of writer and weird proudly, it occurred to me that we writers often share a number of quirks that probably seem odd to the non-writing world.

While this is by no means a comprehensive list of writer quirks (because let’s face it, there are a lot more than ten), I thought it’d be fun to share some of my favorites*:
  1. We speak in code. We get cloud-nine excited over an R&R, grab every ARC we can get our hands on, frequently reference The One and The Call, talk endlessly about our NA/YA/MG/PB/SFF/etc. WIPs and MSes, and go crazy during NaNoWriMo. All during a perfectly normal conversation on Twitter.

  2. We have questionable search histories. This tumblr post basically says it all. Click through to the pictures. I promise it’s worth it. 

  3. We talk about our characters like they’re real. Because they are. 

  4. We never have enough books. My TBR list (there we go with the code again) is like space: infinite and always expanding. 

  5. We have a love/hate relationship with words. We cry into our keyboards and jump for joy over the most amazing paragraph ever, often in the same day. Because writing is hard, but even when we hate it, we love it. 

  6. We’d rather write a novel than a one-page synopsis. Writers around the world agree that synopsis-writing is the tenth circle of hell that Dante forgot to write about. 

  7. We surprise ourselves with our writing. This is one quirk that I think probably surprises non-writers the most: even when we plan things out, our writing will often take a turn we didn’t expect. A character will reveal a secret we didn’t plan for, or make a decision that wasn’t in the outline, or do something that we thought was out of character until we realize we know less about his character than we originally anticipated. And personally, it’s something I’ll never tire of.

  8. We pay attention to everything. When we’re upset, or get hurt, or excited, or caught out in the rain, we writers pay attention. When we see a stranger with a particular walk, or interesting look, we take mental notes. When we overhear a fascinating conversation or experience something wonderful/terrible/awe-inspiring/terrifying, we hold it in our minds for use in our writing. Because in order to create an immersive experience for our readers, we need to pay attention to every life-detail we can manage. 

  9. We laugh at our own jokes. (And cry over things we do to our characters). Even when we plan for terrible things to happen to our characters (which isn’t always the case), we still get just as upset about it as our readers (hopefully) do. Also, our characters are hilarious, so by extension, so are we. 

  10. We live in worlds that we created, even when we’re not writing. Writers are daydreamers, and there are few things we like to think about more than the worlds and characters that we’re writing about. And the best part? We can call it work. 
*Please note: if you don't have many (or any) of these quirks, it doesn't mean you're not a writer! This is just for fun. I promise.

What quirks would you add to the list? 

Twitter-sized bites: 
Writer @Ava_Jae shares ten fun writer quirks—how many do you have? (Click to tweet)  
Do you have any writer quirks? Come share your writer mannerisms at @Ava_Jae's blog: (Click to tweet

19 comments:

Fallon said...

Yes, to all of these. Especially #7, just this morning. I had trouble thinking of what quirks this one character might have when filling out a character worksheet. Yet, as I was writing this morning, one came to me like I'd always known it.

Emma Adams said...

Yes! I do all of these things. :D I'd also add a tendency to carry a notebook everywhere. And daydreaming all the time, resulting in completely zoning out of conversations, missing bus stops, walking into doors etc (possibly just me! :P).

Laura Rueckert said...

Spot on! I don't have any additions, but I have more "code": queries, pitches, partials and fulls always confuse my non-writing friends. And, oh, I'm SO guilty of #10. Like when someone asks you a question and you're like: stop bothering me - I'm busy with a conversation in my head. ;)

Ava Jae said...

Yes! #7 is one of my favorites—part of the reason I often wait until after I've started writing to really flesh out characters is because oftentimes, even when I do plan for them to behave a certain way, they end up entirely different, or do something that is entirely inconsistent with the planned version of their personality. It's pretty great when your story starts to develop a life of it's own. :)

Ava Jae said...

Ah, yes! The notebook. I forgot about that because it's something I tend not to do (although I keep Evernote with me at all times, so I suppose that counts). And you're definitely not the only one who zones out at sometimes inopportune times. :)

Ava Jae said...

So true on the code front—I was thinking about acronyms, but you're entirely right. I've used those terms with my non-writing friends and confused them as well. And #10 is the reason we can stare blankly out a window or at a wall and say we're working. ^_^

Melissa Maygrove said...

Great list. LOL over #s 2 & 6. :P

Jen Donohue said...

Sometimes, if I don't laugh at my own jokes, nobody else will ^^

RoweMatthew said...

I think that's all me. Apart from no. 1. I abhor code. It's like text speak. Get it off me! Get it off me!

Ava Jae said...

Thanks, Melissa! Though I only just realized that the link for #2 didn't transfer over when I uploaded the post. *facepalm* It's fixed now...

Ava Jae said...

I mean, if you don't find your jokes funny, then it's probably not a very good joke to begin with, so I say laugh away. :)

Ava Jae said...

Heh I could see that, although an earlier commenter pointed out that terms like "partials" "fulls" "queries" and "pitches" could be considered confusing codewords to the outside world, too. :)

Jen Donohue said...

Exactly!


I'm just not always on the same page as everybody else. Sometimes I'll be laughing at somebody else's joke, but for an entirely different reason than what the punchline is supposed to be (I wish I had an example to give, but it's happened. Frequently.)

Ava Jae said...

At least if you're laughing you can pretend it was the punchline that made you laugh. :D

Robin Red said...

Number 3, wow. I was just talking with a friend about how great this guy is, and she asked where I met him, I said, "Microsoft Word."

Ava Jae said...

Ha! I love that. Great answer. :D

Susan Mihalic said...

That's very funny--and I understand completely.

Ellen B said...

Love this list! #8 reminded me of a best-selling author and MFA advisor who said he could tell the difference between poets and fiction writers when they came to his office for conferences. Poets were intent and focused, while fiction writers were "off someplace" -- gazing around the room, taking in what he had on the walls, on his shelves. And he would know -- fiction writer himself.

Ava Jae said...

Ha! That's great! It never even occurred to me that poets would be different—how interesting but how true about writers! Love it. Thanks for sharing, Ellen! :)

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