Many avid readers often imagine writing books themselves one day. The old saying about there being a book inside each person is clichéd exactly because there is a grain of truth in it.
One of my close friends from the seventh grade loved the idea of being a writer. When we grew to be young adults, she talked my ear off about Stephen King, who was just taking off back then as a horror writer mega seller.
(I didn’t especially want to write horror. I read Dracula and H.P. Lovecraft short stories and had a hard time getting to sleep. Moral of this soggy saga: Do not read good horror fiction in bed at night before trying to nod off.)
Anyway, my dear friend also chatted about the writer’s life as though it were something glamorous and exciting.
Huh. Some plot twist.
I have lived the professional writer’s life for close to five decades now. It’s far from glitzy or glorious for most of us scribes, formerly ink-stained, now pixelated.
A few (like King) reach fame/fortune, giving hope to the rest of us. But most scribes do not attain that level of remuneration for their considerable efforts, although some online platforms are changing that.
Face it. We writers are solitary, introverted creatures who aren’t at peace unless we are putting words on a page, or thinking about putting words on a page, or tweaking our words on a page.
All day and all night.
Writers are basically word-obsessed hermit crabs. I wouldn’t wish a writer’s disposition on anyone. It drives me batty and my late wife had to put up with it, too, bless her.
Candace Lynn peering out from her writer's shell.
Just how bad is the writer’s obsession about, well, writing? With a nod to comedian Jeff Foxworthy, here are six signs you might be a writer, if…
- In the grocery store checkout line, you open a book of baby names, spot one, and a character shouts in your ear, That’s my name!
- You go to a party but sit by yourself thinking, I could be working on my novel.
- Your inner ear hears a character tell you to go pound sand. More than once.
- A documentary film unintentionally helps you solve a thorny plot question.
- You lose all track of time when you are in the writing flow.
- You get so lost in the world you are chronicling that your spouse intervenes to reel you back to this reality.
And my friend? The would-be writer? She had a tough time sitting down and writing. There was always something else she had to do. When she finally managed it, her article was terrific. But actual writing was like pulling teeth for her.
Those who find the writing part of being a writer hard to get into will starve as writers unless they are also independently wealthy.
Gah! Enough of all this. My crabby self is heading back into my writing shell to work on Stoneslayer Book Nine Broken.
In my next life, I’ll be much more of a party animal extrovert. Maybe.
Candace Lynn Talmadge is an author, storyhealer, and paranormalist. Get a free excerpt from Stoneslayer Book One Scandal when you sign up for her free author newsletter on her Substack channel, Wider Realities.
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