11 Telltale Signs You’re A Writer

“Ugh I hate essays. I would much rather we take a multiple choice test.”

If you’ve ever cringed after hearing a peer say those words, you’re probably a natural-born writer. Sometimes, us writers, feel like most of our lives are spent chugging coffee and wanting to pull our hair out. In actuality, though, writing regularly has been linked to improved mood, well-being and reduced stress levels. Here are some sure-fire signs you’re a writer at heart.

  1. Your phone’s “notes” are filled with ideas. You hardly remember to go back and look at them before the next awesome idea comes to you. Some of them are just one words, and some of them are full sentences that you overheard that sound like the beginning of the story. Either way, your non-writing-friends wouldn’t understand why your notes are so strange.
  1. You internally revise everything you read. Texting people that don’t know the difference between “two,” “to,” and “too,” is torture. When you have to look over other peoples’ writing for their intro-to-english class, you’re silently praying that their major is something in the math or science field. You have literally corrected your teachers’ syllabi grammar mistakes with your pencil.
  1. You have very strong opinions on certain words. When I read the words “creative,” or “innovative,” my heart swells. If I read the word “birth,” or “respectful,” I feel nauseous. The other day, a few editors and I found ourselves arguing over the word “wardrobe” and whether or not we liked it.
  1. To you, there’s nothing better than when someone compliments your writing. While your computer-science-major friends get blushy after being called they’re pretty, your heart swells with pride if someone compliments your writing. There’s nothing better.
  1. You are endlessly entertained staring at your laptop screen. No, I haven’t been watching Netflix, I’m reading every article the New York Times has ever written while simultaneously creating a blog and also editing a friend’s essay. I don’t get bored.
  1. You need your alone time. There’s no better feeling than sitting in a coffee shop with either your laptop or a pen and paper and just putting all your thoughts and feelings down. Writing is one of those things that’s basically impossible to do when people are trying to chit chat.
  1. You can’t fathom people who would rather study for a test than write a paper. Since your most recent writing kick, your classes have become exponentially less exciting. You know you need them to graduate, but passing a test just doesn’t give you the same rush as seeing published work that you know your peers will read.
  1. Your journals are your most prized possessions. Writing in them is fun, reading in them is fun, keeping them hidden is fun. Your journals are where many of your great works are born. You look at your journals as a big book of your life with many messed up, crazy, stupid chapters.
  1. When something interesting in your life happens, your thoughts immediately turn to how you’ll go about writing it. You feel the need to jot down important moments, even if they’re seemingly meaningless to others. Your friends may think you’re a weirdo, but at least your literature professor understands you.
  1. You are reluctant to share your ideas with others.That idea you just gave away could make you the next John Green. Someone definitely would have made a movie off of the book that you would have written. What have you done?
  1. Math is not your strong suit. You still pull out your phone to calculate the tip when you go out to eat. And you’re the girl that will type 3 + 2 into her calculator during a math test, just in case. How many more hours of my life do I have to spend in math class before I’m finally finished?

You may be broke pretty much constantly and the thought of any jobs that doesn’t involve writing may make you want to vomit, but it’s okay. While your peers laze around and watch Netflix while you’re simultaneously pounding out a 1000-word-feature, you may question your sanity. But remember – there’s no better feeling than a piece of beautiful, finished work with your name on it.

Featured image via Lisa Fotios on Pexels

1 COMMENT

  1. Another article that describes my life. I’ve been a writer for 23 years and I have gotten criticized immensely for not taking life more seriously even though I have kids now. I am the only person in my family who is a writer and if feels like most dont understand therefore it often put me in a sense of isolation. I’ve had countless odd jobs, been evicted a couple of times, homeless basically having some really tough testing of faith times and I feel it’s because I am a born writer. I never did truly care about a fulltime job with benefits because I would be making history for someone else when we need creating and leaving our own mark on the world. That’s what will teach my kids also. I’ve tried to escape the writing bug for years and it always find away to come back. Poetry, lyrics, stories and writing in general is what I do best it seems so I will pursue it because nothing else give me the same feeling dream wise.

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