Home > Blog > Craft > 26 Obvious Signs You’re a Writer

26 Obvious Signs You’re a Writer

by | May 17, 2016

Ah, the writing life. You know it so well.

Endless caffeine, a little bit of procrastination, blank Word documents, piles of notebooks, bouts of self-doubt and the satisfying clickety-clack of the keyboard. All things those of us who fancy ourselves writers are intimately familiar with. (OK. Maybe it’s a lot of procrastination, not just a little.)

We took to social media to ask writers all over the world to complete the sentence, “You know you’re a writer when…” The results are hilarious, honest and heartfelt.

You know you’re a writer when…

1. You keep a journal and pen by your bed — you know, for those middle-of-the-night bursts of inspiration.

via GIPHY

2. Every moment when you’re not writing is spent thinking about writing.

3. You take a sick day from work to stay home and work on your latest project.

via GIPHY

4. You can never have enough coffee to keep you going.

via GIPHY

5. You have a stockpile of 15+ blank notebooks and journals and buy more faster than you fill them.

via GIPHY

6. Your friends, family, and colleagues make you write their important emails, cover letters…and even the inscriptions on greeting cards.

via GIPHY

7. You turn down plans with family and friends so you can keep writing.

via GIPHY

8. You type, type, type away and don’t even care about the time.

via GIPHY

9. Your wrist physically aches.

10. Every person you see, whether on a bus, at work or out shopping, becomes a potential character for your novel.

writer

11. You finish reading a novel and you head straight to your laptop to start writing yours!

via GIPHY

12. Your friends and family are a tad sick of hearing about your latest writing project.

13. You get in a writing groove and just can’t stop.

via GIPHY

14. Word counts only slightly stress you out. OK. They really stress you out.

15. There’s paper wadded up all over your floor from editing.

16. You’ve perfected the art of procrastination.

via GIPHY

17. Your computer is filled with half-baked story ideas that you’ll get to one day.

18. A blank page no longer scares you.

via GIPHY

19. You think “this will make a great story” as you’re in the middle of an experience.

20. You document your life on the Internet.

via GIPHY

21. You’d rather be reading a book.

22. You use words like an artist uses paint.

via GIPHY

23. Every part of your life (purse, car, house) is filled with random Post-it Notes and scribbled-on-receipts because you got an idea at a random moment.

24. Killing off one of your beloved characters gives you real heartbreak.

via GIPHY

25. You finally admit it to yourself.

via GIPHY

26. You write. Simple as that.

Go on! Add to this list in the comments. You know you’re a writer when…

Thank you to members of the Freelance to Freedom Project, One Woman Shop and The Write Life Facebook communities for contributing to this post!