Weird Things Writers Do

/ Katie

My name is Katie, and I have animated conversations – by myself, out loud – between characters I made up. Often on my porch swing, where all the neighbors can see. (I’m sure they’re not paying attention.)

Y’all, writers are weird.

Or maybe it’s just me?

Am I late to this party? Yeah, probably. But I was sitting outside last night, thinking about a scene I wanted to write, and acting out the dialogue – very energetically – and I thought, “You know, if someone didn’t know you, they might think you’re not all there.”

When Graham first saw my carefully chaotic assortment of mostly empty notebooks, I think he found it kind of charming. Now…well, now he knows me well enough to mostly ignore it. But also wonders why I need so many and why they all need to live in a pile on my desk but also beside the bed and in the living room and behind the driver’s seat of my car just in case I hear something funny in public and want to remember it.

He’ll never get used to the questions, though. Random questions, all the time, especially to people I just met. I’ve gotten pretty good at fitting them into the flow of a good chat, though. Like, if you met me, you probably wouldn’t even realize I’m gently interrogating you for the purposes of storytelling. Unless you’re a writer, too. Because then you’re probably doing the same thing.

I can’t remember the moment I developed most of these little weirds. Was I always like this? Probably. I used to get in trouble a lot for daydreaming, even when I was really little. I continue to view daydreaming as my superpower.

Oh, and my coffee’s gone cold. That happens a lot, too.

So anyway, are you normal, or do you too collect and hoard notebooks like they’re a finite resource?

Because if you do – if you, too, are weird like me – we should probably be friends.

32 thoughts on “Weird Things Writers Do”

  1. i seem to be a hoarder of books (as i look around at the random and toppling piles everywhere i’ve been. my trail of breadcrumbs, in fact). and rather than notebooks, which would at least be “organized” i scribble notes in the oddest places, and then sometimes can’t find them. maybe i need to get organized and find a single notebook, or notebooks plural. inspired by you.

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  2. Here’s to the weird ones! A few weeks ago, I told my wife about some dialogue between two characters that I was working on. I told her about it because I wanted to make sure it sounded real and not contrived. At the end she looked at me and went, “that’s all in your head. How do you keep it all straight.” I swear she thought I was losing my mind. Ha, ha, nah, just writing. Ha, ha.

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    • Yep, just writing. It’s a process! My dad often asks me how I come up with some of this stuff and how I know which words to use. I wish I had a better answer than I do, which is to say: I dunno, just kind of happens and then I tinker until it feels right. Writing is its own kind of magic. 🙂

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  4. I think we might be friends! I will frequently write down what someone says thinking ‘That is what Giorgio or Faith might notice.’ Sometimes I announce it to the person and some look a bit skewed and others smile and strut.

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  7. I have lots of notebooks. I start out all purposeful and organized…and then I stop…or I use the idea books for information books…or for websites that have nothing to do with anything.

    Lately, after watching far too many YouTube videos, I have been craving a Traveler’s Notebooks (passport size…I think….maybe). I am not even sure why I crave it.

    As for conversations that are taking place in books and stories that I haven’t written….what else would I do with my free time.

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    • Exactly! Like, what better use of free time? 🙂 I have several notebooks that I’ve started with purpose, too. Lots of lists and plans and journaling. And they all end up just being catch-alls. But it works for me!

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  12. I always need more notebooks, despite how many are piled up next to my bed. (And I always have one or two little ones in my pocket!) I also mutter all my dialogue under my breath as I’m writing. (I share a room with my brothers and they can’t STAND it. Ah well.)
    Nice to know us crazy writers aren’t alone! 😆

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  13. I too am a strange fellow writing creature 😆 I’ve got a drawer filled with full/half-full notebooks and they seem to multiply before my very eyes 😂 I also can daydream for hours on end. Full on cinema going on in this oddity of a brain 😂💕 you’re not alone my friend 🫂

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    • Love this! I was just thinking yesterday that I’ve not been daydreaming enough lately. Life’s been busy! I feel like I get grouchy when I don’t get time to think and daydream… Maybe another weird writer thing? 😉

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