Things Only Writers Understand (probably a part 1)

There are just some things that writers do or know that other people just don't get. The trials of trying to get the draft done, terms like MC and word sprint, the constant craving for coffee, the deep-seated desire to just murder all those characters and just abandon their broken bodies to be eaten by the carnivorous unicorns of the cosmos.  I don't know about that last one, though. It might just be me. Anyone else ever feel like that? No? I figured.

But if you don't mind, I'll just talk about some of the other things that writers get that other people just don't.

Getting ideas in the middle of the night.

This is why I keep a whiteboard and a whiteboard pen near my bed at night. If I have a random idea, I can just scribble it down and keep trying to sleep. Emphasis on 'trying.' Night is my brain's active time. Once I start figuring stuff out and the ideas start arriving, they don't tend to stop for a good half an hour. Sometimes even longer.

Turning strangers into characters.

I don't know about you, but sometimes I'll just see a person in public who just looks interesting. My brain decides within five seconds of seeing them that I need to make them into a character, and I proceed to stare at them with my imitation of subtlety until their image is ingrained into my memory. I currently have two of them waiting in my head for the right story. One of them is named Jamie. He's very nice. Why, no, I'm not crazy, why do you ask?

Going SUPER deep in the prewriting stage.

Me unloading all the tiny details for people who didn't ask for them.

This is where we get the stupid little bits of information that nobody else will ever care about. I once saw a guy on a NaNoWriMo live stream chat who said he literally knew the number of hairs on his MC's chest. I have stupid little details down to the ballet solo characters had when they were five, but I'm really good without that specific knowledge, thanks.

Villain motivations.

Some days...

Wanting to cosplay your own characters. (life tip for you: no one will know who you are)

for obvious reasons I don't have a picture of this.

This reality is especially depressing because some of my characters actually wear stuff that I have, so I could cosplay them so well!!!! And I wanna cosplay them so bad!!!! But it's pretty that anyone will know or care about who I'm dressed up as. However, if I was invited to an event centered around my books. . .

When the pencil tip breaks during a tense scene.

Noooooooo

Perfect. Just perfect. Now I've lost my flow, and by the time I come back with a sharpened pencil and I start writing again, I won't have a clue what the heck I'm trying to say!!?!.@'/.'']'|;

This:

I know how often I use this gif, but it embodies all my writing frustration in like 3 seconds of footage. So I'll keep using it, thanks.

Loving and hating the draft on the re-read.

Either I love all of it and don't want to change anything, or I hate all of it and the only things I like are that description over there and that one quote that didn't even fit the scene, so. . . yeah.

Realizing you wrote two characters EXACTLY the same.

So then you have to change one of them, or both of them, basically meaning you have to rewrite EVERY BLESSED SCENE they were in. Ergh.

The pain of removing a scene/character/precious-but-useless-subplot.

Don't worry. *pats you on the back while you cry* You can save them for another novel. They'll inevitably be removed from that one too, but try not to think about that.


Okay, I'm done now. I've been meaning to do this one for a while, but I kept thinking I would keep adding to the list as I went along. I never did, of course, so this is why you have it now instead of in twenty years when the list of things was complete. Chances are, this will probably be a part one for a later post (it's up now!!) when I really do think of more things, but for now, this is where it stops.


What did I forget in this post that I should put in the next one? Tell me down in the comments. And tell me if you have any ideas for future posts, as well. Okay, I have a lot more blog posts to write today, so see you next time. Visit my Instagram and Twitter for writing humor.