17 Things You Only Do When You're A Writer

Let's be honest here.  When you're a writer, your life looks very different from what is considered "normal".  And the cool part is: That's totally ok!  In fact, it's not just ok, it's rather encouraged.  Being abnormal is your job, and even, dare I say it, your very being.  If you were normal, your stories would just be average.  Nothing unique or interesting would ever happen, and that makes for a pretty horrible novel.

So, in the name of creativity, embrace your abnormality!  

In an effort to display and celebrate what sets writers apart, I've compiled a list of things that I myself have done on my own novelist's journey that could be considered...well...less than sane.  I'm going to take a wild guess that these are things other writers have done as well.  Enjoy!

1. Doing things with your eyes closed so you know the challenges that would ensue if one of your characters ever suddenly went blind.

2. Not being able to go to bed unless there is a notebook on your nightstand, and using it whenever a novel or blog post idea dominates your thoughts at 12am (like this post idea, for instance).

3. As soon as September hits, you feel the instant need to write a countdown to the first day of NaNoWriMo on your calendar, just so you are constantly aware of how many days you have left to prepare.

4. Being extra critical of every book you read, but adoring them anyway because you know first hand how many tears and sleepless nights the author had to go through just to finish the story.

5. Wanting desperately to go to sleep, but that one character won't stop talking to you, so you literally say the words "shut up shut up shut up" out loud a bunch of times in your best Sherlock impression until you can't hear them anymore.

6. Your iPod is filled with pictures of people you've never met just because they look like how you imagine some of your characters.

7. Creating a dramatic death scene in your bedroom when you're bored, complete with a full collapse on the bed and slowly decreasing raspy breaths, so that the death scene in your book can feel more accurate (and then you "die" by allowing your hand to drop suddenly and seeing how long you can hold your breath).

8. You can fall in love with a certain journal in a bookstore faster than you will ever fall in love with a human person, and once that journal catches your eye it is almost a guarantee that it will be coming home with you, no matter how many unfinished journals you already have.

9. There are boards on your Pinterest page with research on just about everything.  Like the level of toxicity of different poisons, well known and common phrases in Latin, the varying ranks of nobility, a list of the different ways a bone could break, a diagram showing how you can tell how much light is left in the day by using your hand, and a life hack post on how to get an extra snack at a vending machine.  You know, just in case.

10. Based on the information above, you realize that people might be coming very aware that they shouldn't be afraid of technology, the government, or a zombie apocalypse anymore.  They should really be afraid of an uprising of writers.

11. According to you, though, this should just make people want to be friends with writers.  For example, if they ever got stranded on an island, you would be the one to know which plants would kill you, how to build a raft that wouldn't sink, and you could spot the human with a hidden agenda from a mile away.

12. Roughly 87.5% of your job is procrastinating by playing solitaire, reading, and scrolling through social media.  The small percentage left over is used for rewriting that one problem sentence over and over again until you feel like a lunatic.

13. The first sentence of a book and the title are THE WORST parts of your job, and are probably the source of most of your insomnia and anxiety issues.

14. Several days each week are spent plotting out antagonists and the horrible things they're going to do to your protagonists.  And yet people still wonder why you have trust issues and don't feel comfortable going out at night.

15. Talking yourself into doing something that seriously scares you by saying it's research, just in case your character should ever experience it someday (roller coaster, high ropes course, rock climbing, a three day back-country canoe trip, etc...).

16. You find posts like this, and save them just to remind yourself that you aren't the only one who feels so much ridiculous passion for the written word...

             

17. Most importantly, you know that writing isn't a plan to get rich and famous.  Writing is an escape to help you find yourself.  The only place where a few minutes of typing can be the difference between questions and answers.

Have you ever done something abnormal or scary for the sake of a novel?  What does your writer's process look like?

Four Literary Friendzones That Actually Turned Out Okay

Hello, readers and fellow bloggers of the world!

So, I've been hearing a lot of negativity on this all-so-horrible subject called "the Friendzone" lately, and from someone who has personally experienced it, I've decided to speak up.  I truly feel like it's not as big of a deal as you're all making it out to be.  I mean, I hate to say you're wrong but...

You're wrong.

Come on, don't go marching off and telling me I don't understand.  I promise, I do!  I know what it feels like to be in that bubble of "Gosh, I like this person a lot, and I'm never even going to get to show it."  But, even though it can be kind of horrible and confusing, I've learned something incredibly important through those experiences...

By trusting the friendzone, we're basically denying our trust in God.

Now, don't get me wrong.  I know the "just friends" bubble exists.  But I also know this:

God created the stars in a day, created everything good and beautiful in this world, and yet for some reason we seem to think he can't turn a lovely friendship into something more.  He most definitely CAN do that.  But only by his will, and only in his timing.  If we can't trust him with that much, how are we ever going to trust him at all?

I feel like Jamie Grace's song, Just Friends, says it best...

Father I will place this in your hands

You know me and all my crazy plans

Humbly I surrender this to you

So I'll keep dreaming, you keep coming through

I know you see what I don't see

So I'll be just a friend, I'll be just a friend

I know that I will be happy

Even if we're just friends, I'll be just a friend

I guess that's that

To be honest, I'm a strong believer that the friendzone is actually one of the healthiest ways to begin a relationship.  If you want to know more on why I think the "Dreaded Friendzone" is actually important, check out the blog post here.

Basically, what it comes down to is that most of the things we desire in this world take wisdom and discernment in order to be cared for properly.  But they also take something else, which is the reason for the clock in that picture up there.

Patience.

Believe me, I'm preaching mostly to myself here.  If something is in God's will, it will happen, but only in his timing.  Sometimes his timing takes a little while, sometimes a lot of while.  Either way, good things come to those who wait, and that's the lesson I took away with me from the books below.

So, after that entirely long intro... Because of my extreme love for the written word, I have hand picked with care some of my favorite fictional couples that display the friendzone in a positive light.  I hope it inspires you and helps you see the beauty of what it can become, instead of just the "sorrow" of what it is.

Without further ado...in no particular order...here's a little hope for your week.

Annabeth and Percy from Percy Jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan

Her first words to him were "you drool when you sleep", they competed and teased each other to no end, and almost lost their lives countless times before finally noticing how much they had grown to care about each other.  Even then, their friendship always came first, and they would do anything (and have done everything) to make sure the other one is alright.  Not even Greek/Roman warfare or a walk through Tartarus could separate these two Camp Half-Blood regulars.

"Put your cap back on," I said.  "Get out!"

"What?"  Annabeth Shrieked.  "No!  I'm not leaving you."

"I've got a plan.  I'll distract them.  You can use the metal spider - maybe it'll lead you back to Hephaestus.  You have to tell him what's going on."

"But you'll be killed!"

"I'll be fine.  Besides, we've got no choice."

Annabeth glared at me like she was going to punch me.  And then she did something that surprised me even more.  She kissed me.

"Be careful, Seaweed Brain."  She put on her hat and vanished.

I probably would've sat there for the rest of the day staring at the lava and trying to remember what my name was but the sea demons jarred me back to reality. 

Emma and Mr. Knightly from Emma by Jane Austen

He knew her and loved her since she was practically a baby.  She considered him her dear friend who was sometimes a little too honest.  Their friendship was a roller coaster, filled with her dizzy, romantic schemes for her friends, and him trying to get her out of trouble.  But no matter how big of a mistake she made, he was always the one to love her just as she was.  I love this story, because the two people who thought themselves the most difficult person to love, ended up finding love in each other.

Emma was almost ready to sink under the agitation of this moment.  The dread of being awakened from the happiest dream, was perhaps the most prominent feeling.

'I cannot make speeches, Emma:' - he soon resumed; and in a tone of such sincere, decided, intelligible tenderness as was tolerably convincing. - 'If I loved you less, I might be able to talk about it more.  But you know what I am. - You hear nothing but truth from me. - I have blamed you, and lectured you, and you have borne it as no other woman in England would have borne it. - Bear with the truths I would tell you now, dearest Emma, as well as you have borne with them.'

Note: The quote is from the book, but the picture is from the web-series, Emma Approved, which is most definitely worth checking out.

Walter and Ashley from the Dragons in our Midst series by Bryan Davis

When they met she was a hired genius in a science lab, and much too old for his childish ways and endless humor.  Just a few years later, he's still just as annoyingly optimistic and sarcastic as ever, but it doesn't seem to matter as much to her any more.  He's rescued her and his friends on several occasions, and proven himself to be a man of real integrity.  Maybe he wasn't so obnoxious after all.  In fact, Ashley thinks, maybe she's the one who needs to loosen up and trust in his friendship that has been so constant all this time.

Tears welled in her eyes again.  She tried to swallow back the surge of emotion, but it leaked out through her trembling voice.  "Walter...you know what I said about you and me?"  She rubbed her thumb along his finger.  "Maybe someday.  ...I mean, when we're older."  Her cheeks flushed hot, and she shook her head.  "I guess I'd better shut up.  I'm getting all sappy."

Setting Excalibur on the steps, Walter rose to his feet and pulled Ashley to hers, keeping their hands locked together as he gazed into her eyes.  "Listen carefully.  We're going to find your brother, your sister, and even your father, and put your family back together.  Then, someday when I'm old enough to learn to be at least half the man your father must have been, I might come knocking at his door and speak to him about a lovely princess I'd like to have a lot more adventures with."

Her tears now flowing, Ashley laid a hand on his cheek.  It was hot and damp.  "Walter, I... I don't know what to say."

"Then don't say anything.  We have at least a few years between now and then."  He picked up Excalibur and hurried down the stairs.  "We'd better get going." 

Anne and Gilbert from Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery

Smashing a school black board over someone's head isn't exactly the crowning way to start a relationship, but it seemed to work out for this pair.  In fact, I would go as far as saying that Gilbert Blythe is the KING of the friendzone.  Anne shunned him to no end, even after they became friends.  And yet, even after all she put him through and all the times she turned him down, he remained dedicated to her in friendship and "would not be sidetracked".  He knew she was the only one he could love, and so he waited patiently and respectfully for several years until she could find it within herself to love him too.  This is my favorite friendzone example.  I could have used any number of scenes as a sample of these characters, but I chose this one specifically because it's the first time Anne finds the notion within herself that there could be something more with Gilbert, and I think it's worded brilliantly.

"Yes, it's beautiful," said Gilbert, looking steadily down into Anne's uplifted face, "but wouldn't it have been more beautiful still, Anne, if there had been NO separation or misunderstanding... If they had come hand in hand all the way through life, with no memories behind them but those which belonged to each other?"

For a moment Anne's heart fluttered queerly and for the first time her eyes faltered under Gilbert's gaze and a rosy flush stained the paleness of her face.  It was as if a veil that had hung before her inner consciousness had been lifted, giving to her view a revelation of unsuspected feelings and realities.  Perhaps, after all, romance did not come into one's life with pomp and blare, like a gay knight riding down; perhaps it crept to one's side like an old friend through quiet ways; perhaps it revealed itself in seeming prose, until some sudden shaft of illumination flung athwart its pages betrayed the rhythm and the music, perhaps...perhaps...love unfolded naturally out of a beautiful friendship, as a golden-hearted rose slipping from its green sheath.

Well, I hope you enjoyed this attempt at a little sunshine in the middle of what is usually a negative subject.  And I hope even MORE so that you'll check out all these books for yourselves.  They're really fantastic!

Thanks for reading!  God bless!