Blogger/author Nathan Bransford hit the nail on the head with his gif-blessed post on how to know you’re a writer .
I laughed out loud reading it as so many of them resonated with me, particularly the one about getting distracted during conversations because someone says something and you immediately think, “Shit! That’s an awesome word. Gotta write that down. Everybody shut the fuck up until I do.”
I had that experience today while shopping. Something pissed me off, which I find generally leads to literary inspiration, and the idea for a wonderfully cutting put-down sprang to mind. I still had to get home to be able to record it, having left the house without my trusty notebook, so I found myself repeating it out loud while driving home, which was doubly-useful because I refined the phrase even more until it was so damn cutting you could have sold it on the home-shopping network with twelve additional free steak knives.
So I charge into the house, buzzing with glee, made a beeline for my computer … and my lovely husband starts talking to me. I can feel the fabric of my beautiful one-liner starting to unravel in my brain so I have to do that unforgiveable marriage thing and tell him to shut-up until I write this thing down.
Thankfully, my husband is very understanding of these writerly quirks I’ve developed, so our marriage is still nicely intact, my great one-liner (which I’m going to clutch protectively to my bosom and not reveal to you) is safe, and I have the idea for my second blog post of the year. Big fat win for everyone.
The moral of the story is: if you want to write, always carry a notebook around with you because inspiration strikes at the most random moments and those thoughts are the gems you sew into your plain, functional, homely outfit to transform it into couture…. or some such metaphor.
Bianca Nogrady 