The more and more I begin to identify myself as a writer, the more I realize that writers are a special breed of being. It takes the perfect combination of personality quirks, natural talent,  learned skills and (diagnosed or undiagnosed) mental health conditions to make a person a writer. I’m more sure of this now than I’ve ever been.

Since this discovery, I’ve taken some time to come up with a checklist that can be useful in identifying if you (or someone close to you) is, in fact, a writer:

1. Subject not only talks about writing all the time, but actually does write.
2. Subject has an unexplained desire to spend time writing in public places (e.g., coffee shops, libraries, park benches, etc.) — even when he/she has a perfectly fine office and a reliable internet connection at home.
3. Subject interrupts conversations to pull out a notebook or scrap of paper and take dictation of the dialog “for later use”.
4. Subject reads anything and everything he/she can get his/her hands on and insists on discussing the finer points of the work’s literary value, grammatical structure and/or character development.
5. Subject is often seen talking to “characters” or talks about them as though they are flesh-and-blood.
6. Subject displays a propensity toward addiction of some kind. Addictions may include, but are not limited to: coffee, cigarettes, alcohol, chocolate and/or fame.
7. Subject displays odd ticks, including but not limited to: pencil chewing; nail biting; talking to one’s self or someone others cannot see; exclaiming and hurrying immediately to a computer or that damned notebook and writing away. (See #3, 5, 8, 9 and 10 for related symptoms.)
8. Subject asks detailed questions of everyone he/she meets and takes copious notes during or immediately following every conversation. (See #3, 7, 9 and 10 for related symptoms.)
9. Subject often remarks that another person “could be a character” in one of his/her stories or that an event (in his/her life or someone else’s) “would make a good story”.
10. Subject writes at all times of the day or night and is often awake at ungodly hours either typing away at the computer or jotting notes in that ratty notebook he/she carries with him/her everywhere. (See #1 for related symptoms.)

Do you know anyone who meets some or all of these criteria? If so, you may want to get them help before they’re too far gone. I will warn you, however, that by the time a person can be identified as a writer, it’s often too late to stop the madness…

What other characteristics do you find easily identify you or someone you know as a writer?