Writer's Temperament

Ever since I was four, I told stories to my sister when it was dark and she couldn't sleep. In the daytime, I was constantly thinking up stories to play out. And then at night the process would repeat itself. Telling stories wasn't a chore then, just as it isn't now. It was just something I had to do. Now, sixteen years later, the bedtime stories are now so routine that if I can't think of a story when bedtime comes, I will not fall asleep.

Reading was used as a means to find ideas to progress my stories. Exercise is an excuse to think of story ideas. Everything for me is just another excuse to find story ideas. Pathetic? Probably. But whatever.

And writing? Well... I had to transcribe my stories somehow. Writing is just the most convenient way.

La, aren't we tragic creatures?



If I didn't write things down, I'd forget them. Ergo, I'm a writer.

I don't necessarily see my writing as a profession, if it was I would probably take it more seriously. I mostly look at writing as an expression.

I've been writing since I could pick up a pen (apparently according to my mother), not of it has made sense, not all of it has had a meaning. As I got older teachers at school picked up on the idea that I had some talent with words and forced to perhaps take it more seriously. Unfortunately I don't think I've progressed as much as they wished or thought I would.

I tend to be sloppy in my writing and get angry when things don't seem to flow or work out. I can get half way through a story and then throw it all away. I've never really let anyone read a lot of my work because I tend to be too self-conscious. It's not that I can't handle bad comments or anything like that, just a personal thing I guess. I don't tend to pick up on grammar or spelling until the very last minute when I type it up. Nine times out of ten that's when I realise how atrocious some of my writing can be.


So I don't really know if I've answered correctly, or said anything that relates to what you were looking for. My excuse is that it is rather late, and I've been working my butt off today.

I guess I do share some of those traits, such as being able to sit still for a really long time, and liking to be by myself a lot. I don't pretend that I like grammar, but it still bothers me when other people talk using it incorrectly. I have also loved to read since I was really little, and my reading level has always been really far above my grade. On the other hand, however, up until I was about ten, I HATED creative writing. When I first learned to read I was always writing down stories, but when I started to have to write them for schoolwork, I really didn't like doing it.

I don't feel like I was 'born to be' a writer, but maybe there are certain personality traits that are more common among people who are writers?

I am definitely not a writer. I write because I just need another outlet for my creativity. I like the idea of creating something unique, that's it, really. D:

I respect the conventions of writing as I respect the conventions of classical music, but if you ask me whether if I'm good with grammar, I'd probably say no. I guess you could say I treat writing merely as another serious medium on being creative.

I wouldn't say that I'm a writer. Just because I write, doesn't make me a writer. I think a writer is someone who writes for the sake of writing, but can make a job out of it. I enjoy writing for the sake of it, but I definitely could not make a job out of it. At least, not yet.

I'm like a writer as much as I am an artist. I can draw some things really well, but if you tried to get me to draw hands, I would fail miserably. Just like writing. I would die before writing Science Fiction, so does that not make me a writer?

But back to the topic, I guess I do have some writers traits. I enjoy being by myself, and I don't mind writing for hours at a time. Many people consider me as a creative person, even when I don't think so myself. I'm not a grammar nazi, but I do get annoyed when there's typos in someone's "greatest work". I don't think they should force a person to write in school, because everything I write for school sounds like crap.

I don't feel like I'm "born to be" like some people look at me and tell me I am "born to be a basket ball player". Which isn't fair, because I am one of the worst basket ball players in the world. Or when people tell me I should be a model. I'm really not that pretty, and I trip over my own feet all the time. So a runway is out of the question. But no one has ever looked at me and said, "Katie, you are born to be a writer." And I'm still waiting for the right person to say that.

I don't believe anything about myself except for that I can tell stories.

That's it. I'm not going to be able to change the world with astounding poetry, or find a different way to look at something, though I try my hardest to do so.

I am simply an entertainer. People want a story to be involved in, to escape from the world we live in, and I think I can deliver the goods. But that's as far as my writer techniques go. I take notes down sometimes for important things (especially for my newest attempt at a novel, the Lynchburg Papers) and sometimes I can write a great English paper, but I'm just a storyteller, really.

And that suits me just fine, as long as people are happy and entertained.

I was not born to do anything - except maybe to annoy the hell out of friends.

I write, like many of you, because I love what I do. I mean writing, creating, breathing life into your characters, setting, plot, etc. is OK, but these days I get more a kick out of sharing my work to people that I think will appreciate whatever my little brain conjured up. It is way more entertaining discovering the reader's reaction, especially if it is someone you personally know. I recently e-mailed one of my short stories to a friend of mine - a re-enactor, and quite frankly, I'm very much anticipating the reaction, hehe.

As for any specific area of literature where I excell, for me it is character developement. If your character is developed emough, as the reader, I can easily enter their mindset. And likewise, I'm able to do it with my own characters. Let me try and put it in a clearer prespective. With the First Person POV, in my mind, it's like I'm sitting behind my MC watching them. Yet they're speaking, moving about in body postures or facial expressions and doing all these physical aterbutes through my finger tips. Amazing, no?