Writers are weird. I should know … I am one.
We speak our own language. Think bizarre thoughts. Even talk to people who exist only in our heads. Sometimes we writers try to reinvent the wheel all over again. And the funny thing, it works – or at least it does in our minds.
Every writer knows the saying it takes a writer to understand one. That’s true. Let me relate a story that happened at a writers’ conference and then you’ll maybe grasp why I say … writers understand writers when no one else gets the big picture.
In a major hotel chain, on an elevator with two non-writerly-types, a couple of authors were discussing how best to kill a person and the poison not be detected. The first one mentioned that one type of poison worked quite fast without much pain. The other author said that she researched a certain type of pill and found it was very affective in killing a person and difficult to trace. She suggested that her friend should use that one.
When they reached their floor and got off the two women left standing on the elevator rode up to their floor and then punch the down button to the lobby. They raced up to the front desk, got the attention of the clerk, then proceeded telling her that two women were on the elevator discussing how best to kill a person and that they should call the authorities.
The clerk smiled sweetly and said, “You have to understand, we have a fiction writers’ conference going on in the hotel. I believe you were listening to a couple of the writers discussing their books.”
Need I say more?
Though we speak a different language, all writers can relate. That’s just how it is … writers are weird, but harmless.
Until next time . . . Janice