You Know You're a Writer When...

You know you're a writer when you dream about the characters and places that you've created and they seem very real.

I just started writing a new book the other day and before I woke up this morning I was having a dream about Dylan and Jade set in the efficiency apartment (a former motel room) where he lives- and I could see the tatty carpet, the sagging drapes, the general untidiness of a life lived in a single room. Every detail of that space was crystal clear and exactly how I had been picturing it in my mind. And then there were my characters come to life, interacting in that space.

This isn't the first time I've had vivid dreams about the places and characters that populate my books. And sometimes I've had a dream first and then woken up and used that house, building, location in the next story I write, able to describe even the smallest detail, like a crack in a fountain, a missing brick in a herringbone patterned brick walkway.

My muse, apparently, never takes time off, doesn't fuss about accrued vacation time he's earned and how he may lose that time off if he doesn't use it before the end of the year, or whether or not he can roll it over into the next year. Sometimes I think he's manic, just never shuts off, never winds down, never takes a break. Lucky for me I have a switch in my brain that can block him so I can work in the real every day world and do ordinary stuff like clean my house, and run errands. But, even when driving the less than four miles to work and back he's telling me stories, giving me ideas.

I very, very rarely ever have a day when I have no ideas in my head. And apparently, I very seldom have a night when my dreams aren't full of plot and character in true-to-life images and dialogue.

I am either or writer, or I have some high functioning form of insanity.