Well you’re here, on a site called On Fiction Writing. That’s first. But what else makes you a writer? Is it talent? Skill? Insanity? Nope. None of these. The difference between “meant to be” a writer, and “want to be” a writer is in the small instinctive things you can’t control. You might suck terribly at the craft, but that does not mean you’re not meant to do it. Everything can be learned, but that drive, that need to put pen to paper, to record the movies playing in your head, that’s something that either is, or it isn’t. If you’re in doubt as to whether you are meant to write fiction (notice I didn’t say publish), check out the following signs of a “meant to be” writer. If you nod at just one, welcome to the tribe.

 

Duh.

 

And also, your heart just did a little flip-flop as you mouthed the word voraciously.

 

It’s okay to eavesdrop. They’ll never know as long as you keep your notebook hidden.

 

And you never reveal who you killed off.

 

You know, it’s like…orgasmic. Yes, I do find bacon orgasmic. And what?

 

You want to write. You need to write. But work/family/friends/sleep won’t let you. *sniff*

 

Sure we use a keyboard for writing these days, but it doesn’t mean we don’t scribble now and then. And there are a lot of really cool pens out there.

 

Maybe you’re not right all the time, but you can’t help but try.

 

Research is necessary, and Google is a godsend for that. But damn it, one wrong search term and you’ve lost an hour of your life…of four.

 

Everything.