E, that dream...

I do that all the time at night!! Paper and pen are vital.

-When you dream about people you haven't met "in real life."

-When you dream about your novel, and desperately try to remember what happened.

-When you dream about your characters and wake up feeling miserable to the point of tears for them.

-When you write this in your notebooks:

Love that one, E!

Well, I'm not a crazy fantasy writer due to the fact that I don't write fantasy. But I must say, these are hilarious!

I do not exactly write Fantasy either...

-When you stare with genuine interest down the drain in the shower.

Priceless.

LOL


...when you seldom get yelled at for extra long showers because everyone knows that it's your brainstorming time
...when the cracks and holes in your walls(and, yes, drains) become portals to other worlds which are suddenly infinitely more interesting than the story you thought up at breakfast
...when people walk by you in the store and you think 'Oh my goodness, that's Sir Malcolm!'
...when you are planning a Tolkien picnic for Hobbit Day with some of your nerdy friends
...when you start to think of your stories as children, or you start saying of them 'It's a love/hate relationship.'
...when you accuse your brother of giving you an eerie 'lidded glare' and he responds 'you writers'

Do you honestly stare down the shower drain with genuine interest?

I would also add to the list:

When you start incorporating your dreams into your novels.

When you seriously think it would be the coolest thing to build a huge keep like Helm's Deep in the mountains and live there.

When you're either going mad because you can't keep up with the flow of ideas or you ARE mad because the ideas have stopped.

When you wish you were out on the adventures you send your characters on instead. (It's a little safer that way. )

When you're on a harmless hike in the woods and suddenly stop to wonder what sort of creatures may lurk in the thickets.

This is a great topic.

First of all, just give me the mountains and I'll be happy. XD

Secondly: I've DONE THAT. It does drive one to madness.


...when you start reading other people's posts on this thread and blush because they are describing your life.
...when you read a wonderful book with a twist, magical object, or other item which is new and wonderful and you think 'Well drat! Why couldn't I have thought of it first?'

Argh! I relate to that! WHY didn't I think to post it first?!

Ahem, *edits his own version*

...when you read a wonderful book, or worldbuilding post on Holy Worlds with a twist, magical object, or other item which is new and wonderful and you think 'Well drat! Why couldn't I have thought of it first?'

...When you've developed a habit of slightly changing someone else's idea so you can use it too.

-When you get into the habit of dramatically changing other peoples ideas to make them your own.

Often.

-When you learn another language, and start making up words in that languages phonetic set to practice using it.

My shower drain is too dark to see anything.

I came up with a few more over the weekend:

...you join the HW Fantasy Forum.

...you start coming up with names that even YOU can't pronounce.

...you fall asleep trying to work out the next scene in your book.

...you could go to the pub for an evening with the Inklings and come away excited.



I second the motion. It drives me crazy when that happens and makes me think all the best ideas are taken.

Is there no justice in the world of writing?

Exactly.

-When your youngest brother has a medieval page's hair style, and makes guitars, wands, swords, and ties string all over his bunk bed to make it look like a spiders den.

-When your youngest brother has a more classical music taste than you do.

You never know, a dark drain could well be a portal into another world. Stranger things have happened. If I remember correctly, there was once this wardrobe...

When you hear that your friend just started RotK, and promptly say 'I'm starting the first one (again). I'll race you!'

When you sit in front of a computer screen just looking because you really want to write but you just can't get started.

Your friends strive towrds their drivers' licenses, you strive for completing a manuscript.

...you do not beat up your little brother. His stuffed animals do.

-When you realize that you have two globules of your brain sticking out of your face and get inspired for fantasy creatures...

...ew...




My brother does that!

LOL


..when you're too busy agreeing with everyone else to come up with your own thing...or even revise their's. XD

...when you are a home-schooled preacher's kid who reads dragon books and has a hyper-active imagination. Really. There aren't many options.

Haha, awesome!



Niiice!

( That's not what our church members say--the few of them who pay attention enough to know those types of things, that is...most of them say 'oh.' and look at you in a very covert, skeptical way that looks remarkably like this: )

...

I get weirdness from my family for stuff like that. Although I think they look more like
;-)

...when you have not to research the setting of your story, but to go discover it!

...when you are accused of staring into space and you reply 'I was merely contemplating the vast principles and possibilities in our particular realm of space; where it is that one might find a truly magical wardrobe, for instance, and how that might affect the supposed theory of the space/time warp-contiuum in its relativity.'

All right, sir, this one is for you.

...when you know someone who can come up with a name like Lycanis.

I had some inspiration from a HWer friend.

*gasp* I think we've found the next Einstein!

You missed your calling. I think you should be an astrophysicist.

And for the sake of not going off-topic:

...when you calculate the weeks, months, and years in terms of pages written, chapters written, and books written.

Nice one.

...when you have a make-shift shelf squished up against your desk which is chock full of books with titles like: 'Conflict and Suspense', '1000 Baby Names', 'Accidents and Emergencies and How Best to Be Prepared', 'Eats, Shoots & Leaves', a notebook full of archaic symbols, other scribblings, and their meanings, the best dictionary you can find, a battered thesaurus, a rhyming dictionary, and the 'One Year Adventure Novel Guidbook'. (Plus a box holding your secret writing snack and candy stash)




I'm thinking that was sarcasm. In any case, I made that all up without any inkling of what it means.

That's great!

When you make up a random explaination for what you're doing without generally knowing what it means.

When you have to remind yourself that 'cobha' is not a literary term generally accepted by English teachers.

It might be one day.

Yeah, it's fun to think about how HWisms will become more generally recognized.

LOL to both

Here are a few:
-When every single dinner conversation in your family is pretty out there, and you start them all.

-When you get in debates over guns vs. swords or the like with your brother in said conversation.

-When you address each of your three cats as "My Precious".

-When you read some of these and thought, "Wait, That's not normal?"

That's a good one!

* giggles *

- ...when you start thinking about what sort of poems Shakespeare would write if he were suddenly transported to the modern age.


Foresooth, hereth cometh the hero over yonder hill! Hear the rumble of his noble steed, the motorcycle...

-When your computer in the other room is frozen in horror of what you typed.

-When you practice wiggling your nose like a rabbit.

I do that! *nose twitches*

..when your computer becomes a living creature with which you are fond of having conversation, even if that conversation consists of 'No, no, no! Oh, grow up!'

(I, um, did that this morning...)

Haha!


Totally guilty.

-Physics and General Relativity, plus alternate universes, and their applications to fantasy worlds dominate your table conversation.

(Really, what is the point of saying LOL on this thread?)

...when a lot of your jewelry consists of dragons, wings, phoenixes, ships, and other icons of that line
...when you and your friends are planning a Hobbit Day picnic during lunch break of the orchestra you attend
...when you throw your hands up in the air and wonder aloud if your thin mask of sanity is really worth the bother

...when you stare at the keyboard and start randomly mixing up letters to form names.

...when you own a sword and wish you could use it.

...when you have made up so many names that you need lists to keep track of them all. (Very helpful! )

...when you're so obsessed with your writing that your family has to drag you away from the computer.

When your brain personifies your M&Ms as you methodically pick them off one by one to the point where you can't decide which of the last three to eat first because they were your favorites.

Or maybe that's just crazy me.

Or any letters you see.

-When you keep a list of misspelled words because they looked good.

-When you relish dry, stale bread, because you have heard so much about it.

-When you listen to Holst's Mars, Bringer of War, to calm yourself down before you go to bed.

-When you have a folder full of made up writing systems.

Maybe, but I am having a little trouble with mine... *is buried * They are not even sorted yet.

That might be crazy you, as I never considered something chocolate to be worthy of anything other than consumption. Either way, I'm still trying to recover from the burst of spontaneous laughter upon reading that.

*tries hard to straighten face and fails*



Hilarious. I have to say that I've never experienced either of those things.

One thing I've learned is that organization is key. Without it I would probably lose my mind, but maybe that's just me. I tend to be very orderly.

...when you have to be called two or three times for breakfast because you're trying to write down a sentence before you forget it. And this happens pretty much every day.

We rarely have an organized breakfast around my house, but this happens to me all the time.

...when you're riding in a car in the dark and discover you are without any paper, so you use your pen to scribble endlessly and blindly on your hand and forearm until you've gotten your ideas down enough not to forget them. (I've learned my lesson and always have paper with me now..or grab a handful of old receipts or napkins instead. XD)

When you were in school and heard people whining about never applying it to real life, you roll your eyes and think "Come on, do you know how much information from this class is in my novel?"

When you wonder despairingly if your English teacher has ever actually written anything that wasn't for school. (I mean really -nothing in a story is ever there by accident? Or 'the fact that the character has glasses means something'. Yes, it does -my character is visually impaired, that's what.)

When you rebel at the sentence 'the words don't really mean anything'.

...when you keep coming back to this post to see what others have come up with.

It's a fascinating thread.