Finish the sentence! You know you're a crazy fantasy writer when...

1. You sing songs from your stories all day.
2. You're giddy because they just found out who Liagiba is. What? You don't know who Lia is?
3. You name your pets after your characters.
4. You have maps all around your room of the various countries you've created.
5. You have an authentic costume from your country.
6. You have like three bookshelves.

Keep the list going! Just look at your own life...

(LOL, these are like so me)
12. You get mad when your friends laugh at you for using words like "nefarious" and "acquiescence".
13. You narrate your life in third person.
14. You love to pick random people to describe.

ROFL! WOW! The really SAD thing is that these all sound fairly normal imo.

You know you're a fantasy writer when...
you refer to yourself as "We" and "Our Royal Person" (and it drives your siblings crazy)
when you could be happy all day with a Word Document and a plate of cookies
when you have conversations and fight with your characters...in public
when your mother tells you that you should find some more real friends
when Chemistry 11 gives you ideas for a culture
when you dream about saving the world
when Nanowrimo sounds like fun
when you have different playlists made up for different stories

I so do all of these things! Lol.

- when you could speak in an English accent/Classical English all day long
- when you stay up till 11:00 flipping through a name book.

ROFL! MY FRIENDS AND I DO THAT! THIS IS SO AWESOME! (i absolutely love this forum. we can all be really odd together!)

-- when you read an eight hundred page book in one sitting

-- when you try to experience things that your characters might have

-- when you have your own vocabulary of made up words

(and as a bonus, you know your FRIENDS are fantasy writers when you use those words and they understand you!)

- when you act out scenes from your stories in your back yard
- when you have a list of names you need to use
- when you have a list of songs for your story's movie.

you mean OTHER people make up names to use! lol...that's too cool.

-- when you take lines from movies or your book and try to fit them into real life.

-- when you have a list of passwords for people to gain entrance to your room

The scariest thing is that the above items sound completely normal to me. This is so cool!

You know you're a crazy fantasy writer when...

--Your siblings say it seems eerie for them to walk by the computer/your bedroom door and not hear you typing
--You come out of movie theatres, stores, libraries, etc. with ideas for your stories written on your arm all the way up to your elbow
--You start writing at 8:30, spend a couple of minutes writing, and look down at the clock, only to discover that it's nearly 11
--You add your endangered MC to your list of people to pray for
--You go to a costume party (or some other costume-related event) dressed as one or your own characters, and then spend most of the night explaining to anyone who pretends to listen all about your character, his/her history, the story he/she is from, and the setting/history of the world that he/she resides in
--You act out the story with friends, even before you've started writing
--You and your friends have absolutely no qualms about starting a writing club and calling it The Cross-Eyed Delinquents
--You have no qualms with using the word "qualm"
--You walk around all day, muttering lines from your story or one of Shakespeare's plays in an English accent
--You come up with a symbol for a guild or society in your story and draw it on yourself (because nothing else was quite as handy at the moment, and you needed a human model) and take a picture of it later.
--You attempt to make your own weapons/clothing/other, just because your character has to
--Allow your lips to become so dry that they are cracked and bleeding, just because you plan to put your characters through the same torture, and you really need to know how it feels to get an accurate description
--Decorate your room to look like some fantasy bower
--Attempt to use Photoshop to make yourself look like your favorite character, even if you look nothing like him/her.
--You think that you want to do NaNoWriMo again next year, even though it's eating your soul this year
--You spend hours researching Elizabeth Bathory on the internet because you think that she would be a good model for a villainess
--You have at least one dictionary of folklore and one encyclopedia of mythology, either in your room or pegged down at the library
--You would rather spend a day at the library or writing (or both!) than go to a movie
--You seriously consider hitchhiking to California in order to go to one of the writing conventions and pitch your story idea to editors over lunch
--You think it's odd that other people's eyes seem to glaze over when you give them the dirty details of your story
--You loathe George Lucas because Star Wars has a little bit of every plot idea in it, and so you live in mortal fear of someone comparing your story to his franchise
--You can't seem to understand why your friends can't or don't speak Shakespearean-style
--You think it'd be really cool to write a book in KJV style
--You think it'd be really, really cool to write a book in the Old English or Saxon language
--You think it'd be cool beyond words to write a book in a language that you invented
--People give you odd looks and shy away from you when they learn that, yes, you do sometimes speak to your parents/friends/family/strangers in KJV style
--You prefer homemade things to designer items
--You homeschool and write fantasy
--You think that it's odd that none of your family/friends/strangers want to join you in a conversation with your characters
--You have so many story ideas bouncing around in your head that you don't even bother to write them all down, you just hope that you remember them
--Next to the Bible, the works of Tolkien are you favorite reading material
--You climb into any wardrobes that you find with the hope that one of them will lead you into Narnia
--You are sure that you have more ideas to put down for this topic, but your mind is so focused on writing that you can't think of any more

That was really fun! Thanks, Liagiba, for starting this!

Note to all: You probably will have no idea what I'm talking about, but its still true!

You know you're a crazy fantasy writer when...
you could debate that the merits of an artlang outweigh those of an auxlang all day long.
you spend long hours contemplating what a society ruled by writers would look like.

You hold conversations with yourself about your characters.
You know elves are the better race. Duh!
You develop a secret handshake for your characters.
You want to buy a knife or a sword because that's your MC's favorite weapon.
You get dreamy and preoccupied around books.
Writing 40 pages in a story isn't really that much.
Instead of taking an i-pod on vacation, you take a tablet and a baby name book.

Lol, no problem. This is really fun. I do almost all of these things.
(By the way, I scarred my forehead so I would look like my character once!)

I have a little scar on my forehead, but it wasn't intentional. Actually, I think my acne made it disappear... O_O

I totally agree with everything y'all have posted. I'll have to look on the NaNo forums later (there's a topic there like this one) and get the things I posted there and add them here.

- You researched DNA so you could transform it into an international scandal in your made up world
- You interviewed someone just for writing purposes
- You could - and do - talk for hours about writing.

you have done nearly every single one of the things mentioned

you spend loads of money on bolts of cloth that have absolutely no purpose except to make costumes...if you ever learn to sew.

you become sleep deprived because you're getting up really early, and staying up late to write

you know nothing about movie actors (unless they were in Lotr) and know tons about authors that have been long dead

Oh my goodness...that last one....wow. I do that. Add Narnia. Narnia and LotR. Lol.

- You named all of your dolls or toy cars when you were little
- You have stacks of books just about everywhere.

you have costumes and funny hats lying all over your bedroom

you ask for a new book case for Christmas

you rush through your school work so that you can do your writing homework.

I do that! I got an antique bookshelf for Christmas... *sigh* It's awesome.

- old books are the best
- you love the smell of old libraries and books (of course they're not musty!)
- you totally zone out when you're reading or writing.

this is so cool.

you hate tv unless it's there's a fantasy movie on (preferably with dragons)

you think that being a hermit and living in a big stone house with cats wouldn't be so bad...if you had a notebook and pencil.

lol I do a lot of this stuff. I'm jealous of your antique bookcase, Liagba!

You read your favorite books over and over and over

When you were little you made your Barbies like characters in your stories

You get in trouble for staying up late writing, instead of texting or talking on the phone

You read your favorite scenes out loud, with different voices for different characters

You wish you were an elf

I made my Barbies do stories!!! That's the only time I ever used them. Also...
- your Beanie Babies were the best centaurs EVER

Your brother describes you as never getting off the computer.

Of course!!!

Yeah! I wasn't the only one!

when

You tell your brother what your character is saying and he thinks you are a wierdo

lol
Yeah, that's happened to me lots of times!!!

Yeah it is pretty funny... Why can't they understand?

When watching a movie you bring a notepad and a pencil to write down ideas about your book

My brother doesn't think I am weird because he is one too... There are so many things here that are soo familiar! You stole most of mine that I had ready, but here are some more.

This is from my siblings too (we are all crazy fantasy writers ):

--reading Wizard of Oz inspires you for a tragedy
--you wish you could actually tread the soils of your world
--you wish you could actually meet and interview some of your characters
--you sit on the couch gazing out into space without anything in your hands and your mother asks you 'what are you doing?' and you say 'you don't want to know...'
--you have maps of your world on your person at all times, just in case somebody wants to see it, or if you get lost...
--you walk around the house muttering in other languages until you are told to stop, then you do it in your head
--you teach yourself to speak with your mouth and nose plugged just to see how a merman language would sound
--you have lists of words in random languages scattered around the house
--you have pages full of characters for languages yet unmade
--you have a list of titles, but no books to them
--good music makes your eyes glaze over and drop you into scenes and stories yet unseen
--you design your own line of cuisine just for a nation in your world, and then cook it for your family!
--you design hair styles for your female characters even though you are a guy
--you design and develop a martial art system for each culture of your world
--you pace around the house like a restless dog (or a lunatic) living your stories
--you get your fingers cramped in the shape of a pen
--you randomly shout out about a plot difficulty at last resolved... in public
--you, out of the blue, point at an object and shout "That is Paileit!" (Meaning, it fits the culture of Pailein).
--you freak strangers out by staring fixedly at them for no apparent reason. Your reasons are as follows, but not limited to the following:
---- they happen to resemble one of your characters
---- they happened to walk into your line of zoned out sight and you actually cannot see them because there happens to be a battle going on right on top of them
---- they are acting in a way that is interesting to you because it inspires you for a whole new novel
---- you are practicing describing people by describing them in your head...
--your bedroom is in the family library, and you enjoy it, except for when you fear avalanches of books
--you dream of actually holding your character's sword one day
--you love watching the bonus features of the LotR movies so that you can dream of having that much of your world actually made for you (how cool would that be!!)

More later...

LOL! I have a few...

Your siblings catch you sword fighting, or being beaten up by an imaginary villain...

you glare at people without meaning to...you were thinking about something else entirely

you give death speeches in bed at night...and then find out that your sister was listening. eeh! *blush* (that is really embarrassing by the way... )

My sister gave me the first one to put down

--You are terribly distraught when one of your siblings knows more about a culture's mythology than you do
--You favorite part of shopping is observing people for new characters
--You do a Google image search just to find pictures that will inspire you for a story
--You would voluntarily take a community college creative writing course (and absolutely love it!)
--You day dream about having the power to create a real version of your world and be able to enter it any time you want (bonus if you could take your friends)
--You develop a crush on one or more of your own characters (or the characters in other books)
--You hide little messages and jokes for friends in your descriptions and dialogue
--Your relatives tell you stories from before you were born, and you write everything down in a little notebook to use as scenes in stories (bonus if you actually do write the stories, double if you finish)

--When you find something that looks like it came from Narnia in a yard sale, you automatically buy it.

you buy weird looking, twisted candles at yardsales...(and then refuse to use them so they don't melt.)

you have a tiny stuffed dragon that you sleep with

you paint your room green, and try to decorate it with branches like a forest

Okay, now I'm really beginning to get freaked.

LOL. well, you already know most of these.

when you try to turn your stories into movies...and refuse to use a script

This just happened to me...

You know that you are a crazy homeschooled fantasy writer when you:

--get the name for a geologic formation in Bryce Canyon mixed up with the Lapine word for a vehicle from Watership Down when you are talking about what trees eat in Chronicles of Narnia (they really are not all that different: "Hrudu" vs. "Hrududil").

You know you're a crazy fantasy writer when...

On a road trip you look at all the street's names and twist them to make your country's names.

You act out one of your sences and your Grandma walks into the room and says "Um, ok."

When you run to your room as fast as you can and when your Mom asks you what for, you say "I had Inspiration!!!"

When your Mom knows all the names of the country you made up and she probably didn't care to know them or the entire plot line to your story.

when you tell your friends you're writing another book, and they're not surprised in the least

when you have literally dozens of story ideas...none of them finished.

There's a ton here: http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/node/3263829 (it's not Christian, if you happen to not know that... it's clean, but there's references to gods and magic)


--when you have to define "civilization" for a history chapter check, and make a mental note to remember the definition so you can make sure your races have all of that (a specialized division of labor, a written language, a written code of laws, an organized form of civil government, and the development of the arts and sciences)


Here's others I've posted before elsewhere:

--when you really have no knowledge of knives, yet one of your RP charries can tell another person's non-RP charrie how to learn to do tricks with one

--when you climb into every wardrobe you see then climb out a couple seconds later and pretend you went to Narnia

--when you only tell other fantasy writers that you let your charries do whatever they want, because others think you're crazy

--when you know your charries are only something you made up, yet do unexpected things

--when every story you write contains an Elf

--when said Elves live in a forest of some sort

--when your MC is one of those Elves

--when your female charries can do anything in a dress

--when you call a dress a gown, even though you think of a nightgown when you say it

--when you can make up an explanation for a ring of mushrooms without having to stop and think (true story... my dad thought I was crazy :P)

--when you wonder how painful it would be to run through the woods barefoot

--when you want to try it to find out, but know your dad won't let you

--when you hate dresses, but would still love to dress up as an Elf for a day (including a sword at your side and no shoes)... or longer! :P

--when you would love to create a new language for each of your slightly cliche races, and be able to speak each language fluently

--when you don't know what people ate in medieval times, so you say they're eating soup (or just food, not specifying what)

--when you agree with every single thing posted here

--when you start talking about your fictional characters, then realize your friends probably want to talk about something else for once

--when you want to create your own world, down to the very last detail

--when you tell yourself you need to figure out the geography of your world so you can make a map... or three

--when you don't even know how to draw a map, but you're going to try anyway

--when you want your story/world to be as epic as possible, because fantasy is EPIC

when you learn just as much doing research for your story's as when you actually do schoolwork. (It's true. Writing very educational. Especially if you want to be an expert on weapons, wounds, castles, and ancient languages.)

Most of these are true! lol

--you walk around with your arm in a sling just because your character got stabbed in the shoulder
--you catch yourself humming the musical score for your novel's movie
--your halloween costume was Eowyn...and you made your own dagger. (in my case, also cloak, scabbard, etc.)
--you spend who knows how long trying to figure out if this spell would kill your character or not
--you hang out on this forum
--you research Old English, Anglo Saxon, Gaelic, etc. to find a perfect name for your villain
--you ride the Hallow Swings at Holiday World and pretend you're riding a dragon (true!)

more later...

You know you're a crazy fantasy writer when...


you name your riding lawnmower after a dragon from your books, and pretend he's your trusty steed while you mow the lawn.

you talk to inanimate objects

you purposefully run into the rain to see if you really COULD catch a cold that way.

you try to somehow concoct the food in your favorite books.

• when you have three stories going at once and your mom is fed up with you because you don't seem to be able to finish any.
• when you spend three hours a day searching for baby names on the internet.
• when you want to learn to sew just so that you can make a costume that one of your characters wear.
• when you want to learn genetics for the single purpose of being able to explain to your sisters why unicorns have horns and most people in your world have supposedly "recessive" traits.
• when your main character is your best friend.
• when you're up at 11:30 writing and you can't physically stop.
• when you spend a quarter of your computer time teaching spell checker your new words and names.
• when you try to feed your family traditional cuisine from one of you made-up countries.
• when you write a soundtrack for the movie and will be based off of the book that you are going to write. (yes, I have done this.)
• when you talk about your characters more than you talk about anything else.
• when your parents have to tell you to stop writing and go to bed... at 12:50am

LOL! Yet another kindred spirit. *high fives Alaethea*

You might be a crazy fantasy writer if...

your music collection consists mostly of movie soundtracks and Celtic music.

you digitally photoshop horse pictures into unicorns.

you named your cat 'dragon' and your dog 'griffin'

you love moonlight

you would like nothing better than to live in the woods in a camouflaged elf hut.

Looks like plenty of kindred spirits here!

when you type so long your fingers get blisters, and your Mom tells you to stop but you can't. (this hasn't happened yet, but I'm sure it will)

when you haven't worn your coat in ages because you wear your cloak everywhere.

when you look more at the boy's section of the Vision Forum catalog than the girl's because they have *gasp!* swords. *hurray!*

when your siblings tie you to a tree with a rope and dance around you pretending to be bad guys from your novel. (absurd, but this did happen to me...long story)

I thought of more:

• when you find yourself dressing more and more like your characters
• when every time someone thinks of some crazy invention, you think "Hey, I can put that in my book!" (I'm going to have a double key-boarded piano that has metal bars hitting the actual string. If you have a piano, open it up and tap the strings with the convex side of a spoon and you'll see what I mean.)
• when you go to the park dressed in the traditional garb from your novel.
• when you're 13 years old and you still pretend you and your sisters are the Pevensies. (yes, I do this) • and when the only reason you want brothers are so that you don't have to keep being Peter and Edmund.
• when you decorate shelves the way your characters would. (I've done this)
• when you go to your great-aunt's Victorian tea party dressed as your favorite character (aka, in tall boots, leather pants, a loose, white shirt and leather vest with a bow and quiver slung over your back.)
• when you have an email address for one of your characters. (yes, I have done this, too.)
• when half your computer time is spent on this forum.
• when you try to teach your siblings the native language of one of your fictional countries.
• when the only time you wear a skirt is when you are acting out a scene in your backyard.

LOL!

kind of going along with yours Alaethea.


- when it's hard for you to find clothing that doesn't look like some kind of costume


- when you LOVE long flowing sleeves!

- when you ask people absurd questions out of the blue! (like...how would you escape from a mud chicken coop?)

• you write letters to your characters and from your characters to your friend's characters.
• you ride stick horses with your sisters, pretending that you are running away from some unnamed evil.
• you get ideas for your novel from the Sunday morning sermon.
• when you see someone in public who looks like one of your characters, you ask if you can take their picture.
• if your schedule looks something like this:
wake up, shower, dress, etc
eat breakfast (while writing in a notebook or reading a book)
do school work
write
eat lunch
finish school work
eat dinner
write
go to bed
stay up as late as possible writing
wake up in the middle of the night to write down your dreams and any other inspiration who may have had while sleeping.

Yay, I have more:

You know you're a crazy fantasy writer when...
• your top five most played songs on iTunes are soundtracks and mysterious or haunting sounding songs.
• when you frequently change your handwriting to match that of your favorite characters.
• instead of carrying a purse with you, you carry a book-bag containing a notebook, pencils and everything else you would need to write. (OK, this only works if you're a girl.)
• when your Christmas wishlist contains items such as "spiral bound notebooks" (even though you have a couple dozen half-used ones), "lead pencils", "medieval-style dagger or sword" and "quiver for bow and arrows".
• when your dream house is descibed by the following:
- sits of forty acres of forest with streams, caves, tunnels, etc.
- has a spare room with a wardrobe sitting over a hole in a wall, which leads to your backyard.
- a long dining room that can be made into a dining hall.
- an attic with lots of hidden passages and tunnels.
- a dumbwaiter
- a tower room
- LOTS of secrets and mysteries.

You know you're a crazy fantasy writer when...
• you make horns for your friends' horses and try to convince them to let you ride the "unicorn".
• you collect medieval-looking journals and books, but never use them.
• when you rewrite LotR from the perspective of a modern girl flung into the middle of the story. (I have done this.) • and you freak out when you hear that your dad has read it.
• you actually watch the director's commentaries for Narnia and LotR.
• you spot an old perfume vial in your grandmother's bathroom and think it looks just like Lucy's magic cordial. You slyly ask if she's planning on doing anything with it... and convince her to give it to you. You clean it out and fill it with lingonberry concentrate (a red berry juice). • your sisters come to you with scratches and bruises and ask you to put some of this stuff on their "wounds" (I attached a picture of this thing.)
• half of the files on the desktop of your computer have the word "story" in them.
• your only real friends are the ones who can put up with your overactive imagination and the fact that you always want to talk about your stories and characters.
• you start designing the cover of your novel even before it's written.

• when you can be entirely happy for a four hour car ride with nothing but a notebook, a pencil, and a thesaurus.
•when you have an entire list of bookmarks on your computer for (A. generator sites and (B. Old English and Gaelic translators.
•when you search the library card catalog for anything even remotely having to do with dragons.
•when you have read every fantasy book out there and are still writing your own!

Awesome picture, Alaethea! The vial is really beautiful!

It's actually not too bad, unless you trip on a rock or step in a thorn bush.