The Write Way: An Introduction

(Yes, the title is a shamefully pitiful pun. Get over it.)

Lately, I've been thinking often and hard about exactly how writers operate.

Not people who call themselves "writers," mind you. Self-proclaimed "writers"--the ones with eight whole pages of a novel they're convinced will make them famous but who are still waiting for "inspiration" before they finish--are often, in fact, only typists. They dress in faded suits, may or may not have two or three poorly-kept typewriters in their home, and will regularly visit writers' conferences with a pipe in their mouth. They're playing dress up. Writers write, and they do it well, and they do it often. And hopefully they get published, and even more hopefully they get paid.

Writers are unique and odd creatures. I cannot claim to be one--not yet--and I cannot claim to understand them. However, in my time here, I have met and learned from four bestselling authors and several others studying to become writers. Though unique in their own ways, they all had some qualities in common--things that became easier to spot the more time I spent with them. They weren't simple, one-dimensional traits (a love of Doctor Who, enjoyment in reading, or drinking coffee, for example) but rather deep, expansive things just beneath the surface of their minds--things that seem to make them writers, body and soul.

I have gathered these traits and listed them here. Conveniently, they alliterate:

1) Wisdom
2) Wit
3) Weird
4) Wyrd
5) Word-sense

[Look! They all start with W's! Clearly they're correct!]

Keep in mind that these traits are only my opinions and might not be entirely accurate. That said, I've spent nearly nine months watching and learning from writers. By this point, I'm almost an expert in the field.

Over the next three posts, I'm going to attempt to explore and explain these traits. With any luck, it'll be entertaining. If that fails, it should at least be educational, and, failing even that, it absolutely will fill up my blog with posts, and Google likes that.

After that, who knows? I might have an idea for something fictional and super-awesome.

-C.J.B