The stereotype of a writer

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seun

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Be honest. How close are you to the stereotype writer? Are you an anti-social loner? Do you drink too much? Do you stare in anguish at the screen, stroking your small beard while desperate for the words that will make you a millionaire to come?

Is there any truth to the standard image of a writer?
 

Jersey Chick

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I'd have to say I'm sort of a loner - not really anti-social, but I tend to be on the quiet side and I keep to myself. I like to blend in and just watch what's going on around me.

As for drinking too much - I'm not a big drinker, but I do smoke, so there's that. Of course, I don't have an overflowing ashtray near my desk because we don't smoke in the house.

The beard? Well, I try to make sure I defuzz - I don't want to be the bearded Jersey Chick ;)

I do walk around talking to myself, though - especially if I'm stuck in the middle of scene and don't know which way to go. My husband used to come down into my office to ask me who I was talking to. He's so used to it now, he doesn't even notice.
 

Ziljon

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I have two corduroy jackets with leather patches at the elbows. I used to like to wear white lab coats as a kid. I have a used CHP Police motorcycle. I like to wander around Home Depot, thinking about inventions, screwing pieces of one-inch pipe together.

But I like people and animals too, so go figure.
 

sunna

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Mmmmn, I'm not much of a loner, unless my characters are on strike: then I probably look pretty stereotypical - messy hair, pjs at 3 in the afternoon, suddenly realize I forgot to eat for the past few days and then lock myself out of the apartment while in search of food, etc.. Minus the beard. And I only drink enough to get sloshed when there are other people to drink with, and loud music. I also smoke, but that's going the way of the dodo bird in about a week here, if the willpower I ordered last fall ever arrives. :)
I definitely do talk to myself. Or my dog. Who talks back, but only ever wants to discuss food and toys, and has no interest in my plot.
 

Willowmound

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Be honest. How close are you to the stereotype writer? Are you an anti-social loner?

Less and less, it grieves me to say.

Do you drink too much?

Well obviously.

Do you stare in anguish at the screen, stroking your small beard while desperate for the words that will make you a millionaire to come?

Gawd no.

I tappety-tapp-tapp in the mornings, and sometimes I'm happy with the result, sometimes I'm not. Then I go to work and hang out on AW, and then I come home and drink too much again, preparing my soul for more tapp-tappety-tapp next morning.

Is there any truth to the standard image of a writer?

Meh. Like with most stereotypes...
 

stormie

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I do walk around talking to myself, though - especially if I'm stuck in the middle of scene and don't know which way to go. My husband used to come down into my office to ask me who I was talking to. He's so used to it now, he doesn't even notice.
Same here. I mutter to myself or else I sit at the dinner table, staring into space, still thinking about one of my characters or where the story is going. I'm not good company sometimes.

As for drinking: my peppermint schnapps on ice (one shot), or a glass of Chardonney. With dinner. Two if I'm feeling in the party mode. Any more than that, with my vertically-challenged build, I'd be passed out in front of the computer screen.

And I don't mind the aloneness of writing. I never feel lonely. I have my characters to keep me company. AW helps a lot with that, too. I mean, what would I do without you guys? :D
 

seun

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I'll be honest - I'm not the most social of people but I wouldn't say I'm a loner. Although I do occasionally have a small beard. :D
 

Azure Skye

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Over there. See?



To answer the question. I'm kind of a loner and sometimes anti-social. No, more like quiet as I have no problem with trying to socialize; I just don't say much.
 

joyce

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I thought I was growing a beard due to menopause......I talk to myself working out scenes and my dogs participate as well. I don't consider myself a loner, but I could sit alone for hours, days, writing when I'm on a role. The sick thing is I never feel loney, though my husband thinks I'm turning into a recluse and probably quite insane talking to make believe people. To think of it I must be quite cute by now, talking to myself, the dogs, the computer screen, locked inside the house, unwanted hair growth, smoking and drinking........I need to go to Hollywood and go to writers rehab with Paris. I do have my drivers license though so all is not lost. Wait a minute........I have to go, one of my characters is calling me.
 

larocca

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The Stereotypical Writer

Be honest. How close are you to the stereotype writer? Are you an anti-social loner? Do you drink too much? Do you stare in anguish at the screen, stroking your small beard while desperate for the words that will make you a millionaire to come?

Is there any truth to the standard image of a writer?

Not true at all. My beard's gotten thick and bushy.
 

larocca

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Puff puff puff

I also smoke, but that's going the way of the dodo bird in about a week here, if the willpower I ordered last fall ever arrives. :)

In one of the most flagrant violations of stereotyping known to the human species, I quit smoking when I lived in China. I mean, that's where everybody else goes to start smoking.

Two years ago? Three? Four? It's nice to forget how many days are on that calendar. A 20-year habit gone.
 

larocca

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Drivers License

I do have my drivers license though so all is not lost. Wait a minute........I have to go, one of my characters is calling me.

I left the US in 1999 and haven't been back, so mine expired. I spent almost 5 years traveling through China solely by bicycle, conforming to the stereotype of the author with suicidal tendencies.

But now I bicycle in Thailand, where the courtesy of other drivers always throws off my timing.
 

Sassee

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I'm slowly growing out of a case of social anxiety disorder, so yeah, when I was younger I was an extreme loner. Social situations scared the piss out of me. Now I'm much more relaxed and friendly, although typically I'm still quiet around new people until I've grown comfortable with them, and even then I tend to surround myself with people that will talk my ear off so I don't have to say much. Put me behind a computer screen, though, and I'm a social butterfly. To this day I'm perfectly content being alone in the house, and I'm kinda like Jersey Chick - "I like to blend in and just watch what's going on around me."

Drinking? Occassionally. Mostly in social situations, but I can't hold much alcohol. Or not much tequila, anyway.

Out of control hair? Absolutely, but I don't have a beard.

Lost in my own little world while writing? Yes... and outside of writing time, too.

Tempramental? Only when I'm interrupted in the middle of a creative streak, or during that time of the month.

Talk to myself? No. But it sort of sounds that way sometimes if I'm talking to someone on the computer through TeamSpeak. I don't think talking to myself in my head counts :)

Stare in anguish at the screen? Happens more than I would like, but at least I don't have a beard. Instead I resort to chewing my lip and crunching as much of myself into my little chair as humanly possible (pull my legs up, try to sit cross-legged, etc). And yeah, I do slouch.

Stereotypes are stereotypes for a reason... they're common enough to form a familiar image in people's heads. Not everyone fits the stereotype but I bet there are more of us writer types than we think!
 

Jamesaritchie

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Be honest. How close are you to the stereotype writer? Are you an anti-social loner? Do you drink too much? Do you stare in anguish at the screen, stroking your small beard while desperate for the words that will make you a millionaire to come?

Is there any truth to the standard image of a writer?

Well, I no longer drink at all, unles you count my St. Patrick's Day slug of Irish, I don't have a beard, and I don't think I ever stare in anguish at the screen. . .or the pad of paper in my case.

And I'm not anti-social. . .being a good writer means interacting with as many people as possible, and doing as many things away from writing as possible.
 

Sandy J

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Be honest. How close are you to the stereotype writer? Are you an anti-social loner? Do you drink too much? Do you stare in anguish at the screen, stroking your small beard while desperate for the words that will make you a millionaire to come?

Is there any truth to the standard image of a writer?

The stereotype, huh?
I write romance. What is my stereotype? Frustrated middle-aged woman... Well, middle-aged (if you count forty-something as middle-aged -- I'm in denial), but decidedly not frustrated. Drink too much? Nope. Not at all, as a matter of fact. Beard? Nope. Thank God. ;)

Do I think there's any truth to the standard image of a writer? Not really. The desire to write crosses all barriers -- gender, race, age, sanity.
 

Siddow

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I drink, smoke, swear, mutter to myself, delete things in outrage, ignore my family, seldom leave the house...yep. I'm a stereotype. I didn't plan it that way. It just kinda happened.
 

Sandy J

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I drink, smoke, swear, mutter to myself, delete things in outrage, ignore my family, seldom leave the house...yep. I'm a stereotype. I didn't plan it that way. It just kinda happened.

Okay. You've got me there. I swear, mutter to myself, delete things in an outrage, ignore my family, seldom leave the house... I'm a stereotype. Who knew? :e2smack:

I wonder from time to time if I have tendencies to schizophrenia being how often my characters bug the crap out of me in my thoughts. Trying to fall asleep is the worst.
 
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