You know you’re a writer when

You are constantly thinking of book titles. They come to you whilst you’re driving to get your kids, for example. You’re thinking about something that happened in your life, and a title for a chapbook, say, or even a full-length poetry collection swoops into your movie mind. Thick black helvetica letters in bold: BREAK-UPS FOR ADULTS. It’s about all the ways we ‘break-up’ as adults and how hard it is to experience/navigate the break-ups. You can visualize the first page poem. It’s a list poem…You can’t not stop to look at the books in Shoppers Drug Mart. You maybe even take one out from the shelving display, hold it in your hands. You scoff at the latest issue of Oprah’s magazine and its title about peri-menopause…and you think, shi*, I could write an article on that hot topic. You are constantly thinking: I could write an article for that publication. I totally could. (But you’ve never done it…or maybe once and nothing happened…)You go bananas when you find out a friend is getting a book published. And you call them and you squeal and you celebrate. You get a pang of jealousy when you find out a friend has won an award. It’s fine. It’s in the deeps. You don’t say it out loud. You scold yourself for the feeling. Then you celebrate. You imagine yourself receiving a book award. Your speech is written. You’ve been writing it in your mind for years now.When you read a great book, you think: damnit! I’m never writing again! You always want to talk about writing and creativity. Like, always. You have stacks of books (read and unread) all.over.your.house.Every space you enter into, you consider what it would be like to write and/or read in it. Yes, even in Home Depot. *BONUS* You carry a Purse Book. A book that is always in your purse, and you read it when you are waiting anywhere. It’s been in your purse for a while, but it’s there for you. (Also, your purse is large enough to hold a book.)Diablo Cody winning her Academy Award.