You might be a writer if...

I've had this conversation so many times. I'll be talking to a friend about something I'm writing, and I'll say something so completely out of the normal and bizarre that really, you would only understand if you're a writer.

One day I got curious, so I asked around: What hallmarks a writer?

It turned into this:

You might be a writer if...

you look at everyone you meet as potential characters in your next novel.

you wouldn't mind going to prison so long as they give you enough pencils and paper. (personal note: and Internet. I use the Internet a lot for research and stuff when I write. But that's just me.)

you don't remember important things but remember random details.

your margins are filled with doodles, one liners, and notes.

murder is a completely normal conversation topic.

you mumble dialogue to yourself.

you worry someone was watching you make all those weird expressions as you write.

you always use proper grammar and punctuation even in text messages. (personal note: but not tweets. Twitter is too small for always perfect grammar. But I do try.)

your thoughts sound an awful lot like prose.

the phrase "guess who I decided to kill" does not alarm you.

you can hold a conversation for hours and hours about people who don't exist.

you know a bunch of random name meanings.

you have the emotional range of a teaspoon. (personal note: I would disagree with this one, I have a very broad emotional range. I think all writers have to to some extent to be able to write well. Just might not be so good at expressing it not on paper.)

you spaz over every character death.

you've written more plotting and world building in your head than on your computer.

you talk to yourself and find your fingers moving as if they were typing on a keyboard. (personal note: I also have this problem with music and playing an invisible piano.)

truthfully speaking, the characters in your stories mean more to you than most of your "friends" on Facebook. (personal note: budding writers, real people are more important than fiction. remember that.)

you spend your free time plotting murders. (personal note: this keeps coming up. i'm sure writers do more terrible things than kill fictional characters. we're just more blatant about murders, i guess.)

you get distracted at the checkout, thinking about how you could write the cashier's interestingly shaped nose onto your next villan.

you write.