The Quirky Gene

As writer's we all have a lot in common. A compulsion to follow words throughout the day and well into the evening. An automatic response to everything around us that inadvertently leads us to some creative new story. This expected response is why we have notebooks scattered everywhere and ink pens ready to launch into the next bout of random scribbling without a moments hesitation. It's those notebooks I fear the most if something dreadful were to happen to me. Surely, if someone were to open any one of them, my sanity would be questioned immediately. Most of them resemble the walls in Jim Carrey's movie The Number 23. Ultimately though, we pull it all together into a tight little ensemble of words and we label it the manuscript. We know that the random word "chagrin" in the middle of a page is meant for description and we know where we intend to use it. We may pass a bill board on the side of the road and see a name unique enough to steal for our heroine and instantly envision facial features, hair color and quirks. Maybe she'll tap her fingers or chew on her bottom lip as she mulls over her many challenges all with an arched and quizzical brow. As a writer, it never ends. Even in moments of slumber, our minds are working overtime, touching us with a dream, lending us an expression, willing us to move to the lamp and grab another notebook for fear of forgetting the dream by daybreak, thus losing our new heroine forever. We are the initiators of every quizzical brow. We, by way of shear blessing or curse have our own idiosyncrasies that only we as fellow writers can understand and appreciate. We are a group of individuals capable of viewing all things in life with potential, for we understand that everything is meant to be a scene worthy of being shown. Some with colorful tones powerful enough to inspire the most weary of hearts and others capable enough to delve into the soul for an almost lifelike experience of formidable consequence. It is in our blood as well as our minds and we must persevere which is what I intend to do. We must welcome and nurture our quirkiness so that we may at least resemble brilliance. In the end, we can always burn the notebooks.