Not Normal by Angela Arndt

Would you do this to research a book?
Then you're Not Normal.

I’m Not Normal. Neither are you. 

Don't believe me?

One year, Brandilyn Collins emceed a writers conference and joked about how all the "normals" walking around the hotel didn't understand us. She said that if you walk around talking to your characters and engage them in conversation, then you are not normal.

Are you Not Normal?

Here’s the test:

• Normals don’t keep a pen and paper by the bed to write down great scenes that comes to them just as they’re falling asleep or at 3 a.m.
• Normals don’t eavesdrop at restaurants to get dialects or phrases to use in projects.
• Normals had rather watch TV/shop/read/go to the game/breathe than write. 
• In fact, Normals hate to write.

If none of these apply, then you’re Not Normal. This is good news! Many great writers were Not Normal either.

• Charles Dickens’ bed always had to face north and he sometimes slept in the streets. He also combed his hair hundreds of times a day.
• Edgar Allen Poe had a habit of writing on scrolls, long strips of paper glued together with wax, rather than individual sheets of paper.
• Agatha Christie didn’t have an office or a desk. She wrote where the mood struck and didn’t necessarily write scenes in order either.
• Stephen King writes 2000 words a day, every day -- no adverbs allowed.
• James Joyce wrote in bed, on his stomach while Virginia Woolf wrote at a standing desk.

Here's one more test for you: if you hear bad news and wonder how you can work it into your novel. you're probably Not Normal. (Keep in mind, some of these could also be considered not normal to those of us who are Not Normal.)

So the next time your friend’s eyes glaze over when you’re telling her about your book remember that she’s a Normal. She’s not like us.

Angela Arndt
Not Normal

My thanks to my fellow Overcomer and craft partner, Stacey Zink, who reminds me weekly that I shouldn't expect normals to understand.

About the Author

Angie is represented by Joyce Hart of Hartline Literary Agency and is currently working on a series of novels set in small Southern towns. In addition to being Not Normal, she's very blessed. She and her husband live in the middle of a big wood outside a small town in South Carolina. She would love for you to visit her website, at http://www.angelaarndt.com.