I’ve met lots of other writers over the years. I’ve found three things that many of us have in common.
1) We’re daydreamers–otherwise known as having ADD. Hey, what’s going on in our imaginations is way more interesting than what’s going on in real life. Why should we pay attention to the real stuff? Or remember incidental things like the fact that we were supposed to pick up our kids from school fifteen minutes ago? In my mind, I have been happily living as a member of the Galactican fleet for years.
2) A background in drama. I’m not sure which produces the other. I do know that those drama classes ended up being some of the most helpful classes I took in high school. Drama makes you pay attention to dialogue and it also makes you dig deeply into your character looking for motivation. (Now every time I think about finding motivation, I remember the movie Galaxy Quest. If you haven’t seen it, you should. One of my favorite movies, ever.)
3) A surprising amount of us are married to engineers. (Or that type. Adam Rex is married to an astrophysicist, if I’m remembering right.) I have no idea why this is. Opposites attract? Nature’s way of protecting the artistic type? (Without my husband, I would probably forget to do things like pay taxes or put the garbage out on the street and would either be dragged off by the IRS or die of some garbage-related disease.) Or perhaps the spouses of engineers are just forced to find an artistic outlet? (A lot of my husband’s work is classified so he can’t talk about it. I don’t mind.)
Whatever the reason, this Dilbert cartoon made me laugh. This is what would actually happen if I worked at my husband’s company. Except it would probably also include a galactic space fleet.
