Category Archives: Food for Thought

The Writer’s Personality Traits

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Today I read a blog post by Kristi Holl, one of the writers I follow. She re-shared this post that she made from 6 years ago:  When Your Writer’s Personality is Rejected

I was unable to post a comment so I opted to share my word in a blog post. Please read Kristi’s post to see what inspired my response.

Some of the signs of a writer’s personality

~ you’re sensitive to emotions, yours and others

~ you notice things that tend to gets passed others

~ solitude is your friend

~ you like to think and think deep

~ you tend to be introverted, the observer at parties, not center stage.

~

Thank you Kristi. I grew up feeling like everybody hated me. As a child, I wasn’t invited to many parties and was always the last one picked for a team. In my teens, I fell into a debilitating depression. Writing was my one solace. It’s what got me through the loss of my adopted Dad when I was 12.

I was thrilled when two of my teachers said I had talent and should focus on it. One suggested I consider becoming a writer. Unfortunately, it was the one thing my family did not want me doing. They were not supportive and sabotaged my efforts emotionally with negative comments. And yet, while they each had a love of reading, they had not read anything of mine. They didn’t even want me going to college. One relative actually said “You need to give up your dream and go to work for McDonald’s.”

I pulled away from them, drew more towards my writing. It’s what got me through the chaos. Believing that something was wrong with me, I leaned on my writing for the sake of my sanity. I had no idea that I was some kind of normal. I didn’t know that these traits of mine were geared towards a specific personality. Now I know thanks to you.

It’s a relief to know that there is nothing wrong with our personalities. As the phrasing goes, people are geared for different things. Some people are geared for center stage. Some are geared to write about those in center stage. It is such a wonder to see how many different personality sets there are. It would be a dull and boring world if we  were all geared the same way.

I’m still looking for my writing companions. I’ve found many other writers. Some have stuck with me. Some are like fleeting moments. This can be a good thing by choosing the positives of the moment. Others though, treat writing as a competition. This is not a good thing when a writer is looking for connections, companions, community, and shared support.