Words you use around your non-writer friends confuse them all the time.

You find yourself editing out adverbs from your speech with co-workers around the water cooler.

You know the exact yield of your ink cartridges/toner.

you can't read a book without editing passages as you read

you can't read a book without saying, "This could have been really good if they'd just given it one more edit."

you can sense the rejection letter in the envelope without even opening it

you have no idea who those people are on the cover of the tabloids because you've stopped watching TV to spend all your spare time writing

…

When someone says something you think is amusing you jump up and run for paper and pen.

No one questions you pacing up and down the street at two am becuase your desk just isn't working and your character decided that she wanted to kill the lead hunk rather than kiss him.

Your friends no longer question you talking about imaginary people and in fact join the conversation.

Your husband no longer tries to talk to you when the computer is on.

You ask locals in different towns about wierd local traditions and hang-outs.

You feel more at home with your computer and notebook than you do anywhere else.

You laugh when someone asks if you have a pen.

You are horrified when someone says they don't read books.

You might be an agent if…
Someone says they have a query (the pompus way of saying question) and you duck and hide until they go away.

One of my good writer friends is always looking for the story arc and it makes me happy.

If after you've packed the essentials in your car for a cross-country move, your mother looks at what you're leaving behind and says she now has enough notebooks to last her for the next decade. And you're pretty sure she's not exaggerating.

If it feels like you've become estranged from a relative when your characters won't talk to you

1. Your diagnosed with a fatal disease and your first thought is how you could use this experience in a novel.

2. Your Internet history includes: how to build a bomb, hide a body, poison a person, and rob a bank without getting caught, and you aren't worried about being watched by homeland security.

3. Your heart palpitates when you walk into a grocery store and realize notebooks are on sale 10 for $1.

4. You can live without hot water, your car, your cell phone, and your family, but please, please, please don't touch the computer!