Oh, man. We all know that person.

The one who, no matter how many times you try to have a conversation with someone else… or if you’re a teacher, when you try to get your class underway… shouts out loud some inane comment or puts their hand up and waves it around so much you can’t avoid them.

Or, sometimes worse in this day and age, the person who posts idiotic things on your Facebook wall underneath genuine statements or status updates. Or who posts ads in your industry-specific group just because their event or news is vaguely related to your group’s interests. Or maybe they met you once.

Yeah. I may be a little annoyed this morning.

Look, it’s important to give people the benefit of the doubt. Everyone has a story of their own, and we don’t know—most of the time, anyway—if that person means to be disruptive or if they just lack social awareness.

But I want to tie this into writing, so here goes: If you’re writing and you find that “one of those people” keeps shouting at you in your head and won’t shut up… it might be worth a listen.

Give your subconscious the benefit of the doubt. You may learn something fantastic, or that disruptive voice shouting at you might actually have the idea you’ve been waiting for to make your plot or story sing.

Or it’ll be total crap and make you slightly crazy.

Either way, you’re a writer, so it won’t make you any worse off in the end regardless.