Sometimes writers have weird quirks, and that makes me feel so much better. Here are a few:
Mystery author Agatha Christie suffered from dysgraphia, a neurological disorder characterized by writing disabilities. The disorder causes a person's writing to be distorted or incorrect. As a result, she dictated her novels to another person.
Winner of 1962 Nobel Prize in Literature John Ernst Steinbeck Jr. wrote his books by hand and used up to 60 pencils per day. He used 300 pencils to complete East of Eden.
BTW, there’s a term to describe the cramping resulting from holding a pencil too long: mogigraphia.
Elizabethan scribe Peter Bales reportedly produced a complete, handwritten copy of the Bible so small it could fit inside a walnut shell.
German playwright and poet Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller kept rotten apples in his desk, claiming he needed the scent of their decay to help him write.
British poet Edith Sitwell reportedly liked to lie in an open coffin before she began her day’s writing.
Poet Amy Lowell once bought a stash of 10,000 cigars, claiming she needed them to help her write.
English writer Graham Greene would write 500 words a day and then stop – even in the middle of a sentence.
English novelist Anthony Trollope began his writing day at 5:30 every morning. He would write 250 words every 15 minutes, pacing himself with a watch.
Elizabethan scribe Peter Bales reportedly produced a complete, handwritten copy of the Bible so small it could fit inside a walnut shell.
American children's author Theodor Seuss Geisel a.k.a. Dr. Seuss had a secret closet filled with more than 500 hats. When stuck in a story, he would wear them until the words came.
American novelist, screenwriter, and playwright Truman Capote often wrote while lying on his back, with a glass of sherry in one hand and a pencil in the other. He sharpened pencils to help him think while he wrote, and so did American novelist and short-story writer Ernest Hemingway.
Me, I keep a pen and a notepad under my bed in case I wake up in the middle of the night with an idea. I scribble it in the dark, so I don't wake my husband, then in the morning, I try to decipher the sentences I wrote on top of one another.
BTW, writer’s block is not only real but also normal. There’s even a fancy term for it: colygraphia.
Happy Reading & Stay Safe
J.S.
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