Paul Whybrow
Full Member
Many famous authors have been ruled by strange superstitions.
John Steinbeck needed to have twelve sharpened pencils on his desk, as he wrote his drafts in pencil. Edith Sitwell claimed that laying in an open coffin before she started writing, helped to clear her mind and give her focus—it would certainly be a good way of reminding her of the passing of time and to get on with writing her poetry!
Truman Capote avoided beginning or ending a manuscript on a Friday. Carson McCullers, author of The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter, needed to wear her favourite jumper when she wrote, as she believed that it brought her luck. Isabel Allende, the Chilean-American novelist, always begins writing a new work on January 8th.
Some authors are fearful of the number 13, taking care to avoid have thirteen words in a sentence or thirteen pages in a chapter. Other writers refuse to give a title to their new book, until they've typed The End. J. K. Rowling claims that this is her only writing superstition.
It's a wonder that I'm not burdened with superstitions, for when I was growing up, my older relatives believed the whole gamut of superstitions about black cats, peacock feathers in the house, walking under ladders and spilling salt—to name but a few. Some of this belief may have derived from having gypsy ancestors of the Parsee community and the Romany people.
There's a fine line between superstition and the quirky writing habits that assist us. For instance, I never do any creative activities connected to my WIP on a Thursday, which I treat as my weekend, for it's when I get paid and I go out to the shops and library. I work every other day on my writing, and having one day a week off helps me to contemplate my progress.
Also, when actually writing new material, I don't push myself beyond a point where I'm starting to run out of ideas of where to go next. I certainly could, but I don't see writing as an endurance race, with a 'wall' to push through. But, I've never been in thrall to chasing a large daily word count. I once wrote 6,666 words in a day, which looked a bit demonic (perhaps I'm more superstitious than I thought!
), but I ditched 2,000 words as rubbish and it took so long to rework the remainder, that I determined to write in a more considered way in the future.
Anthony Trollope claimed that: 'Three hours a day will produce as much as a man ought to write.' I'm finding this to be the case, with my WIP, though, I also do a couple of hours of editing and fact checking. I'm always more creative from 6:00 pm onwards, though that's not a superstition, just me being owlish.
Do you have any superstitions that you're prepared to admit to?
Do any of your family or friends have superstitious beliefs?
John Steinbeck needed to have twelve sharpened pencils on his desk, as he wrote his drafts in pencil. Edith Sitwell claimed that laying in an open coffin before she started writing, helped to clear her mind and give her focus—it would certainly be a good way of reminding her of the passing of time and to get on with writing her poetry!
Truman Capote avoided beginning or ending a manuscript on a Friday. Carson McCullers, author of The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter, needed to wear her favourite jumper when she wrote, as she believed that it brought her luck. Isabel Allende, the Chilean-American novelist, always begins writing a new work on January 8th.
Some authors are fearful of the number 13, taking care to avoid have thirteen words in a sentence or thirteen pages in a chapter. Other writers refuse to give a title to their new book, until they've typed The End. J. K. Rowling claims that this is her only writing superstition.
It's a wonder that I'm not burdened with superstitions, for when I was growing up, my older relatives believed the whole gamut of superstitions about black cats, peacock feathers in the house, walking under ladders and spilling salt—to name but a few. Some of this belief may have derived from having gypsy ancestors of the Parsee community and the Romany people.
There's a fine line between superstition and the quirky writing habits that assist us. For instance, I never do any creative activities connected to my WIP on a Thursday, which I treat as my weekend, for it's when I get paid and I go out to the shops and library. I work every other day on my writing, and having one day a week off helps me to contemplate my progress.
Also, when actually writing new material, I don't push myself beyond a point where I'm starting to run out of ideas of where to go next. I certainly could, but I don't see writing as an endurance race, with a 'wall' to push through. But, I've never been in thrall to chasing a large daily word count. I once wrote 6,666 words in a day, which looked a bit demonic (perhaps I'm more superstitious than I thought!
), but I ditched 2,000 words as rubbish and it took so long to rework the remainder, that I determined to write in a more considered way in the future.Anthony Trollope claimed that: 'Three hours a day will produce as much as a man ought to write.' I'm finding this to be the case, with my WIP, though, I also do a couple of hours of editing and fact checking. I'm always more creative from 6:00 pm onwards, though that's not a superstition, just me being owlish.
Do you have any superstitions that you're prepared to admit to?
Do any of your family or friends have superstitious beliefs?
