Do you have any writing superstitions?
This article is one of the first in a series from a young writer just starting out.
I want some cool superstitions. Whenever anyone asks me, “So what’s your secret?” I want to be able to answer: “I drink two cups of lemon juice with lunch,” or “I channel the ancient godess Sekhmet over cereal,” or “I burn half of anything I write with incense.” At least that way, if measures prove fruitless, I’ll at least have confused a generation of authors.
Yes! That's me, exactly! I don't think I have any superstitions. (Thinks harder.) Can't think of any, but the idea of having them is so cool, and what great interview fodder.
But I do have preferences. I have a preference for a fountain pen, and a preference for a certain shade of red ink for editing (which is not the shade I chose in that entry, I ended up going with plain RED from the same company and it's deliciously bloody).
But there is no superstitious "if I do this, this will happen" aspect to it. It just makes editing more fun and anything that makes editing fun is a plus in my book.
Do you have any writing superstitions?
5 comments:
I've never really heard of any writing superstitions. Writers get very attached to certain actions, like a certain piece of music or a certain way of setting up the desk or chair, or a certain hat or shirt, but it's the baseball players that get all superstitious and writers that I know tend to be more creatures of habit and method than creatures of superstition. I could be wrong.
This isn't really a superstition, but I only use one kind of pen, and I will not -- cannot -- write with one which doesn't have the cap attached to the end. I have no idea why.
I agree with both of you. I've given it a lot of thought and habits, preferences, even obsessions--but I'm not sure I know anybody who said, if I don't do this, I won't sell. I have to do it this way or...
Well, maybe it's a different way of looking at superstition. I have to have this pencil or I can't write. I have to have coffee in my special Hemingway mug or I can't write. If "to write I need this" counts as superstition, maybe.
But nothing like baseball players!
I used to have a superstition, but Pooks witnessed the moment I overcame it with her own green eye, uh, eyes! It used to be impossible for me to write in a Moleskine notebook. I would write on a sticky note and apply it to the Moleskine page.
I did!!!
I remember your moleskine with its post-it notes because you didn't want to mess it up by writing in it, and now--gasp!!!--you write in it.
I am verklempt.
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