I’m very curious about this.
If you’re a writer and you have any superstitions, quirks, or rituals that relate to writing, please take a moment to share them.
Or if you know a writer with such habits, please share them.
Let me suggest a few examples for you to consider while think about this:
- Do you check every chapter to make sure that it doesn’t have 13 pages?
- Do you refuse to wash your underwear until the book is finished? (Well, that might explain why writing tends to be such a solitary experience…)
- Do you read your horoscope before you decide to write that day?
- Do you use a Ouija board to help get book ideas?
- Do you insist on ending every book on page 451 (hoping that sales will be ‘on fire,’ in degrees Fahrenheit)?
- Do you walk precisely one mile on the treadmill for every page you write?
Well, then, what do you do?
chrismcmullen 
Sorry to disappoint but I don’t have any superstitions when it comes to my writing. I’m just grateful to get time to write!
Thank you for stopping by and considering the superstitions. 🙂 (If only we lived in the future where our thoughts could be read by the computer. That sure will speed up the writing process…)
Well actually there is research going on for microchips to be inserted into humans – one is for cell phone communication & the other so your health can be monitored by your doctor. So maybe not so far away!
I wish I could walk one mile for every page I write! Hahaha…I would settle for a mile a day for every day I write. My only superstition has to do with watching sales of previously published material. I find when I look every day, nothing seems to happen, but if I go for a week or two, or more, i come back pleasantly surprised. ( I could never be Charles. LOL)
That sounds like a great blog post for someone to write: “Could you be Charles?” I must admit that I have some report-checking superstitions of my own. 🙂
I’m not sure it’s a superstition, but I have trouble with 3rd chapters. I don’t know why I have trouble getting through any chapter with a multiple of 3. It’s gotten to the point where I get nervous whenever I get near them. Case in point, it’s taking me over a week to edit the third chapter of my 4th book and it’s shorter than the previous chapters. No idea why.
That’s a great example. Thank you for sharing it. 🙂 (Just imagine a book with Chapters 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, etc. Hey, who stole Chapter 3?)
I wonder if that would solve the problem. It’s maddening at times.
I used to need absolute silence to write. Used to because as a mother there is no such thing as absolute silence anymore!
Silence is a luxury. 🙂
I try not to read fiction while writing fiction. Unwanted influences have a way of creeping in, like unconsciously adopting a foreign accent when you’re hanging around people who have them.
That’s a good one. Thanks for sharing it. 🙂
I don’t know that I have any superstitions, but i definitely have habits. My biggest one is only writing on days when I know there’s going to be no one at my house and I have no errands to run for at LEAST 4 hours. I tend to read what I write aloud a lot, and I feel extremely self conscious when it comes to my family being in hearing-distance during my creative process. I don’t necessarily think they’ll laugh or make fun of me, but I just… don’t want their opinions. Any opinions. No. Bad. And as far as having nothing else to do that day… it’s this weird mindset I have that if I don’t have the entire day to write, then my day is “gone”. It feels like my attention is elsewhere and my writing is going to suffer because I can’t sink into the fictional world as thoroughly. It’s completely unfounded and makes no sense, but that’s how I work.
That has some advantages. If I know my period of silence will be interrupted soon, it can interfere with the creative process. 🙂
Agreed. If i know for instance, that my daughter’s going to be home from school in the next 15 minutes, I usually give up and get ready to make dinner.. cause I know I’m not going to get any work done while I wait for her, and certainly not after she’s home. Unfortunately, sometimes that turns into a really convenient excuse to procrastinate too.
I’m not sure if this is considered but I need to have a pillow on my back. 🙂
That counts. (It might depend on your chair, too.)