As many of you might be writers, or some of you may not even be a fan of writing. The fact is, we all write – doesn’t matter if you are an engineering major, math or any science major – we all have to write at some point in our lives. You have to tap your fingers on that keyboard to write for this blog, whether you like writing or not! So, even if you may write because you enjoy it, or that you have to – what gets you to write?
Writing habits, or habits that make you write. Some of these habits might be normal and some might even seem strange to some of you. Science has proven that a handful of people can be addicted to a habit that makes them write with ease. I had an English teacher in high school, who would be biting the cap of his pen while he focused to write. I asked him once if he could stop this habit and just write, and he replied with an absolute no. Of course, this habit can be fatal for him with bacteria, but writing with comfort for him was important. And that’s just not it. There are many famous writers who wrote some of the brilliant pieces of literature you read today with strange and not so strange habits.
According to the Barnes and Nobles website, there are and have been some well-known writers that have used their own ways in order to produce the hard-to-put down pieces you read while you sip your coffee or tea. A favorite author of many like Maya Angelou chose to write in a tiny hotel room from dawn to 2 a.m. in the morning. Now, many writers or even non-writers prefer a certain type of environment in order to feel comfortable with their writing. It is normal because many of us might prefer a loud environment and we would feel OK (I am one of those people), and some of us prefer a very quiet environment where we can only hear the sound of the keyboard at work. The environment you choose whether quiet or loud only determines your style of peace – it does not define that loud is necessary not peaceful, thus for some people it might be.
Then there are people who drink in order to write, and by drink I mean tremendous amount of it. Drinks like coffee (author Honore de Balzac would drink 50 cups of coffee during the day), tea, alcohol (Edgar Allen Poe) and other drinks. Of course, too much amount of caffeine or alcohol will effect your body in horrific ways. I for once, ended up in emergency for over-caffeinated myself because I was working on a novel at that time. Blame the novel, alright!
Now we transition to the ‘lazy writers.’ And this also includes me, sometimes. As some of you might dislike writing to even start with, or some of you might even get overwhelmed with zero or too many ideas to start and end with. So, you get lazy and your mind triggers you to do things that you normally would not do in other cases. For example, Truman Capote, another famous writer had many of his own lazy methods to write, including: stretching many times on a bed or sofa, switching various types of drinks from martinis to tea green and so on. All of these habits are a big excuse of being lazy, or working in a slow process. This can be helpful to relax and think, but can also make it harder for you to work faster and meet your deadlines.
Lets not forget the writers who use different ‘positions’ and ‘postures’ in order to write contently. Even a very famous writer like Ernest Hemingway would ” write while standing, in a pair of over-sized loafers and his typewriter at chest height. I wonder if this made him tired or actually comfortable? And it gets stranger… Dan Brown, also a well-known writer would “hang upside-down in anti-gravity boots, claiming that this inversion therapy helps him relax and let go.” He was went far than just stretching or being ‘upside-down.’ He would keep an hourglass by his desk, and every hour he did push-ups to sit-ups and more. Like many of us, we do weird things to keep our body working, relaxed and focused, so that our blood keeps normal flow in the brain to keep balance. I take yoga breaks during long writing projects to relax my body and mind. I also go on my phone, eat a lot of snacks (which is not good) and even take in between naps to take a break from writing, or it can be a lazy excuse as well.
All these habits and many may help you write and even writer better, but sometimes they might be harming you more rather helping you with just the writing part. If you tend to have a habit or more than one, then it is important to know if it is good or bad for you – and of course, you can only determine that. I try my best to cut loose on some of the bad habits that I find useful or addictive in order to write with ease, or even as an excuse to – write slow or not at all. One of my worst habits – in my opinion, is eating a lot of sugary snacks and drinking too much tea. It’s good to stay energetic and active, but not overdose oneself with caffeine and sugar. And It’s hard for me to admit, but I also tend to bite the back of my pen a lot when I write. Whatever drives you to write, it is your choice and only you can make sense of it and consider it peaceful, even though it might not seem peaceful or appropriate to others. Nevertheless, it is crucial to be aware that your body does not receive any bad outcomes, and that you control your habit(s) from going out of control. So, keep writing with your strange habits, but be aware of not letting them take over you! You take cold-shower breaks in order to keep writing? No judging! If this makes you a better Stephen King in your fiction class, then why not? Just don’t take too many in one day.
9 Weirdest Habits of Highly Effective Authors Here is a link to the Barnes and Nobles website, where i received most of my information about some of these writers. You might want to check out the even weirder ones! Also, I am curious to read about your strange habits of writing. They might be cool, or even similar to the ones I talked about.