Friday 13 July 2012

Writing Superstitions

Happy Friday the 13th!
So, today is obviously a day that makes some people very superstitious. I'm not one of those people, but I do have general superstitions when it comes to writing. I can't tell you how hard I had to think to come up with these superstitions and habits--it's all rather subconscious, isn't it? I mean, I have OCD, and even I don't know exactly what kind of quirks I have, except the ones people have pointed out to me.

So, onto my superstitions and habits concerning writing:

The mystical writing hat

  • I like to wear my writer's hat (shown on the right)
  • I like to have a warm, sugary drink on hand
  • Writing every day has proved to make me more productive, but I can't always make that, because of time constraints or pure laziness
  • I have to have the right font for my story. Luckily, most of my stories so far have been Arial Narrow, size 11, but, it can sometimes change depending on... well, I don't know, subconscious stuff, I guess
  • Each story has its own playlist, and I can't write to the wrong kind of music. For example, my newest WIP has a playlist that consists of a lot of Skrillex, Metallica, Motley Crue, Fear Factory, and generally just a lot of different kinds of metal. The right music can work wonders, but if I listen to something that just doesn't suit the story at all, it can put me in a writing funk
  • I don't like talking about my stories too early on in the writing process. Mainly because of two reasons: 1) What if it turns into a bum idea? I'd have let down all these people who were looking forward to reading it, and it ended up going nowhere. 2) I know this is silly, but I'm afraid that someone will steal my ideas. I love originality, and I'm sure this sounds very arrogant and up-myself, but I like to think that my stories have some level of originality to them. I wouldn't want anyone stealing my precious ideas. 
  • Writing in my house is hard. This is less of a superstition, and more of an observation, but I get so distracted by my puppy, by the internet, by pretty much everything. I like to go to coffee shops or the park, and just sit and write for hours. That's why I got so much writing done during my first semester of uni: because I was writing on my breaks.
  • When I'm editing, I have to print out the entire manuscript, and I can only write on it in angry red ink. 
  • I cannot write my story out of order. Absolutely cannot. I like my things to be organised in a nice linear order. Unless the story is supposed to be all over the place, then I'll write the non-linear story in the way I envision the non-linear-ness to be. 

Okay, so maybe I'm a wee bit weird. 
Do you have any odd superstitions or habits while writing?

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