writing quirks?
19 Jun 2011 01:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jennickelsWhen I was writing up my freak out post over word counts I thought of this (I swear there was some relation between the two at some point).
Do you have any strange writing quirks?
Like having to be in a certain place to write, certain music playing, no noise, lots of noise, etc.
A few years ago I realized there were certain criteria that needed to be met for me to actually succeed in writing. #1 is quiet. Which is all but impossible with five kids, lol. I have noise sensitivities and issues processing the normal, everyday noise around me. Stuff that most people probably just ignore grate on my nerves and give me migraines. If I want to write I almost always have to have near absolute quiet in the room. Therefore I'm stuck writing very late at night once everyone is asleep or I have to lock myself in my room with my fan going (white noise is sanity saver).
My 2nd quirk I discovered relates to writing by hand. Yes, I still do that. It relates back to the first quirk. I tend to lock myself into my room a lot. Problem is I don't have a computer in there and we don't have laptops so I have to do things the old fashioned way. There are two methods of writing that work well for me that I find just kind of strange. One is to write on the back of printed stories. I've always been a hybrid writer (since getting a computer in college). I'll type some stuff up, print it and edit some then continue writing on the back of the papers, type that in... rinse, repeat. The other way that works is a certain style notebook and pen. If I don't have one of these 2 conditions met I rarely get anything done.
For the notebook/pen it's pretty specific and took me awhile to figure out. First the notebook has to be like a half-sized one. Well I guess they aren't really half sized since they are like 8x5 size or something around that. And be college ruled. These are surprisingly hard to find--college ruled in that size--at least with the pretty designs on them and that I can afford. As for the pen... has to be a gel pen or something like that. I can't write with ball point pens (the average BIC). It takes too much pressure to make a mark and my hand starts hurting before the end of the page. The gel pens flow much easier and I can write much faster with them. I also prefer blue pens. I found I write more if I use blue.
Although recently I've started writing in standard sized spiral bound notebooks. I find it more difficult than the half sized ones, though but I persist.
My 3rd quirk is that I write best while lying on my stomach. I try to write long hand while sitting on the couch, at a table, on the floor with the notebook in my lap (on a pillow or clipboard) and I rarely get anything done. I tend to just stare at the page or I get distracted by everything going on around me. But if I drop to the floor suddenly the page comes into focus and my thoughts just flow. I find that pretty weird. It's such an arbitrary thing. I'm guess it has to do with being at floor level limiting my stimulus input or something. There's less going on down there to distract me (except for dust bunnies---which aren't as cool as plot bunnies).
So, yeah, if you were to walk in on me writing you'll probably find me lying on my bedroom floor with a notebook or printer paper on a clipboard and a gel pen in hand (recently got them in pink, purple, green and red... still prefer blue but I accidentally broke the blue one that came in the set).
Do you have any strange writing quirks?
Like having to be in a certain place to write, certain music playing, no noise, lots of noise, etc.
A few years ago I realized there were certain criteria that needed to be met for me to actually succeed in writing. #1 is quiet. Which is all but impossible with five kids, lol. I have noise sensitivities and issues processing the normal, everyday noise around me. Stuff that most people probably just ignore grate on my nerves and give me migraines. If I want to write I almost always have to have near absolute quiet in the room. Therefore I'm stuck writing very late at night once everyone is asleep or I have to lock myself in my room with my fan going (white noise is sanity saver).
My 2nd quirk I discovered relates to writing by hand. Yes, I still do that. It relates back to the first quirk. I tend to lock myself into my room a lot. Problem is I don't have a computer in there and we don't have laptops so I have to do things the old fashioned way. There are two methods of writing that work well for me that I find just kind of strange. One is to write on the back of printed stories. I've always been a hybrid writer (since getting a computer in college). I'll type some stuff up, print it and edit some then continue writing on the back of the papers, type that in... rinse, repeat. The other way that works is a certain style notebook and pen. If I don't have one of these 2 conditions met I rarely get anything done.
For the notebook/pen it's pretty specific and took me awhile to figure out. First the notebook has to be like a half-sized one. Well I guess they aren't really half sized since they are like 8x5 size or something around that. And be college ruled. These are surprisingly hard to find--college ruled in that size--at least with the pretty designs on them and that I can afford. As for the pen... has to be a gel pen or something like that. I can't write with ball point pens (the average BIC). It takes too much pressure to make a mark and my hand starts hurting before the end of the page. The gel pens flow much easier and I can write much faster with them. I also prefer blue pens. I found I write more if I use blue.
Although recently I've started writing in standard sized spiral bound notebooks. I find it more difficult than the half sized ones, though but I persist.
My 3rd quirk is that I write best while lying on my stomach. I try to write long hand while sitting on the couch, at a table, on the floor with the notebook in my lap (on a pillow or clipboard) and I rarely get anything done. I tend to just stare at the page or I get distracted by everything going on around me. But if I drop to the floor suddenly the page comes into focus and my thoughts just flow. I find that pretty weird. It's such an arbitrary thing. I'm guess it has to do with being at floor level limiting my stimulus input or something. There's less going on down there to distract me (except for dust bunnies---which aren't as cool as plot bunnies).
So, yeah, if you were to walk in on me writing you'll probably find me lying on my bedroom floor with a notebook or printer paper on a clipboard and a gel pen in hand (recently got them in pink, purple, green and red... still prefer blue but I accidentally broke the blue one that came in the set).
