Writing Quirks

[author_by_night]

Writers are quirky, no doubt about it.

If you write, tell me some of your quirks. We all have quirky writing habits - whether it's how we write, how we get ideas, etc.

Anonymous commenting is allowed.

Go forth, but don't multiply, because writing and mathematics don't mix.

(... I'm weird, okay?)

Comments

[jdbracknell.livejournal.com]

You're not weird. I ♥ you.

I think I write in quite an odd way, in that I always expect to rewrite everything. I'm a compulsive tweaker and I always keep multiple copies of everything in case I change my mind - I'm never, ever happy with a first, or even second or third or fourth, draft. I think my record is 24.

I have to listen to appropriate music really loud, or nothing at all when I write. I can't just listen to whatever iTunes or Last.FM spits out - it has to fit the mood, and I either have to listen to stuff I know all the words to so I don't hear them, or instrumental stuff - classical or electro.

I also find I'm really faddy with words - I'll go through months of liking a specific word and using that a lot and then move on. I find you can trace where they come from to a particular conversation, song, film or book I happened to encounter while I was writing. In some ways, it's like whatever I write is a little timecapsule of the moment in time when I wrote it.

I can't write in blue ink.

Now who's weird? ;)

[(Anonymous)]

I act out storylines from time to time - I have done this less as I've gotten older. When I was little I did it all the time; it's harder to do it now that I'm a grown woman unable to get away with it. I know to others it would look like something is wrong with me... and maybe they'd be right. But it's an effective tool.

[(Anonymous)]

I'm sorry - that wasn't supposed to be a reply to you, it was supposed to be a normal reply.

[arianablack.livejournal.com]

I do that too. It helps so much to get the mannerisms and actions right. Even just having an entire conversation out loud. Luckily, everyone who knows me already knows I'm crazy, so they think nothing of this anymore, lol.

[amberdulen.livejournal.com]

I do that too. I call it "blocking scenes" and it's so handy for seeing, like, where people are in relation to each other, which hand they're using, how far apart they are, that kind of thing.

[vegablack62.livejournal.com]

I'm a compulsive rewriter too. I rewrite after I post even to communities. I always see things I wish were different. So you'll find differences in most things of mine you find on the internet.

[jdbracknell.livejournal.com]

I take a couple of passes at a comment sometimes too. I love the new edit feature, lol.

[tartanboxers.livejournal.com]

I can't write on a word processor. The computer holds too many distractions for me. I have to shut myself in my room and write in a notebook longhand and then go back and type it up. Sometimes my writing is so bad, I can't read it.

[edgiko.livejournal.com]

I sub-vocalize or talk when I write. I'm starting to get into this habit, actually, because I process things through audio.

I also turn off spell check. Even though, yes, its helpful the red lines distract me too much. I get frustrated with it not recognize what I'm trying to spell so then I'm thrown off my groove.

I used to do paper and pencil, but it doesn't help anymore.

[annie-jaye.livejournal.com]

I have to have music playing from my Itunes while I'm writing. And it can't just be coming through the computer speakers, it has to be coming from my earbuds alone.
I mostly type on word processor but if I'm finding my brain blocked I'll sit there with a pen and notepad. Like someone else said, the pen can't be blue. It has to be black... it has to be a ballpoint or gel pen though or I get distracted.
If the paper and pen don't work, I have to put in a movie or turn on a tv show that would put my brain in that particular mood. Occasionally I'll pick up one of the books on my shelves and start reading. Then once an idea won't let me continue reading, I write it down.
I also play spider solitare... I'm not good at it..

I didn't mean for the list to be that long...

[darth-firefly.livejournal.com]

I often find myself talking to characters in the story... when I am not even writing. My muse is known to take off on a plot tangent when I'm at work and start boudning around the library.

It's all fun and games until she slams into that collection of stamp books.

[melfinatheblue.livejournal.com]

I don't rewrite. I barely revise. I basically go into a story and write it, and if it stinks, I set it down and try something else.
Also, my stories often dictate themselves in my head. On the one hand, the stories that come out this way tend to be the best. On the other, if I don't have pen and paper (or computer) handy and a couple hours to get it down, I lose it.

[petitecrivan.livejournal.com]

Just one of my quirks...but when I write (papers, fiction, etc) I pull my hair back because I don't like it in my face. It wouldn't be strange, but I don't pull my hair back when I sew, and it gets in my face then, too. It just bothers me more when I'm writing.

[amberdulen.livejournal.com]

It's almost impossible for me to concentrate unless I've got dead silence or LotR (movie or soundtrack) in the background. I cannot discuss what I'm working on until it's practically finished. I write best in Sharpie. I am very productive in the bathtub. Lit candles help me write. I like to have a cold drink on one side of the computer and a hot drink on the other side. I make faces and mouth out my dialogue. I'm picky about ink pens. Putting on a ring makes me work harder. When I get to the point at night where I've just looked at it for ten minutes...man, it's time to go to bed.

[sea_thoughts]

I go through periods of needing music and needing silence.

I sometimes delete half the chapter or story because I don't like it.

I generally need a song or poem to help inspire me. I think it's reading all those 19th Century novels that have epigraphs at the beginning of every. single. chapter.

[ani-bester.livejournal.com]

Well does it surprise if I say when I get stuck sketching the scene I'm stuck on can help? *thinks* I can't get words right a lot. I mean as in if I'm trying to say truck I will write fish, which is something perhaps you've seen in my LJ but it's worse in fics. That's not a particularly helpful writing quirk, but it is a quirk *L*
I bounce all over the place too, writing scenes as the come and then trying to smush them all together, which means I major thing I must edit for is redundancy.


BTW, my father writes and is a mathematics teacher =P
So did Lewis Carroll *=P No offense is taken or meant of course, I must poke you is all *LOL*

Oh, most of my frist drafts are in a spiral. or written around sketches.

[coffee-n-cocoa.livejournal.com]

I've never been able to write scenes out of sequence. I start at the beginning, and finish at the end, with everything in between falling in the order written. If I start over, I start over at the beginning and rewrite the whole thing.

If I'm writing in a notebook, I have to use a black ink Bic pen, medium point.

[barbara-the-w.livejournal.com]

I have to be moving to do my first pass through a scene. Either driving and talking into a recorder or walking around with a note pad. I love having a cell phone -- now I can walk around talking to myself and nobody thinks twice about it. :D

[purple-ladybug1.livejournal.com]

When I'm writing poetry, I'm most inspired at night. I've woken up in the middle of the night, turned on my lamp, written a poem, and gone back to sleep.

Actually, when writing in general, I prefer writing at night. I can stay up until 2am or 3am easily, working on a piece of fiction.

I write poetry in a notebook, often with a different colored pen depending on my mood or the subject. I write everything else on a computer. I like the feel of the keys beneath my fingers. Stream of consciousness comes out when I write letters to people. I've written some very personal letters that way. I see my letters as a form of my writing.