Writer are odd types. If you have any doubts pick up a copy of Celia Blue Johnson’s book ODD TYPE WRITERS
Friedrich Schiller kept a host of rotten apples in the top shelf of his desk. He loved the smell that emanated from them.
Perfectionist James Joyce would proudly announce at the end of a full day at his writing desk, “I have finished two sentences.”
Writers love a good walk. William Wordsworth is reputed to have walked 180,000 miles in his lifetime.
Aldous Huxley was a nocturnal writer, taking to the streets in the middle of the night. “Even if one wants to feel depressed one can’t after an hour in the wind and the moonlight.”
William Butler Yeats would barrel through streets like a tornado. He’d wave his arms and mutter as he walked, so absorbed in musings that he lost track of the world around him.
American poet Wallace Stevens said , “I write best when I can concentrate, and do the best while walking . Stevens recorded his poetry on slips of paper. Once he arrived at the office he handed the slips of paper to his secretary to be typed.
Jack Kerouac submitted his novel ‘On The Road’ to publisher as a scroll with all the pages taped together.
A lot of writers are early risers who get to their desks before the demands of their day interfere with their artistic pursuits. Sylvia Plath would wake up at 4am, W.H, Auden, Graham Greene, Ernest Hemingway, Victor Hugo and Vladimir Hugo would start their day at 6am.
French novelist Colette always had animals close to her, whether they were at he her heels or on her lap. Cats and dogs served as protagonists in many of her stories. Colette’s second husband De Jouvenel felt like he was intruding when he stumbled upon his wife when she was alone with her pets. He proclaimed, “One of these days you’ll retire to a jungle.”I
Sixteen year old comedian Woody Allen managed to write during his subway ride to an after school job at an advertising agency. He recalled, “Straphanging I’d take out a pencil and by the time I had gotten out I’d have written forty or fifty jokes. I did it for years.”
Jack London, who was determined to be a writer ,. considered suicide after having received some 650 rejection letters. His depression lifted when his story ‘Black Cat’ was accepted by a magazine who even paid him a nominal fee.
Many great writers develop their voices in part by tracing the words of their favourite predecessors. Ray Bradbury hammered out pieces by authors he admired on a typewriter to help perfect his own prose. In moments of utmost despair Bradbury dropped entire paragraphs by Tom Wolfe into his drafts. ‘Because I couldn’t do it, you see. I was so frustrated’, he proclaimed in an interview for the Paris Review.
In interview for McCall’s, Truman Capote confessed, “I used to be fantastically superstitious, I mean to the point of mania.” Though he made up many of these superstitions, Capote found it difficult to abandon them. He wouldn’t begin or end a piece of a work on a Friday. He had an aversion to the number 13. He’d trade hotel rooms or avoid a call if the number 13 was somehow involved. At one point, he would even jump on his thirteenth step. Capote never let the number of cigarette butts in an ashtray exceed three (extra ones were placed in his coat pocket). He also refused to board a plane with more than one nun on board.
Recommended, Celia Blue Johnson’s very well researched book makes for fascinating reading.
Featured image : Ernest Hemingway
Writer : Celia Blue Johnson
Title : Odd Type Writers
Publisher: Perigee Books
ISBN: 9780399159947