Do You Wear an Eyepatch While You Write?
We writers often have our quirks. Sometimes that might be a particular habit that we do while we write, or before we write. Maybe it’s our own peculiar writing space, where we must be to do our best work.
Or perhaps it’s an object that we have become attached to, something that comforts us, or that we can fiddle with while we think.
Sometimes such objects can come to be part of a person. When we think of them, we think of that object. Amongst writers, especially, we can find good examples of this.
A recent article on the culture and news blog Flavorwire shared ten wonderful iconic accessories of famous authors, from Oscar Wilde’s lapel flower to James Joyce’s eyepatch. Head on over to Flavorwire to see the full list. Can you think of any others?
Do you have a particular or peculiar accessory? Please share them in the comments below?
—————————————————————————————————————-
Image courtesy of Flavorwire.
Christopher Jackson is the Editor for Fuel Your Writing and a creative copywriter. He is currently working on Project: Snotbook, an interactive children’s storybook for iPad.
I have done lots of phone interviews over the years, which I then transcribe wearing headphones. As a result, I’ve come to associate wearing headphones with focused concentration and getting writing results. So now, I sometimes put on the headphones to write, even though I’m not listening to anything. It seems to work…
I find wearing headphones helps me to concentrate too. And sometimes I also don’t listen to music on them, although that’s usually by accident more than design…
Thanks for commenting!
I wear a fedora. It belonged to my dad, an amazing psychiatrist and lifelong people-watcher, who passed away a few months ago. It always reminds me to write something worth reading.
Love this. Anything that reminds us to write something worth reading is a powerful and important thing indeed. Thanks very much for sharing this!
Nice and funny thanks
Fascinating article Chris! And I love the one on Flavorwire too. Interesting – I’ve been reading The Portable Jack Kerouac the past couple of weeks, which includes On The Road, The Beat Generation…all those stories of his writing life. In many of them he talks about how crazy William Burroughs is; I don’t recall seeing a photo of Burroughs but the description Kerouac uses brought to mind a man who looks exactly like the picture of Burroughs on Flavorwire. I guess all that says is that Kerouac was an excellent writer! I highly recommend The Portable Jack Kerouac, which I suppose is obvious.
I have quite an odd “accessory” that I carry with me everywhere, and fiddling with it often helps me to concentrate when I get tired of twirling my pen. What is it? A tambourine. All this time I thought I was simply being eccentric, (or, as my family has said – weird) – it’s comforting to know I have something in common with many of the great writers out there!
I try not to be too attached to any given space or artifact while writing. If I do find myself with a writing talisman, the fear is that at any given time if it were lost, or just inaccessible, its absence would be far too great a distraction while I was trying to write. Ideally, I want to be able to compose my words under any given set of conditions I may find myself. (I hate, for example, having to write under a deadline on a laptop. But I have been away from home, and required to do so a few times. It got done.)
That being said, a sort of unofficial, symbolic talisman, that I don’t NEED but can sometimes be helpful, is a billiard 8-Ball I keep in a small stand on my desk. Once in a great while I will hold it while I am thinking, but mostly it serves to remind me, that no matter what, I am never really “behind the 8-Ball”, because I’m free to move the ball anytime I please. I have that freedom, if I choose to remember such.
I wear a lot of hats, both figuratively and literally. Every Halloween, the costume shops carry lots of fun, unique and affordable hats. During the year these adorn the walls of my office and I wear them while I am working… it keeps me in the right “headspace”.
Since I write just about anywhere I go, I don’t know that I have one accessory that helps me exclusively with writing, but a silly hat does help.
Call me nuts but there are days I can’t concentrate without headphones (usually playing some form of meditation music… tonight’s selection “Egyptian Meditation Music” on YouTube), my two year old, filthy (yet impossible to get the dirt out) trucker hat (which I’m wearing right now) and at times, I have to throw the left hand down into my pants. Typical “guy lounging” kind of situation but when the block builds, my hand slowly works it’s way to my waist line, and usually something strikes just before I “get comfy.”
Living at home with my parents and three siblings who come at random doesn’t permit me to get comfortable like that in the living room, so I guess the subconscious brings something to the tips of my fingers. Maybe fear of getting caught with my hand in my pants… LOL…
But it works!!! Well for me at least. :)
I need music that fits the mood if it’s something happy then happy music!! Also I play whit my hair while I think (I’m a girl so it’s long and curly) I just tend to write for my friends tough so I don’t write long things I also tend to play with a necklace made of beads done for me by one of my best friends :) All of those things help me think…
In addition to listening to any kind of instrumental or classical music via headphones, I have recently discovered–one cold evening–that I REALLY enjoy wearing a hoodie (with the hood on!) while I’m writing. It gives me a separation from my environment that allows me to “tunnel” my attention and keeps me focused on my writing.
My thoughts bouncing back and forth between my mind and my laptop, constantly transmitting data within its connection.