The Writing Tools of 20 Famous Authors
Stephen King
Stephen King once described his Waterman fountain pen as “the world’s finest word processor.” He started writing longhand when sitting at a computer became too painful (post car accident). He found the act of using a fountain pen forced him to slow down and think about each word. King discusses this method in the above 10-minute interview from 2001, which was recorded during his press rounds for Dreamcatcher.
J. K. Rowling
She’s a billionaire author now, but when Harry Potter scribe J. K. Rowling drafted her famous series about the boy wizard, she used good old-fashioned loose-leaf paper and pen.
Mark Twain
Twain favored custom, leather-bound, tabbed notebooks, which he designed. He tore the tabs off each completed page in order to easily find the next blank one. His pen of choice was the Conklin Crescent Filler, especially since it was incapable of rolling off his desk. In the 1890s, Twain’s rheumatism made writing longhand painful. He experimented with using his left hand, but eventually began dictating his stories.
Disjointed Jottings by Robert Smith (A.K.A. TyCobbsTeeth) 
Fascinating reading, thanks for passing it along, Rob. I didn’t realize any of that, even about King writing in longhand. I would’ve thought the accident would have made him want to use voice-activated software, yet another media for authors! For myself, I have really evolved over the years with regard to how I write (and, lately, where). As a young writer (nonadult), I used mostly pencil and any paper I could find, because my family lacked a computer for most of my growing-up years. Now, seeing some of that, it’s horribly smeared. But then my husband comes from the library community, so pencils are sacrosanct. I had moved, in my teens years, away from pencil and used pen for my creative writing, then typing in the end process. Nowadays, I still do some composing on paper, but probably more on-screen. I feel that, whatever works for you is fine by me as long as you’re not maiming animals (including the people kind) or something wacky or ultra-wasteful to the environment (e.g., a new disposable pen for every day when the old one still works?) to do your writing. On another note, sounds like What Lies Within has a lot going on, dichotomies of good and evil and revenge and pacifism motifs going on. I’m pleased to hear you are bringing another manuscript to fruition.
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Sorry your comment slipped by me Leigh.
I have some updates: I finished What Lies Within; I signed with an agent (MBLA); they’re shopping the manuscript around for me; and I have started on a sequel, What Lies Become.
With the new book, although I jotted a lot of notes in my pad, I’m doing more plotting and everything is on the computer. I’m enjoying the experience of trying to write books with these different approaches.
Great connecting, Leigh (as always), and thank you very much, I’m really looking forward to getting What Lies Within out there!
Cheers!
Rob
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As far as I’m concerned you can’t beat pen and paper for a first draft. I’ve only written a first draft on the computer once, and the temptation to go back and edit was too great, because it was too easy – much harder to edit on paper. Once I’ve completed it, though, I love transcribing it onto the computer and I really enjoy the editing process,
Thank you for following me and the storyhounds! 🙂
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Thanks Annabelle, I appreciate what you’re saying. It makes a lot of sense. I have a hard time not editing multiple times, whenever I read back through.
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I love pen and paper ❤
The only problem later on is to copy everything to the computer, lol.
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Heh, yeah. There is that.
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If I’m near a computer I will sometimes type my ideas/sentences straight in but I still like to jot down notes in a notebook first. When I’m away from the computer I carry a notebook with me and write down whole sections of stories while I’m sitting on the beach or peddling on the bike at the gym.
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That makes sense. Although I will shuffle over to the computer in the middle of the night–if ideas come to me, I often have a notebook closely and will use that. It’s a notebook or audio-recorder which capture my thoughts, while in the car. Sometimes I’ll email myself from my smart phone with a thought from the grocery store. When I sit down to write though, it’s a computer desk and a keyboard.
Thanks for you feedback. It’s really interesting to see how others tend their craft.
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You just reminded me – I email myself from my phone too! You’re keen getting up in the middle of the night although it is better than thinking about an idea over and over so you won’t forget it.
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Your blog confirms what I firmly believe. The emphasis on the volume of script produced, the assembly line rules, the cookie cutter approach touted by so many today is a disservice to those you aspire to write WELL! A lot of your examples didn’t have the choice of a desktop, etc. – maybe that’s why the stuff Doyle (eg) gave us was quality. Today there seems to be a contest to see how quickly some person can add 300 pages to the sewer line the serves as today’s lit contributions. Hemingway’s goal was 300 quality words a day. Oh well, an agent told me Hemingway couldn’t get published today. Tell you anything?
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Unfortunate, but true. The no reason to diverge from the “if it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing right” course though. I’m a firm believer. And in having fun with it. What fun is an assembly line.
Thanks Sandy.
Cheers!
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Reblogged this on Publishing Prowess and commented:
Who knew?
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