A couple of days ago I got invited to share 7 of my writing quirks in an Instagram story. At first, I was skeptical, thinking that I wouldn’t have much to say. But oh boy, was I wrong! Turns out, I had so much to say that it was hard to squeeze it all into my stories. Hence this blog post. Please keep reading if you want to know it all.

I started writing poetry in 2019. Prior to that I only wrote one poem back in 2015. Otherwise, I have a background in writing magazine articles and blog posts for websites. I even created a few video scripts. I’m currently working on my first-ever screenplay. Movies, TV shows, and just stories and visuals in general always had a big impact on my writing – a huge cinema lover here!

I have probably hundreds of lines and drafts all over in my phone’s notes app. It’s mostly due to the fact that inspiration usually strikes me at random places and hours: when I’m trying to sleep, having a bath, traveling, etc. When it comes, I try to jot the words down as fast as I can. There are times when I ‘lose’ the poems or lines that come to me, and even though I keep repeating them in my head, that method doesn’t always work. Unless they’re written down straight away, I run the risk of them vanishing forever. So it’s all a beautiful mess until I finish the poems.

I do have a process though. I transfer the poems I’m working on into a Google doc called Drafts, then each finished piece goes into a corresponding folder, organized by year and month. To compile poems for my books, I create new documents. When I was working on Beautiful Alien, I used Trello boards to help me put the poems in order. 

When the chaos subsides, I love to sit down with the intention of writing. There is something beautifully satisfying about that. Especially when I can write. I usually put on some background music, grab a nice cup of tea, or a glass of wine, find a cozy spot on top of my bed, and turn on creative mode. 

I hardly ever write on paper, unless I specifically decide to do so for a stream-of-consciousness exercise or something similar. I know it’s less romantic, but I prefer to write digitally on my phone and laptop because it’s faster and easier to edit too. 

I never write in my mother language, Hungarian. (But of course, growing up, I used to.) For some reason, I don’t have any inspiration to do so. English is the language of my soul and I know that it allows me to connect with people from all over the world. My Spanish is pretty good too, so on a few occasions I attempted to write poetry in Spanish, but it was never shared with the public. 

I can’t make up my mind about which grammar to stick to, British or American. (And then there’s Australian and Canadian grammar too, oh dear…) Both my books were published with American spelling for two reasons: 1. most of my readers are from the United States. 2. I tend to favor American words over British ones, such as sidewalk vs pavement or panties vs knickers. Other than that, I do find British spelling more aesthetically pleasing. As a result, I’ve been really inconsistent with my spelling and grammar choices over the years. FYI: I’m in my American phase. 

I hope you enjoyed it and find some of these points interesting and relatable. If you are a writer, yourself, I’d love to hear about your quirks and processes. Feel free to leave a comment below.