In a 1987 interview, award-winning writer Philip Roth ( Portnoy's Lament ) declared that "writing is not hard work, it is a nightmare." Facing the terrible blank page, populating it with worlds, stories and characters becomes a constant challenge and arduous process.

Great writers, like all human beings, experience insecurities, fears, blocks, despair. Writing is an intimate act. A personal moment not at all standardized, when the muses may not arrive and the words become uncoupled from each other indefinitely. To advance on this emotional and creative chaos, the professionals of the letters acquire whims, routines, egocentric and obsessive behaviors, many times ignored by the readers. And although we think that they have little or nothing to do with the gift of writing, none of the authors listed below would have completed their works without "the security" offered by these hobbies.

Isabel Allende ( The House of the Spirits ) begins her novels on January 8 and each day of the process lights a candle. When this is consumed, finish writing until next time. Ernest Hemingway ( The Old Man and the Sea ) had two lucky charms in his right pocket: a threadbare rabbit's foot and a horse chestnut. The French poet Prosper Jolyot de Crébillon ( Idomeneo ) drew inspiration for his tragedies by observing the ravens that he possessed inside his room.

David Herbert Richards Lawrence ( Sons and Lovers ) was controversial even at the time of writing: he used to strip naked and climb mulberry trees. Playwright Maxwell Anderson ( Queen Elizabeth ) had remarkable success while creating when it rained, but was a failure without the presence of rainfall. In his house he installed a system to sprinkle water on the roof so that he could concentrate when he heard the noise of "the rain" falling.

The master of horror stories Edgar Allan Poe ( The Raven ) liked to write works on continuous strips of paper that formed rolls, a mania that exasperated his publishers. Poe, too, was a coffee addict. His most prolific time occurred at the age of 27, when he was married to his 13-year-old cousin, Virginia Clemm, whom he demanded to stay in his company, serving him the infusion until dawn. Another great "coffee grower" was Honoré de Balzac ( The Human Comedy). This legendary novelist consumed up to 50 cups in a day, allowing him to work about 15 hours a day: almost always at night and in total withdrawal. And it worked for him, since he captured more than a hundred novels and short stories. On isolation, Balzac required a place without clocks, with few or no windows.

Michel de Montaigne ( Essays ) needed an abandoned tower to concentrate. Juan Ramón Jiménez ( Platero and I ) was a "maniac of silence" when he lined his room with cork to seclude himself. The same was done by Marcel Proust   ( In Search of Lost Time ), who regularly fumigated his apartment, as he had a certain phobia of noise and odors, as well as being the typical hypochondriac who slept dressed, even with gloves. Culminating case that of Jonathan Franzen who, while creating  The Corrections , was in total seclusion, with earplugs, sometimes blindfolded and fingers on the keyboard.

Meanwhile, Agatha Christie ( Murder on the Orient Express ) wrote wherever inspiration came: a coffee shop, a hotel, the train, etc. He always carried pen and paper for any literary contingency. Francis Scott Fitzgerald ( The Great Gatsby ) was another literary man who loved crowded and public places. He was not exactly a disciplined person at work, instead he made up for that lack with deep moments of creativity in which he managed to produce up to 8,000 words in a row. He was one of the many authors who was consumed by drink. His work cycle became: drink gin, write, drink gin, write. He himself expressed that this drink was gasoline for his imagination.

Those obsessed with work super-routines also proliferate. Stephen King ( The Dark Tower ) is famous for his Spartan discipline. King gets up every day at eight in the morning and doesn't finish until he can write a minimum of 2,000 words. He also reads hundreds of pages a day. Haruki Murakami ( Kafka on the shore ) wakes up at four in the morning and finishes his literary chores at ten. Louisa May Alcott ( Little Women ) stayed up to 13 hours at a time, James Joyce spent "20,000 hours writing  Ulysses " and Michael Crichton ( Jurassic Park) his delusion about work led to four divorces.

Isaac Asimov ( Me, Robot ) spent eight hours a day with it, including holidays and weekends. This prolific genius of science fiction only required isolation in a small, closed room, with light bulbs and without windows. Unlike Leon Tolstoi ( War and Peace ), who was very revisionist and meticulous, Asimov hardly ever revised his texts more than once, as he claimed "wasting time."

Truman Capote ( In Cold Blood ), in addition to being another obsessive, was one of the most manic authors. I wrote two versions in pencil before typing the final copy. He only believed in bed, his ashtrays could not exceed three butts so he filled his pockets with the remaining ashes and counted numbers insistently in his head. Charles Dickens ( Oliver Twist) was another "stranger": his creative space had to be in absolute silence. There was always a comb on hand for the purpose of styling your hair multiple times a day. Like Truman Capote, he suffered from obsessive-compulsive disorder regarding the organization of his study and could never begin if he did not have a vase of fresh flowers, two bronze statues, a tray with a rabbit on it, a letter opener, his pen nearby. and his jar of ink.

Clothing appears to have influenced several generations of literati. Georges Louis Leclerc ( Histoire Naturelle ) could only write in evening dress, with lace cuffs and frills and, of course, a sword at his belt. Alexander Dumas ( The Count of Monte Cristo ) was always inspired by a red cassock and sandals. Pierre Loti ( Madame Chrysanthème ) was bundled up in oriental suits and John Milton ( Paradise Lost ) in a worn wool cape. Gabriel García Márquez ( One Hundred Years of Solitude) also contracted their rituals. The most famous was the yellow flower on his desk, although he wrote barefoot and never wrapped in pajamas.

Fans of walking were François-René de Chateaubriand ( Atala ), who dictated prayers to his secretary while he walked with bare feet and Victor Hugo , author of  Les Miserables,  left his clothes to the servants with instructions not to give it to him until he asked for it. He would go about his business naked, covered by a gray shawl. He spoke aloud and paced his room from side to side until he had the desired idea. When he had it, he sat down to write as fast as possible before he forgot everything.