Superstitions for Writers?

Last Friday was Friday the 13th. For those who are superstitious, that’s a bad day.

Also last Friday, while I was composing a tweet when I started thinking about superstitions, and how much stock people put in them. This thought occurred as I was composing a tweet.  I reached for the hashtag symbol, and accidentally struck the dollar sign. As such, instead of #amwriting, I had $amwriting. This made me wonder if this was a simple error or fate. I mean $amwriting was surely the universe telling me my writing was going to bring in some cash, no?

Then, I dismissed the thought, thinking, “that’s kinda nuts.” But then again, there are so many things out there that are sorta nutty that people do because they believe their good omens. And when they do them, they feel better about the process, and that leads to the doing a better job, so the belief of a good omen can turn out to be a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Baseball is notoriously superstitious, with all the players having their own things they have to do before each game to make sure they can play optimally. Players of other sports are also superstitious.  But superstitions aren’t related to the world of sports, as the Friday the 13th superstition shows us. And we all know 7 is lucky (unless that’s the percentage you got right on your test).

Are writers superstitious? More so than other groups of people, I mean. I don’t know. I haven’t heard any writerly superstitions that are commonplace. But, people do have preferences for places they like to write and ways they like to write.  I’m pretty ritual free when it comes to writing. I’m happy to write wherever I am, but I do think I like $amwriting. I may start using that instead of the hashtag. Even though it’s had zero effect on me so far, I just have a feeling….

So, do you have any writerly superstitions or rituals you care to share?