Concerned with Edith Wharton’s “eccentric” choice to be a writer, her mom withheld writing paper. At age 11, Wharton solved that little dilemma by writing on brown parcel paper scraps.
Inspired by her example, we asked: “What’s the craziest material you used to write?” Here are a few responses.
(1) Atlanta Bookworm: “Disintegrating scraps of receipts found in the bottom of my backpack.”
(2) Shelly Lowenkopf: “a roll of butcher’s wrapping paper.”
(3) Nettie Hartsock: “school lunch sacks while waiting in pickup line for son’s elementary–a whole two pages of start of novel!”
Wharton’s adolescent parcel paper scribbles formed her first novel. Eventually she would win a Pulitzer Prize. So who knows? Keep writing be it on receipts, butcher paper, or your son’s lunch sacks–because you never know…