Steinbeck’s 24 Pencil Writing Ritual<br /> by [[Wood & Graphite]] YouTube <br /> accessed on 2025-12-10T08:58:17
John Steinbeck pre-sharpened 24 of his Eberhardt Faber Blackwing 602 pencils in batches to have uninterrupted writing time. When they were all dull, he would batch sharpen them again.
https://blog.blackwing602.com/introducing-volume-1138-2/
While the Volume 1138 edition celebrates sci-fi and Georges Méliès' A Trip to the Moon, the number itself calls to mind the George Lucas/Walter Murch joint THX 1138.
After a leisurely lunch, prepared by the German cook who came with the house, I would spend another four-hour span in a lawn chair, among the roses and mockingbirds, using lined index cards and a Blackwing pencil, for copying and recopying, rubbing out and writing anew, the scenes I had imagined in the morning. Foreword to Lolita: A Screenplay (1973)