The Mystery Of Agatha Christie...!

Every great writer has a style all their own and sometimes some strange little habits to go along with that style.

Agatha Christie was certainly one of the better known mystery writers and, by some standards, some of her habits might seem a little different. I love to read, and a good mystery is right up there with my favorite topics, so it's always fun to find out something different about the stars of their profession.

Agatha Christie

Photo credit: Steve Hopson

She wrote 66 detective novels and 14 collections of short stories, but Agatha Christie didn’t write at a desk. As a matter of fact, she never even had an office—she wrote Murder on the Orient Express, for example, in the hotel room pictured above. She did use a typewriter, though; for Christie, typing itself was part of the writing process.

This writing process of Christie’s was often disjointed. She wrote wherever the mood struck, sometimes at a kitchen table or in her bedroom. Christie sometimes started writing long before she even had a plot for her stories, and she generally started with the details of the murder scene itself before moving on.

Nearly all the writers I've read about have certain routines, almost rituals, that they follow. I can understand that. It's part of the creative process that helps them create. Anything that helps the creative process is a good thing in my book!

Coffee in the kitchen this morning. The weather is just too strange to trust, ya know?