Crazy Facts about writing

Cherokee writing system

January 26, 2023Weirdo

The Cherokee writing system, one of the only examples in history of an official script being invented from scratch by a member of a non-literate group, was created by a man named Sequoyah. Within just 25 years of its creation, nearly 100% of the Cherokee population was literate, and the script served as inspiration for the creation of dozens of scripts used by indigenous communities around the world.

Handwriting in schools

January 18, 2023Weirdo

The introduction of the Common Core State Standards in 2010 led to many schools removing handwriting instruction, including cursive writing, from their curriculum as it was no longer a requirement for students to be proficient in it.

Putting spaces between written words…

May 24, 2021Weirdo

Putting spaces between written words wasn’t a thing until the 7th Century and didn’t become popular in Europe for another few hundred years (Romanauthorsthoughtyoucouldjustfigureitoutfromcontext).

Braille began as a military code…

March 3, 2021Weirdo

Braille began as a military code called “night writing.” Developed by the French army (1819) – soldiers could communicate at night without speaking / using candles. Louis Braille learned the code & developed the more user-friendly, optimized version of the Braille alphabet we know today.

Charles Dickens only worked…

May 2, 2018Weirdo

Charles Dickens only worked 9am to 2pm and wrote his 28 books and over 200 essays without working longer than 5 hours a day.

There is a 50,000 word novel that does n …

March 25, 2013March 25, 2013Weirdo

There is a 50,000 word novel that does not use the letter “E”.

Legendary Hollywood producer Hal Roach w …

January 15, 2013January 15, 2013Weirdo

Legendary Hollywood producer Hal Roach would employ someone called a “wildie” who was either an insane person or a drunk to sit in his writers’ room and spout crazy ideas whenever they had writer’s block.