What's Your Type?
Perhaps you can model it after this famous author.
Howdy! It’s Joey, back with more Fun Fact Friyay. This fact will give you goosebumps, and that’s a guarantee.
R.L. Stine, the author of the Goosebumps book series, types all his books with only one finger.
In last week’s issue, I made a passing reference to Goosebumps. This series was a massive influence on my childhood. R.L. Stine has been cranking out his series since July 1992, when Welcome to Dead House and Stay Out of the Basement hit bookshelves.
The original run of Goosebumps books consists of 62 titles. But there are plenty of other spinoffs, including Goosebumps Most Wanted, Goosebumps SlappyWorld, and Goosebumps Series 2000. Remember when the year 2000 seemed like a future that was way off in the distance? Ha!
My favorite collection was Give Yourself Goosebumps, otherwise known as the choose your own ending books. If you’ve never read one, the first few pages progress as normal, and then you’re offered some kind of decision. “To walk through the door, head to page 43. Prefer to take the window? Turn to page 62.”
I have vivid memories of reading through these horror tales, putting a bookmark on the page I didn’t choose. Then, when the route I did take came to an end, I could easily hop back and see if the other decision would have been better.
Did that result in the book sometimes having a dozen bookmarks? You bet it did. It was a work of art.
Stine would also be Run DMC levels of tricky in that sometimes both of your decisions would lead to your character’s demise. Typically, the book only had one or two “good” endings, and it was a treat to pull it off on the first read-through.
To date, Goosebumps has sold over 400 million copies across the catalog. It’s been turned into a TV series and also received the silver-screen treatment via two film adaptations starring Jack Black. I only just watched the first movie a few years back, and it was delightful!
I’m typing this edition of Fun Fact Friyay using all ten of my fingers. I grew up in the Mavis Beacon era, and we took typing classes in middle school. Plus, you know, I very much enjoy writing, and a lot of that is done digitally.
Quick sidebar to encourage you to journal or write in an actual notebook or real piece of paper from time to time, too.
R.L. Stine, though? He never learned how to type properly. He began his authoring career by using only his left index finger, and…well, he just never stopped typing that way.
Back in 2015, Stine responded to a now-deleted tweet on Twitter (hey, it was still Twitter back then) and acknowledged that he only uses one finger to type his books.
“That finger has written over 300 books. Hope it holds up,” he added.
Stine has continued writing books—the next Goosebumps release is coming out on August 4. And in an interview earlier this year, he confirmed that he does, in fact, still type with just his lone index finger.
“I never learned how to type, and I’m totally left-handed,” he said. He then held up his index finger. “Look, it’s totally bent. This is what I sacrificed for my art. The finger’s ruined.”
As someone who has a permanently bent pinky finger thanks to a basketball injury, I can empathize with Stine. I haven’t sold 400 million books (yet…though you’re welcome to add to that tally here!), though I hope I’ve entertained some people along the way.
Whether or not you enjoy a good scare, we can all appreciate working toward something we love, even if it’s not the conventional way of doing it.
And I’ll be darned if that doesn’t give me goosebumps.