Writer's cramp

The recording of their tales is no more than a matter of ears and fingers. There are only two fates I dread—deafness and writer's cramp.

"The following boys will go in to extra lesson this afternoon and next Wednesday," it began. And "the following boys" numbered four hundred. "Bates must have got writer's cramp," said Clowes, as he read the huge scroll.

Christmas dividend checks and checks covering Christmas presents to his employees were always signed by him. . . . He had writer's cramp by the time he finished.

Henry James, after he suffered an attack of writer's cramp, began to dictate to a typist.