She wrote everything by hand, of course. Not even a typewriter. All longhand, all in ink. Incredible amount of work...true of all writers in that era, of course. She wrote enough, fast enough, to support her family and even, later, provide them a degree of opulence. No wonder she had periodic breakdowns and finally died at 56--early for a woman who was never pregnant. (Pregnancy and childbirth were the main cause of early death in women; childbed fever killed one of her sisters.) Her mother lived to age 77; her father lived to be almost 90 (dying just a few days before Louisa did.)
I remember getting Little Women as a birthday present one year...though at the time I wasn't planning to be a writer, I certainly admired Jo more than the others. I was already trying to write stories (but didn't think it could ever make a living for me.) Irony strikes...yes, it can, if you go at it the way Louisa did (and I finally did) with complete concentration and determination. I spent too much time in those books being furious with the Aunt March sorts of characters and not enough noticing Jo's work habits.