My Writing Ritual
Each morning, I wake up long before the sun rises. After snoozing my alarm for far too long, I roll out of bed, wrap myself in a fuzzy bathrobe, and pad into the kitchen to put the kettle on to boil. As I wait for the familiar sound of heating water, I feed my dog. While she’s eating, I turn the heater on in the living room of my tiny apartment, light a candle, and dump grounds into the french press. By the time she’s finished off breakfast, the water is boiling. I swirl it into the press, stir, and then take the dog outside while the beans steep.
It’s winter and freezing cold here in northern Idaho, and even though I shiver while the dog picks her way through the snow to find the perfect spot, I love standing in the doorway and breathing in the crisp air. Everything is quiet—no one else is crazy enough to wake up at four in the morning—and there is nothing to distract me. The dog finished with her business, we hurry up the stairs and back into the apartment, now almost warm. I pour steaming coffee into my favorite mug (handmade by my little sister), the dog curls in front of the heater, I light a candle. And finally I sit down in my oversized leather chair and open my laptop to begin writing.
This is the morning ritual I have kept, more or less, for years now. I’ve changed apartments, states, schools, jobs. I upgraded my hand-me-down Mr. Coffee pot for a Ninja Brewer and ended up switching back to my trusty stainless steel french press. Sometimes I listen to music. I played the soundtrack from “Beasts of the Southern Wild” on repeat every time I worked on my story “Queen of the Swampwoods” (forthcoming in Bayou Magazine) over a period of nearly two years. I created a playlist that captured the mood of the novel-in-stories I’m currently writing, and listened to it almost every day for a year. Recently I’ve been working in silence.
Through all these changes, the heart of the routine has remained the same: to write while the rest of the world sleeps, and I am still in something of a dream state myself. To write before the pressures and distractions of the day begin, and before I have a chance to convince myself it’s all futile anyway, so why even bother.
Part of me envies the sort of creative genius who writes only when inspiration strikes him, and then for hours on end. But that isn’t me. Or pretty much anybody else. The vast majority of us have to be content with plodding along, laboring over the words that make the sentences that form the paragraphs that somehow end up turning into stories and even full-length books. And I think that adopting a consistent writing ritual is a great help to most of us in our efforts to keep plugging away and diligently giving ourselves to our craft.
Other Authors' Writing Rituals
It's something of a comfort and encouragement to know I’m not alone in thinking this. Over the years, many writers have shared their own personal writing rituals, ranging from the sensible and ordinary to the superstitious and even outlandish, and a great many of them emphasize the need for a daily routine. Below I’ve included quotes from interviews with famous authors, as well as stories from a few of my writer friends.
Ernest Hemingway: "I write every morning as soon after first light as possible."
Ernest Hemingway talked about his daily routine in an interview with George Plimpton. “When I am working on a book or a story I write every morning as soon after first light as possible. There is no one to disturb you and it is cool or cold and you come to your work and warm as you write. . . You write until you come to a place where you still have your juice and know what will happen next and you stop and try to live through until the next day when you hit it again."
Haruki Murakami: "I keep the routine every day without variation."
In an interview with The Paris Review, Haruki Murakami said he gets up at 4:00 a.m. every morning, writes for five or six hours, and then goes on a long run or swim before reading, listening to music, and going to bed at 9:00 p.m. “I keep to the routine every day without variation. The repetition itself becomes the important thing; it’s a form of mesmerism. I mesmerize myself to reach a deeper state of mind.”
Steve Amick: "There's something about being naked, frankly, that's automatically vulnerable."
Steve Amick, one of my instructors in the MFA program at Pacific University, wrote an entire novel from his bathtub, because it made him feel more in touch with his work. He constructed a desk, fitted to the dimensions of the tub, and wrote in longhand. When I asked him about this recently, he said, “[The first book] I did on the tub desk was mostly written in there because it was very nostalgic to a time in early childhood. . . I found that it was closer to a sleepy, dreamy, subconscious state of mind where you might easier access those memories, but also, it’s probably the most timeless place in the house. What I mean is, the water and tiles around you doesn’t look THAT much different than it might have in the 1960s, when I was little. And there’s something about being naked, frankly, that’s automatically vulnerable.”
Constance Renfrow: "I will keep returning to [a place] until the project is done."
My dear friend and writing partner, Constance Renfrow, says that she’s superstitious about her rituals. “If I get a lot of great writing done in one particular place (that corner of the library, that rock by the creek in the woods, my bed), I will keep returning to it until that project (or scene) is done.”
Caleb Warner: "Honestly I've come around to writing in the mornings."
My friend Caleb Warner, founder of All Is Vanity Press, says of his writing routine: “Honestly I’ve come around to writing in the mornings. Before anything else, before coffee, before even waking up really. You have to trick yourself. I’ve had a lot of productivity with these two tricks: writing first thing before I’m fully awake, in my PJs or nothing at all, as the case may be, and then sitting down and telling myself that I’m not going to work on the story directly, I’m just going to write some notes for it, in the hopes that actual scenes come out of the notes which I can use for a rough draft."
Tips For Finding Your Own Writing Ritual:
Pick a time. I think that the most important part of sticking to a writing routine is working at the same time each day. Just like with going to bed and getting up on a schedule, writing at the same time each day allows your mind and body to develop a consistent habit of work.
That time should probably be morning. Sure, everyone is different and not everyone is going to do best in the morning, but working very first thing seems to be a ritual many writers have found to be successful. Even if you don't think of yourself as a morning person, challenge yourself to at least give it a try for an extended period of time.
Write in a dream state. As you can see from the quotes above, being in a sort of dream state is an important part of many writers' creative processes. It allows you to access your subconscious and get words on the page without critiquing and criticizing your work as you go.
Create a space where you want to be. People tend to do better work when they're in a place they enjoy. Whether this means keeping fresh flowers on the table, lighting a candle, or holing up in a dark closet because your favorite thing is being totally free of distraction, find what works best for you. Nothing kills your writing time like simply not being able to sit still.
Be consistent. This might sound a bit redundant, but I don’t think I can overemphasize the importance of unvarying routine. Repetition helps you write day after day, whether you feel like you have anything to say or not. You simply think, “Ah, it is 4:00 a.m. (or noon, or midnight) and the only thing I do at this time is sit down and write.”
Be Patient With Yourself
Finding a writing ritual takes time, so don’t be hard on yourself if the first thing you try doesn’t seem to work. Just like you fiddle with a tricky word until you get it right, adjust your chair, your lighting, your clothes, etc. until you settle into a ritual, a routine, a habit that frees your mind from distractions and allows you to focus on the craft at hand.
Of course, the most beautiful writing ritual in the world is nothing compared to actually getting words on the page—which isn’t always as easy as it seems it ought to be. More on that next time, with tips and tricks for getting your work done when you really don't want to.