What are your writing rituals?
Writing rituals are cues that help trigger a regular writing habit. Here's what they are, why they work - and how to design your own.
Do you have specific behaviours, habits or actions you do when you’re writing? Things that help you get in the ‘zone’, or tell your brain that it’s time to write? Writing rituals can be anything from making coffee to using a particular notebook or pen. And they can help you form a regular writing habit – which will help you write your book.
Many research studies suggest that rituals can also help us regulate negative emotions, such as anxiety and stress – which are familiar to many writers. By giving you a starting point, writing rituals also give you the momentum and confidence to keep going, even when you’re not in the mood. And they can help you build a writing habit – without having to rely on willpower alone.
What is a writing ritual?
We’re not talking about drawing a pentagram, lighting a candle and sacrificing next door’s cat here. A writing ritual is simply an action, or sequence of actions, that you perform before settling down to write.
“We must create a climate and a series of actions that encourage the brain to show up to write each day.” – Steven Pressfield, The War of Art
A writing ritual could be as simple as making a coffee, opening your notebook or playing your favourite music. It’s about getting yourself into a space, physical and mental, where you’re in the ‘writing’ zone.
You may have a cumulative set of things you do that, together, tell your brain it’s time to write. Stephen King once described his writing rituals as follows:
“There are certain things I do if I sit down to write… I have a glass of water or a cup of tea. There’s a certain time I sit down, from 8:00 to 8:30, somewhere within that half hour every morning… I have my vitamin pill and my music, sit in the same seat, and the papers are all arranged in the same places. The cumulative purpose of doing these things the same way every day seems to be a way of saying to the mind, you’re going to be dreaming soon.”
A writing ritual can be a mundane habit that, on its own, doesn’t seem that important. But through repetition - and its scheduling in your routine as something you do before you write – it can become a powerful trigger to productivity.
How writing rituals help us build a writing habit
Adopting a daily writing habit is a tried and tested way to write a book. But it’s hard. You don’t always feel like writing – and relying on sheer willpower alone is tough. Writing rituals can make things easier, and get you off the starting blocks.
According to Charles Duhigg, there’s a three-step process to forming a habit: cue, trigger, reward. As he explains in his book, The Power of Habit:
“First, there is a cue, a trigger that tells your brain to go into automatic mode and which habit to use. Then there is the routine, which can be physical or mental or emotional. Finally, there is a reward, which helps your brain figure out if this particular loop is worth remembering for the future. Over time, this loop… becomes more and more automatic. The cue and reward become intertwined until a powerful sense of anticipation and craving emerges.”
Writing rituals are:
Cues. The writing habit you desire to create is the middle, ‘routine’ part of the process, according to Duhigg’s model. Your writing rituals are the first step: your ‘cue’ or trigger to get you started. And don’t forget your ‘reward’ to reinforce the loop. As well as telling your brain to go into automatic mode (essential for habit-building), cues also put you in the right frame of mind. Just as your bedtime routine (such as brushing your teeth) tells your brain that it’s time to sleep, your writing ritual will tell your brain that it’s time to write.
Preparation. Rituals make it easier to get started than relying on willpower alone. Say you’ve decided to start a morning habit of exercising, doing yoga or drinking water. Packing your gym bag the night before makes it more automatic to take your morning exercise. Laying out your yoga mat is a visual reminder to do some stretches. And a glass of water on your bedside makes it easy to rehydrate first thing in the morning. Similarly, preparatory writing rituals such as laying out your research materials, having your Scrivener document already open on your laptop or tidying away non-writing work from your desk are effective because they start the process for you. They reduce the inertia that comes with starting anything. And, once you start, it’s easier to keep going.
Flow. Writing rituals can also help you get into a ‘flow’ state – that magical sense of total absorption in a task, where you lose track of time, have a laser-like focus and productivity seems effortless. They don’t guarantee it – but, by overcoming inertia and getting you started, writing rituals make flow more likely. They get you into the right mental space more quickly, so you can get on with your writing.
How to design your own writing ritual
You may already have a writing ritual without realising it. Toni Morrison described discovering her writing ritual in a 1993 interview for The Paris Review as follows:
“I, at first, thought I didn’t have a ritual, but then I remembered that I always get up and make a cup of coffee while it is still dark – it must be dark – and then I drink the coffee and watch the light come… And I realized that for me this ritual comprises my preparation to enter a space that I can only call nonsecular…”
Writing rituals don’t have to involve things you do at your desk, or to get yourself in front of your laptop. Not all writing takes place in a Word doc; your writing ritual might be going for a walk! Here are some ideas.
Prepare your space. Writing rituals help you enter your physical and mental space for writing. A writing ritual can be as simple as making an early-morning cup of coffee, like Toni Morrison, and using it as a mental cue to enter your writing space. You may want to prepare your physical space too, by getting into the habit of tidying your office, or setting up your workstation in a way that suits your writing. Tidying up is a great ritual! It helps put you in a frame of mind that says: “I’m about to start writing.”
Go for a walk. Maybe your ritual involves getting away from your desk before you start writing. Lots of authors go on a ‘plot walk’ to help work out their structure, resolve a tricky scene, or consider a character. Use your daily walk to think about your current writing, and plan what you will write that day.
Meditate. Many people start the day by meditating. The numerous benefits include greater calm and focus. Like walking, some of your best ideas may pop into your head when it’s ‘empty’, and you’re not trying too hard. But an added benefit is its adoption as a ritual that can cue you into writing. Try meditating – and then writing immediately afterwards.
Play music. Does music distract you, or help you concentrate? Everyone’s different – but music can be a great way to get you into the right mental state to work on your book. You might have a particular playlist, genre or artist that you associate with writing. I once went away for a ‘writing week’ to work on a business book, and stayed in a place with a CD player and one CD. So I now associate Al Green with writing! You might also create a playlist for each new project you work on. This can work especially well for historical fiction, if you choose music from the period you’re writing about. Hitting the ‘play’ button on your writing playlist can be a powerful trigger.
Significant objects. Objects have had an important part to play in rituals throughout human history. Do you have a favourite notebook or special pen you like to use? Or a significant paperweight? In 2007, Ian McEwan confessed that he’d taken a few pebbles from the Dorset coastline that inspired his book On Chesil Beach, and kept them on his desk as he wrote it. (Inspiring, but also illegal - he returned them once he realised!) While I use an app for time-tracking client projects, I use an hourglass with bright green sand as a timer when I’m doing creative writing. I bought it from Foyles bookshop years ago, and it’s a pleasing object that sits on my desk and signals that I’m writing.
Adapt your existing rituals. What daily habits or rituals do you already have that could become writing rituals? Think about your existing daily routine. If you can adapt something you already do, it will make it even easier to get started. For example, do you always make a cup of tea at the same time each morning? Or walk the dog? Or meditate? Find something that you already do, almost without thinking about it – and see if you can piggyback onto that.
Your writing rituals will be unique to you. If you don’t already have one, you might want to try some of these ideas. Experiment, but choose something that works realistically with your daily routine and lifestyle. Choose a time of day, chose an action, repeat it daily – and see what works for you.
A writing habit can be a hard thing to adopt, stick to – or even start. Writing rituals can help you get started, and lead to levels of productivity you didn’t know you had.
If you have writing rituals, or ideas for writing rituals, that other writers may find useful and inspiring, please share them in the comments below!