Finding Your Perfect Writing Rituals
By Kim Bullock | July 24, 2023 |
A few months ago, I joined a Pilates studio. An odd choice given that my elementary school gym teacher once accused me of not trying when my fingertips stopped at knee level during an attempt to reach down and touch my toes. The only thing worse than my flexibility is my balance.
My last plié was executed in 1978 with all the grace of a drunk hippo. Repeating the performance in 2023 while standing atop a Bosu ball might have made me question my life choices if I weren’t grappling with the even greater challenge of following verbal instructions for an hour. Processing and implementing what’s being said forces the 562 open tabs in my mind to shut down.
It’s meditation for the ADHD brain. A system reboot that I can schedule and replicate at will.
There’s a ritual to Pilates that I find soothing even when the music is loud or my hamstrings scream for mercy. Bridging always comes after footwork. Leg straps always come right before final rolldown. I can now often anticipate how one movement will flow into the next. Nothing is expected of me beyond doing what I’m told. I now understand why my older daughter, back in her dancing days, found repetitive barre exercises relaxing.
My anxiety level has plummeted, and I now realize how much I miss the rituals that once helped my creative process. I composed my last novel while seated in a Morris chair built the same year in which my book was set. A candle burned beside me, some timeless, nature-y scent like sweetgrass and sage. I drank tea out of a mug bearing the old Roycroft logo and kept my cell phone on the opposite side of the house to prevent 21st century distractions. If words didn’t flow I’d twirl my great-grandfather’s old paintbrush between my fingers.
On some level I must have understood that those rituals were novel specific because I drifted away from all of them when I started my current WIP. I inadvertently hobbled myself by not coming up with new ones to combat the sensory overload of living in a world on the brink of collapse. Balance, serenity, and the ability to fully escape into story have never been more important, but for many of us hyper-empathetic folks, new strategies to get there might be in order.
A step-by-step guide for finding your personal writing rituals
First, choose your setting carefully
I mean YOUR setting, not the novel’s. Close your eyes and picture your ideal writing environment, not necessarily the one you currently have. Would you work in the same place every day or change it up? Use a computer or old-fashioned pen and paper? Recliner, office chair, or standing? If you work at a desk or table, would this be in a room with other people around or alone behind a closed door? How much work space do you need to keep everything you want close at hand? Do you prefer minimalism, organized clutter, or outright chaos? Would you face a window or a wall?
Give yourself as many of these things as you possibly can.
Second, TLC for your senses – ALL your senses
Visual
- Google ‘color and mood’ and you will find a plethora of information about how much emotions are influenced by the colors we surround ourselves with. How do the colors in your work environment make you feel?
- Does the view outside your window inspire you or lead to more daydreaming than writing?
- Consider your best lighting. Natural, soft yellow, bright daylight, candlelight?
- Consider adding visual representations of your story. A postcard or souvenir from the novel’s setting? A photo of someone resembling your favorite character? Relevant reference books? Works of art?
- If you use a storyboard to plot your WIP, hang it up like a painting.
- Combat imposter syndrome by including visual reminders of your identity as a writer. Photos with other authors, framed awards, craft or personally inscribed books, a special journal or pen, a badge or mug from a writer’s conference?
Auditory
- What background noise, if any, helps you focus? Muffled conversations? Music? A fan? White noise? Nature sounds? Brain waves? A snoring dog?
- Is there a time of day that will best give you the preferred auditory environment?
- Consider putting your phone in Do Not Disturb mode.
- Consider making playlists featuring your character’s favorite songs and write to that.
Olfactory
- Does the scent of a certain flower remind you of your story? A candle? Incense? Essential Oil? (Some of this is toxic to pets, so consider that before use.)
- What kind of perfume or cologne would your character wear? What soap would they use?
- Is there a scent that would go along with your character’s profession or hobby?
- What smells bring you back to an especially peaceful or happy time in your life?
Gustatory
- What kind of tea, coffee, soda, or adult beverage might your character enjoy? Drink that.
- Does your character have a favorite snack or sweet you can indulge in?
- Make your character’s favorite meal or type of food for dinner.
Tactile
- Do you work best in lounge clothes or something appropriate for leaving the house?
- Do you have a favorite sweater or blanket you can drape over yourself?
- Is your desk/chair positioned in a way where you can have a fan blow on you or avoid it, depending on your preference?
- Is there something you can touch or hold nearby that reminds you of your story? (I used small rocks I picked up from places featured in my last novel, but sadly forgot to pick one up on my last visit to Maine, where my current WIP is set.)
Bring it all together
You may work best in the early morning, sitting by the window in a coffee shop, drinking a matcha latte, half listening to the sound of a dozen muffled conversations while carrying a foreign coin in your pocket.
Or, maybe, you write by candlelight at 1 AM, facing a watercolor of an Italian hill town, a mug of chamomile tea by your side, a purring cat on your lap, fingertips occasionally tapping against a shard of Roman pottery you unearthed from a farm field on your last visit to the Old Country.
There are endless ways to create writing rituals that feel personal, both to you and your specific story. Especially for the neurospicy among us, doing so can help focus our minds, set our intentions, and get more words onto the page.
What are your writing rituals? Any good tips I have missed?
Kim (she/her) has an M.A. in English from Iowa State University. She writes mainly historical fiction, though has also contributed non-fiction articles to historical and Arts and Crafts publications in both the United States and Canada. She has just finished The Oak Lovers, a novel based on the rather colorful life of her great-grandfather, landscape painter Carl Ahrens.
[coffee]
Hi Kim, as a person who has moved a few times in the last ten years, where you decide your office or work place will be can certainly vary. Having good light, a window with a view…is a must. I have never been a coffee-shop creator, but I have written pages in my car, while my son was taking his guitar or saxophone lessons. Now my environment is quiet, with a view of the garden. Has that improved my work? I actually think it has. That and reading WU, taking classes with Donald Maass, and of course reading books and more books.
Hi Elizabeth – I recently did a re-haul of my office. I had been working in a different (modern) chair since moving my office into what had once been my college daughter’s room. I finally had to admit it wasn’t working for me because the weight of the laptop was killing my knees. It felt like a bedroom in there, not an office. I now have a desk, good chair, and shelves for easy access to my craft books. Art, too. I have room to spread out and try to keep my work space free of unnecessary clutter. It’s been working great for me!
Kim, thanks for sharing these helpful suggestions on writing rituals. When I moved to Rhode Island two years ago, I lost my most productive writing spot, the local Starbucks. I found a new coffee place conducive to writing, where the staff doesn’t care if I hang around for a couple of hours. My choice of music is alternative (Radiohead, Wilco, The National, and a few other bands). I don’t use visuals, but I should. Hope you are well. Thanks again for this post.
It’s definitely harder to have visuals if you aren’t working from home! I wish I could work to music, but I find that I’m listening to lyrics and I can’t hold those words and mine both in my head. I do have playlists for my characters that I listen to at other times. The teenager has similar taste to me, so that isn’t hard! (And no, her tastes aren’t off for the age. My 17 year old and I have the same top artist on Spotify – that would be Noah Kahan. He’s Indie folk, with some of the best lyrics and bridges I’ve ever heard. My 22 year old also loves him, too. We are happy for him that he suddenly got famous enough to play the American Airlines Center, but do wish seeing him live when we could stand a few feet away.
Thank you for these wonderful, thoughtful tips!
My Muse, I’m quite sure, would prefer to write *in* an Italian hill town. Alas, I have never been able to give her that.
Pilates has always intrigued me but there are very few studios here, and the equipment is so expensive and bulky. Good for you for trying it, though. I bet you feel stronger and more assured!
As for writing locations, I must be the most boring person in the world. As long as it’s quiet or I have access to white noise, and provided I have a comfortable ladder-type chair where I can prop my feet up, I do best in carrell-like setting. Visual busyness distracts me.
But I agree it’s important to be a student of your own process, and figure out what’s likely to make you safe enough to be bold in your writing choices. Hope you find the setup you currently need, Kim!
Hi Jan, – I so wish I had the money and space to have a reformer machine! I have not seen pounds drop off so far, but I can tell I’ve grown much stronger. For the first time in my life, I can touch my toes any time I want. Yesterday I was able to balance on one leg standing on the flat side of a Bosu ball and NOT hold on to the ballet barre for dear life. The best thing, though, is the way my anxiety level plummeted. My therapist actually asked what I’m doing differently. This has been the best thing ever for my mental health.
I use brown noise or brain waves with a rain sound in the foreground. Can’t do music of any sort. I face a wall and at the moment there is nothing on it at eye level. I try to clean my desk up daily because the clutter is distracting.
The biggest thing for me is definitely minimizing sensory things that unpleasant. I can’t be in uncomfortable clothes. No tags! No ticking clocks. No tapping of dog claws on the floor. (Yes, I do have Sensory Processing Disorder, and very likely undiagnosed ADHD.)
Great post, Kim! I ‘lost’ my office during Covid and moved into my garden shed, which is tiny but suits my needs just fine. I do much of what you suggest, but one thing I’ve found about myself over the years is that any type of view is too distracting, so my muse and I face a wall. Sometimes that wall has notes and images related to my story, sometimes it is bare, but there’s never anything too distracting on it. My friend recently scored a beautiful house that overlooks the water and set his home office up so that it overlooks the ocean. I am jealous, but know I could never get anything done there!
I would kill for a She-Shed. I can’t do a view either! I currently face a wall with absolutely nothing on it at eye level. There are shelves above. One thing I lack, and so wish I didn’t, is a stone from Maine. I lived there most of my childhood and never picked one up. I didn’t realize when I was last there that I was going to return to this story, and so I neglected to pick one up! I don’t know why, but holding something that came from the place I’m writing about actually helps.
Kim, I’m a lucky pup, in that I’ve had a vintage (’66 Globetrotter) Airstream as my office for more than 10 years. It faces out to mostly open fields, where I occasionally see deer, bobcats, coyotes and wild turkeys.
And yes, those sights can interrupt my writing, but that’s OK. The trailer’s also where I nap and daydream. Right now I’m running a Stream choice in my Mac’s Hearing app, that helps with the tinnitus that’s really been bugging me lately.
Withal, I’m ready to be sent to an Italian hill town as soon as I can pack.
I’d love an Italian hill town, too, but right now I’m happy to settle just for getting the hell out of Texas for a bit. Visiting Vaughn Roycroft in Michigan next week, both daughters in tow! :-)
Thanks Kim. Any kind of physical exercise makes us better at writing. All that oxygen goes to the brain too. After morning Mass and some free writing out on the back porch, I take care of the household chores and pets, and then head to my home office. Ahem, sometimes it can take me all morning to get to my office because you know, there’s music and books and a husband and sometimes kids… I enjoy writing in the quiet afternoon hours. Then it’s time for fixing supper and since it’s summer, some time to play in the warm Atlantic ocean. Maybe a bit of writing later in the evening but we enjoy sitting back out on the porch to read.
Even though I have a peaceful writing life, I still fantasize about writing retreats with no responsibilities. So glad you’ll escape the Texas heat with a visit to a fellow-writer, and WUer. Enjoy every moment!