Rituals

In his book, The War of Art, Steven Pressfield talks a bit about creating rituals around your writing practice. He has a short series of things he does before sitting down to write. I've heard similar things from Stephen King and artist, Walter Russell. I've been lucky in life that I don't necessarily have to do my writing in the same place, like an office, but over the years I have realized that my best writing does happen in the morning and early afternoon from about 9 am until about 2 pm. So, I've tried my best to free up that chunk of time in my life to devote to writing. Occasionally, that means I have to leave my house and write at Starbucks (I always feel like a fraud when I'm there, however, because I feel like I'm flaunting my writing practice). I've also ended up writing at the library, in a park, at my mom's, or in my car. Location doesn't seem as important to me as time. So, I'm going to create a few traveling rituals I can take with me. One will be a brief period of meditation before I begin. Another will be a wrist band I usually put on before I write as a reminder that I'm about to get down to some serious work that may require some mental sweating. And the third will be turning off my wifi. I'll let you know how it goes.