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Top 5 writing rituals

10/16/2017

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Hemingway wrote standing in front of his typewriter. Twain and many others are famous for writing in bed. What’s with weird writing rituals? Is it like a baseball player never changing his winning socks? Or do we just feel more creative when we’re also a little eccentric?
 
For me, the rituals put my mind in the right space to write. And if I skip one—especially number 4—The word count suffers. So I’ve learned to respect the process, which for me is:
 

  1. Writing in public. Sounds a little dirty. J For me, writing at home is filled with the dogs, the kids, the house, the laundry, etc. If I write in a public space, I avoid those distractions. Friends and I meet at a local coffeehouse or café and write for hours on designated writing days. A public place has the advantage of providing the white noise I need to concentrate.
  2. Writing with accountability. I write with friends, either in person or through messaging. We share our word count. We razz each other for posting on social media during our writing time. It’s so easy to get sucked into research or socializing, so as a group we hold each other accountable for putting words on the page and not on Facebook. I also post counts in my calendar so I know when I’ve been naughty and when I’ve been nice. J
  3. Writing by Timer. Writing sprints changed my writing life. We set the timer and write as fast as our fingers will move across the keyboard. When the time is up, we share our word count. My productivity has increased tremendously, and I’ve noticed that if I’m writing on my own—without a timer—the words are harder to put on the page.
  4. Writing with Music. Big purple headsets that block out the sales meeting going on in the next booth. Really loud and fast music. My current fav is Fall Out Boy. I let it play in the background while I’m typing. Like the timer, this motivates me. If I don’t have the music, then I chase the words rather than have them come to me.
  5. Writing by Deadline. The muse is quite fickle. I need an extra push sometimes, so I write to deadlines, either real ones or ones I create. Without a deadline, my muse takes a walk on a beach and doesn’t come back for two months.
 
Those are the rituals I follow on a good writing day. Add caffeine, and I’m good for at least eight hours. :)
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    Funny story. During the Mercury Retrograde Incident in September 2016, Cindy's original blog disappeared. Five years, gone in a random act of chaos. Now she gets to repopulate her blog world one post at a time. Join her if you dare. :)

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