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Column Writers - Non-Fiction

Writing Rituals
by Ferna Lary Mills
(Sept 2000)

While taking a recent on-line writing class, I was learning the importance of setting up a pre-writing ritual. Whether it involves meditation or just preparing your work space, it should be a personal ritual to help you get "into the mood" of writing. After I completed the lesson, I sat in retrospect trying to think of a ritual that would work for me, a novice writer. That's when it dawned on me, I already have a pre-writing ritual of my own!

Laughing, I sang to myself, "Na, na, na, na, na, na. I've already got one!"

Without actually realizing that I do it, I apparently treat myself like a little child preparing to go on a long trip. (Wonder what Freud would say to that?) After dinner, when the kids are busy and the house is finally quiet, my ritual begins.

First, I take the most important step. I make myself go to the bathroom! No more crying, "I have to go to the bathroom!" As a writer, I simply cannot think with a full bladder. I don't think that's what's referred to as the "think tank".

Next, I fix myself a tall glass of iced tea. No more crying, "I'm thirsty!" If I'm not careful, all my scenes take place in the heat of the desert instead of on the beach. Of course, in the winter I may substitute iced tea for hot tea. As long as my thirst stays quenched, my creative juices can still flow.

Then I give myself something to keep me preoccupied when I'm bored with the trip: a book of quotations. No more crying, "I'm bored!" When I'm stumped for ideas, I thumb through quotations. It serves as my creativity stimulus, giving me new ideas. That's so much better than ending up playing Solitaire on the computer for two hours, losing all track of time and thought. I used to take my "bored" time and sharpen all my pencils, but the noise was as irritating as a whining child in the back seat. I whine enough on my own.

Last, I put my clock on the top of my credenza. No more crying, "How much farther?". I began writing with a 10 minute timer. Along the way, I started making myself add 5 minutes to the timer each week. This helped me build up to my current hour of writing each evening. Sure, sometimes I go way over my obligatory hour and write into the wee hours of the morning. Other times I may spend twenty of those sixty minutes thumbing through my book of quotations. But, I'm a "writer" for at least an hour a day.

I guess the child in me needs these things fulfilled in order to "enjoy the trip". Now, if I can just figure out where I'm going!

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