What do you do in the way of ritual to tone-up your creativity?
Want to know what folks like Ernest Hemingway, Beethoven, Benjamin Franklin, Franz Kafka, Flaubert, W. H. Auden, Joyce Carol Oates, Anthony Trollope, Sylvia Plath, Friedrich Schiller, Marcel Proust, and many others, did?
You could buy the book Daily Rituals: How Great Minds Make Time, Find Inspiration And Get To Work, by Mason Currey or, for the quick fix, check out an article in The Guardian, Rise and shine: the daily routines of history’s most creative minds.
A topic like this could easily be mishandled in today’s fractured, frenzied world; yet, while I haven’t read the book, the article has some valuable information.
There is the caveat, “there’s no one way to get things done”, then six “lessons” are derived from folks’ rituals (all of which may be successfully avoided :-) :
1. Be a morning person
2. Don’t give up the day job
3. Take lots of walks
4. Stick to a schedule
5. Practise strategic substance abuse
6. Learn to work anywhere
Each of those is referenced to a famous creative person…
I’d love to have your feedback in the Comments. About the book, if you’ve read it, about the article, or about you’re own creative rituals…
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Rituals are the only way I get by. Habit is a strong motivator and having good ones allows me to go on autopilot and think while accomplishing things. Benjamin Franklin is my hero, by the way. He was a genius on so many levels.
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Ben was a Blast :-)
And, that autopilot idea is valuable—just think about driving a car—couldn’t do it if you had to think about each step all the time, right?
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I have to admit here to a kind of addiction of my own – I love reading this kind of book, I am forever fascinated with the philosophy and process of writing and creativity. I have bookshelves groaning with books like this at home, most are not really worth reading, except occasionally I come across a gem and it is this rare find that keeps me looking again to feed my addiction. I think this book may give me a fix. The very fact that I began to feel strung out when I realised that neither the e-book or actual hardback would actually be available in Australia until 24th October confirms this for me.
I do have writing rituals. I have to meditate for 10 mins at least and read some pages of a well written novel before I can enter my inner world. If I miss any part of that process things usually do not go well ;-) This means it usually takes me half an hour to get into a writing session. I regret this but the ritual must be observed. I’m glad to see from this book that I have company – thanks for this post :-)
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Only because I know you personally, Jane, I’ll respond to you comment personally:
All “sacred” acts can seem like addictions…
Remember the poems of Rumi—all that wine :-)
And, being distant from the source of the Sacred can certainly induce a strung-out feeling—some folks, in the old traditions, get to wailing and gnashing of teeth…
I’d rather call these rituals our protection against love-sickness…
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I usually go through life on autopilot, with the exception of thinking about something to write. When I builds up enough, if life doesn’t get in the way, I explode with attempts to write. sometimes it is just a pie in the face, but at least I’m baking…
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Good on ya, Barb :-)
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Rituals make that much more time to be creative, a free mind, open to the creative spirit.
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Absolutely, Barb :-)
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