Writing Rituals

Rituals. I never realized how beholden I was to ritual until I began to break from form. We all make them, and they seem so necessary. Sitting down to write required certain things for me. A fresh cup of coffee, a bottle of water sitting on my husky coaster, a fresh spin of a slab vinyl to fill the room with music, isolation, and no event scheduled afterward. The perfect setting and near impossible to obtain.

If all the stars align and my schedule is empty, and God is good to bless me with such an opportunity, I will take it. But that is seldom the case. These rituals, I realize, are excuses, excuses to not be writing, and if you hold on to them whatever they are, in the words of Warren Zevon, I will only slow you down. Somehow, by a miracle, I recognized this.

I broke the ritual and in an iconoclastic manner, shattered the false idol of the perfect writing bubble. Now I write in all the time in between events, and my productivity is increased. Any downtime provides opportunity. On a break at work, waiting in a car, lying in bed, the tools are there, and so is the drive. Only laziness prevents progress.

Do you think rituals around creativity are necessary? Am I wrong? What rituals do you have?