How to Create a Pre-Writing Ritual That Can Seduce Creativity to Your side
By: Banchiwosen Woldeyesus, Blogger Ethiopia
Tags: Creativity, Writers On Writing, Writing Tips, Creative Process, Writing

How to Create a Pre-Writing Ritual That Can Seduce Creativity to Your side

Photo by Jonathan Borba from Pexels

All writers need certain things: inspiration, creativity, dedication, some measure of talent. But there’s one thing that’s perhaps more important than all these elements combined — one thing that can help you become a productive writer. And that thing is a writing ritual.

Every writer who wants to achieve their goals must have one.

A pre-writing ritual has many benefits, but perhaps my favorite is this: it can make you feel good. And when you feel good, you can create more and create a smile on your face.

Looking back through 2020, the most common thing about my creativity is my daily creativity ritual. Practicing a pre-writing ritual every day has become a good habit. Before I sit down to write, I get out of my pajamas and take a shower. I put on decent clothes as if I’m going to work to teach my students. I brush my teeth. I wash my face. I put on lipstick. I clear my desk of its clutter. I open the window. I water my plants. I might even put on perfume.

I don’t even wear perfume when I go to work. But I put on perfume in an attempt to seduce creativity back to my side.

This pre-writing ritual helps me “tune in” to me and enhancing my creativity. It helps me to become more decisive about creating.

If you’re struggling to maintain a regular writing practice, creating a pre-writing ritual might help. Creativity rituals are especially relevant for all of us struggling to maintain our daily creative practice.

Here’s what a famous eighteenth-century novelist said about seducing his creativity through a writing ritual…

If a man dresses like a gentleman, every one of his ideas stands presented to his imagination.

The British essayist, Laurence Sterne, has written a marvelous cure for writer’s block in his novel, Tristram Shandy.

The cure is something you never expect.

In Sterne’s novel, he writes about how the main character, Tristram, cures a writer’s block by seducing creativity to his side. Whenever Tristram felt like he could not write a single sentence on the page, he would dress up in his finest regalia and act all princely, thus attracting ideas and inspiration to his side on account of his fabulous ensemble.

Specifically, here’s what Tristram claims he would do when he was feeling “stupid” and blocked, and when his thoughts would “rise through (his) pen.”

Instead of sitting there in a funk, staring hopelessly at the empty page, he would leap from the chair, get a fresh razor, and give himself a nice clean shave. After that, he would engage in this elaborate transformation. He would change his shirt, put on a better coat, and his topaz ring upon his finger.

In one sentence, he dresses from one end to the other.

In his own words,

“A man cannot dress, but his ideas hide at the same time; and if he dresses like a gentleman, every one of his ideas stands presented to his imagination.”

That was a pre-writing ritual by Tristram that helped him create consistently.

What is yours? What creative rituals do you have around creativity?

I have a writer friend who dances to a piece of African music before she sits down to write. “I’m seducing my creativity,” she tells me when I ask her why she dances before she creates.

My writer friend is dancing like Tristram leaped from his chair to seduce creativity.

What do you do to seduce creativity to your side? Why not practice creating a pre-writing ritual?

A go-to pre-writing ritual directs us. It contextualizes our creative experience. A Harvard business review shows what you feel and creativity are closely related. How do we want to feel when we create?

I don’t know about you, but I want to feel good when I write.

Creativity is never an accident. You can win the lottery and become rich overnight, but no one has ever mastered their craft by chance. So if you want to be a professional writer, creativity rituals are important.

I have been a professional writer for 2 and a half years. During that time, the one common thing that helps me produce content with consistency is my pre-writing ritual.

So how can you set the stage for the art of creating? How can you establish a pre-writing ritual that’s right for you? One that will help you dedicate yourself to your writing and be as productive as possible?

Let’s look at 3 ways you can create creative rituals…