Do you have a writing ritual? It doesn’t have to be ornate or blustery. Do you make sure you have your favorite ink pen? Do you turn on music?

Maybe you have to be sitting at your keyboard at just the right angle. Maybe you clean your area, first. Have a seasonal drink, iced tea, coffee, apricot brandy at your side?

Do the household animals have to be outside? On your lap? Phone turned off? Headphones and mic to dictate? Favorite browser for research? Favorite word processor? A “wrist snappin red rubber band.”  

I like a cold drink, my favorite pen, (missing well over a month) Office 360 Word, (used to be yWriter but the new updates have made Word a true adventure) no music, (it is distracting) and I have to be sitting at my laptop at just the right angle.

Five Famous Authors And Their Strange Writing Rituals

Some of history’s most celebrated authors swore by unusual and bizarre rituals. It’s possible we owe many great pieces of literature to the fact that they were so meticulous in maintaining these strange habits.

Truman Capote

The creative genius behind In Cold Blood, Capote was a superstitious man. His writing rituals often involved avoiding particular things. Namely, hotel rooms with phone numbers including “13,” starting or ending a piece of work on a Friday, and tossing more than three cigarette butts in one ashtray.

 Ernest Hemingway

In stark contrast to James Joyce, Hemingway was a firm believer in standing while writing.While working on The Old Man and The Sea,he followed a strict regimen: “done by noon, drunk by three.” This entailed waking up at dawn, writing furiously while standing at the typewriter, and eventually making his way to the local bar to get inebriated.

Join us in the Writer’s Chatroom Sunday at 7PM EDT and we will talk about our own personal Writing Rituals.

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