As a writer, you need a ritual.\u00a0 I\u2019d recommend staying away from anything poor-hygiene related, and most states tend to frown on animal sacrifice, but whatever oddball habit you need to cultivate to get your mind right, latch onto it, and repeat it over and over and over again.<\/p>\n
When it comes to your writing routine, you need to be as superstitious as a major league baseball player on a hitting streak.\u00a0 Think back to a time when you went on a particularly productive writing binge.\u00a0 Your fingers flew across the keys, your characters were equal parts witty, insightful, and funny, and the voice of self-doubt that so often whispers in our ear was silent for a change.<\/p>\n
It was a good day.\u00a0 Now go and recreate that experience.<\/p>\n
Maybe you were wearing your favorite Bardalicious t-shirt, or your desk lamp was at an angle that created a spotlight around your autographed picture of Captain Jean-Luc Picard.\u00a0 The one where we wrote, \u201cThe Ferengi are punk-ass bitches! \u00a0I made it so!\u201d\u00a0 Whatever was going on from a physical standpoint, do it again.<\/p>\n
Now, will wearing your Hemingway boxers inside out and on your head make you a better writer?\u00a0 No. But if that\u2019s what you were doing when you went on your creative bender, repeating that detail every time you write will eventually transform you into a literary version of Pavolv\u2019s dog.\u00a0 You\u2019ll roll on those Winnie-the-Pooh knee highs, and the little imp in your head who churns out ideas will know it\u2019s time to go to work.<\/p>\n
If for some reason you haven\u2019t had one of these satisfying creative outbursts yet, I recommend the \u201cfake it \u2018til you make it\u201d approach.\u00a0 Choose a ritual, make it fun, and keep hammering away at it until it works.\u00a0 It will.\u00a0 Eventually your imp will get the message.\u00a0 You just need to be dedicated to the cause.<\/p>\n
For my money, I think the best routine involves comedy. \u00a0Good humor is my Barry White.\u00a0 If I read or watch something that gives me a good case of the giggles, I am in the mood . . . to write.<\/p>\n
My office is laden with silly little totems like a statue of Bigfoot, a collection of Easter Island heads (not to scale), and pen that\u2019s shaped like Jesus, only to be used by the \u201cReligious Write.\u201d\u00a0 It\u2019s an atmosphere that says don\u2019t take this too seriously.\u00a0 It\u2019s just words on paper.\u00a0 If you\u2019re not having fun, then why the hell are you doing it in the first place?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As a writer, you need a ritual.\u00a0 I\u2019d recommend staying away from anything poor-hygiene related, and most states tend to frown on animal sacrifice, but whatever oddball habit you need to cultivate to get your mind right, latch onto it, and repeat it over and over and over again. When it comes to your writing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[202,527,950,959],"class_list":["post-582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mechanics","tag-comedy","tag-humor","tag-ritual","tag-routine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/582","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=582"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/582\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}