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November 8
“The writing life is defined by the succession of choices you make, primary among them whether or not you will write. You honor your writing space by entering it with this mantra: ‘I am ready to work.’ You enter, grow quiet, and vanish into your writing.” A Writer’s Space: Make Room to Dream, to Work, to Write by Eric Maisel
Do you have any rituals you do when it comes to writing? Like, above, do you have a mantra? Some writers had some interesting rituals, you can read about 20 of them here. My favorite, by far, was that Victor Hugo would ask his valet to take his clothes and hide them somewhere, thus forcing him to stay naked in his home and work. Now that's dedication.
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Rhino Love
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It's kind of a paradox. Last year I was writing a play and finishing my thesis and it was like I was literally chained to the desk (I don't have a desk where I can work and be alone because it's covered in stuff and I didn't have time to clean it up because you know, I've got 3 kids and there's only so much time in the day and so there's piles of stuff and more piles and I don't have time because I want to write. This is a vicious cycle.). There is no space for my writing. No psychic space. No physical space. And yet, I'm writing in the most visible place in the house. The kitchen. There's something about this that reminds me of Jane Austen or Virginia Woolf or I don't know. This is exactly why I'm writing the play I'm writing.
But it's true. I need to take responsiblity for my part in it. I've been slowly taking 5-10 minutes here and there to make a space for myself.
I have a friend whose ritual is so complicated that by the time she finishes, she doesn't have time to write. It's complicated.
Go Rhino, go !
I've been working on creating one at my house. I didn't know about the book, or the quote. Love the quote...will look for the book.
but...not until December :-)
Yesterday didn't work out. AGAIN. I was supposed to get set up on weight machines at the gym, and the trainer never showed up. So my afternoon was a nonstop chain of work, gym, dinner, change litterboxes, shower, feed cats, collapse. It was after 9:30 by collapse time. And writing didn't happen. sadness. But it WILL happen. I'm so doing this.