Stupid Writing Rituals

[mrissa]

I am having one of those scattered, frantically productive days. Everything I see reminds me of something I should be doing. Every program running on the computer, every object on my desk, everything.

I am excessively careful, I think, of stupid writing rituals. Whenever I find myself falling into one, I change it, because I don't want to talk myself into being the kind of writer who "cannot" write unless she has a cup of lemon chamomile tea, or the correct fountain pen with the correct color of ink, or the correct socks on, or an outline, or a lack of outline, or notecards, or a lack of notecards.

But the one I do not seem to be able to cure -- and this is frustrating me no end this morning -- is that I do not do revisions on the screen for anything longer than 2000 words. My brain just slides off them. I need the physicality of the whole wretched thing.

Which means that very shortly I will have to print out Thermionic Night to give it a good talking-to before sending it and handing it to my dear alpha-readers for this time through. It will not be a draft I can then pass on to markgritter and timprov. It is six-hundred-some pages of wasted paper. This is annoying me rather disproportionately. I thought that mentioning it in an e-mail might expunge the annoyance. But no. Still annoyed.

Writer-beings: do you have stupid writer rituals that annoy you? Have you gotten rid of them? How? And how do you tell the stupid rituals from the functional process?

Yarg.

Comments

[merriehaskell.livejournal.com]

Once upon a time, I had to write long-hand.

I did get over it. Basically by writing not-officially-writing things but things which still required creativity, so that I got used to the flow and such.

I never really realized how much I had made a big deal about the long-hand writing until my mom tried to tell me that I couldn't write on a computer. After I'd been doing it for a few years. And I blinked at her, thinking, "No really, what am I doing *right now*?" And then I asked her to please leave the room, since I was writing, not farting around on the computer.

We still argue about this, but fortunately, I don't live with her, so it's an indignity suffered only during occasional visits.

But *really*. Apparently other people have rituals in place for me, I don't need to add any on top of it.

[mmerriam.livejournal.com]

In the spirit of sharing, this is my little ritual. I fire up the PC, read email, and answer any messages that warrant it. I do the morning dishes and start a load of laundry. I make a cup of tea, then open up the manuscript I plan to work on. I spend a few minutes considering what I want to accomplish and how I'll get there. I review the manuscript and any pertinent notes, then make a second cup of tea. I scratch the nose of the cat, who has by now noticed my empty lap. I take a deep breath, then plunge ahead for good or ill.

I can do on screen revisions for up to about 5000 words, but past that I need a hard copy in hand. I guess my brain just won't wrap around the text unless I'm physically holding it and marking it up with a red pen.

M

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I hope you get your second two back, then. When the lizard is big. Like 3 or 4.

[tanaise.livejournal.com]

It's not exactly a ritual, but if I *want* to write, and I haven't been able to lately, I take my laptop to a coffeeshop, put on my headphones and loud music, and an hour later I have about 2K more than I started with. I specifically haven't trained myself out of this habit because it's useful as something to fall back on. I make myself write other places, though, so it won't end up being the only way I can write, and I don't let myself pick up bad rituals.

Oddly enough, the hardest habit to break ever for me was writing on a desktop vs a laptop. I think because I wrote only on a laptop at Clarion, and considering it was just 6 weeks, that place stuck me with some solid writing habits (for example, the coffee shop habit). I can write on desktops, but it's *harder*, and I don't have a clue why. I just remember when I first got my new laptop, and how I sat down with it, and just...*relaxed* mentally about writing.

I need to figure out how to use my time better, as I keep telling myself I can write *or* have a life, and since always before when I wrote I didn't have a life, my mind agrees with that. But I like writing, and I like being with people, so I'm going to have to figure out how to balance those things. As it starts getting more spring like, I may try getting up a bit earlier and writing before work. I find that I need rituals for any habitual behavior or I forget to do it, such as taking my pills at night.

[mkille.livejournal.com]

Re: desktop vs. laptop...

I have the opposite problem. Laptops are much harder for me, mostly because of the keyboards (they're smaller and they *sound* wrong), but also because of the angle I'm looking at the screen.

I only write academic papers, too. I don't know that the genre of writing makes a difference, but.

[tanaise.livejournal.com]

I have smallish hands, so I find the laptop keyboards are easier to type on, oddly enough. Though I do miss the number pad.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

You do, don't you! That's one of those things I didn't consciously notice, but you do indeed have smallish hands, and now I remember them clearly.

Memory is such a freakazoid thing.

[tanaise.livejournal.com]

Well, technically I probably count as smallish all over (okay, except for the vast tracts of land), but people remember me as bigger. I should be bigger. I think I'm supposed to be about 5'6", 5'7".

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

My friend Mike used to use that as a euphemism, too. "Mris! That guy was totally staring at your tracts of land."

[dichroic.livejournal.com]

Wasn't it Monty Python and the Holy Grail, where the king is trying to interest his son in his betrothed bride and her vast (pause to cup hands in front of chest) tracts of land?

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Yep, that's the reference: "She's rich! She's beautiful! She's got huuuge [circular chest-ish hand gesture] tracts of land!" And all in a ridiculous accent, of course.

It's amazing how many of my friends have such diverse reasons for using horrible fake Scottish accents.

[dichroic.livejournal.com]

When I was in college it was silly French accents, except among the computer science engineering majors you could never tell whether it was from Monty Python or Prof. Gallier.

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

"Writer-beings: do you have stupid writer rituals that annoy you?"

Near as I can tell, writer-rituals are another word for procrastination. If I decide that I can't write without my computer/notebook/pen/whatever, it's because I can't write and find an excuse.

"And how do you tell the stupid rituals from the functional process?"

My guess is that it's obvious. Printing out stuff and working on paper isn't a "write ritual." It makes sense both as a measure to save eyesight and to let you look at more of the text at the same time. A computer screen is very small, and much harder to read than paper. (Monitors will eventually get better, soon I hope.)

The other question is: why does it matter? If someone needs their lucky hat in order to write, then they should wear their lucky hat. At least their process is working. (Unless they write only lousy stuff with their lucky hat, in which cast they'd be better off with a blank piece of paper.)

I have two things I need to write today. I wouldn't mind some stupid writer ritual to make me actually write them. As it is, I need to wait until...until...until after lunch, that's it. I need to eat lunch before I write those pieces.

B

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

I've been known to fly to Paris for the weekend because I felt stuck in my writing. If you have a stupid writing ritual, it should at least involve going to Paris.

B

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

As regards the lucky hat: sure, I am strongly in favor of doing what works. But I don't want to go into a weeks-long un-writing funk if the hat blows off in a windstorm. I thoroughly support other people's hats, but if I can avoid having one, I will.

Alas, my monitor could be better than it is even with the state of the art. But I suppose, there are practical concerns for the printouts, so I should stop growling at myself.

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

When I'm working on a book I print out my entire manuscript every few days, and then GBC-bind them.

B

[deva-fagan.livejournal.com]

I use my writing rituals primarily during times when I am having trouble with a book. Frex I have a candle I light, with the rule that when it's burning I'm supposed to be writing, or I have music that serves as the soundtrack to the current story. But I find that as I go, and things start rolling, I often forget about lighting the candle and turning on the music. I suppose perhaps it would be better not to rely on such things, but sometimes they really help to get through the sticky bits.

The one I really wish I didn't rely on was the need to have my progress tracking document open so I can stop and update/check my growing wordcount every ten minutes. But I seem to be very much a slave to data and the (erroneous but bewitching) belief that wordcount must make me a virtuous, accomplished creature.

Also, I wish I could write longhand more easily. But it seems so slooow now.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Sometimes I need to slow down a minute.

[deva-fagan.livejournal.com]

A very good point! :-) Now I'm wondering if I would detect a difference in the prose if I gave longhand writing another try at some point.

[scott-lynch.livejournal.com]

I don't have any writing rituals per se, but I'm totally unable to work at my desk if I'm not wearing socks. Or shoes, or sandals, or anything. My feet have to be covered. I haven't the foggiest idea why.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Okay, this makes you an official grown-up. (Most of the toddlers in my family are screechingly averse to shoes and socks. Sometimes not just on themselves but also on other people, often me.)

[porphyrin.livejournal.com]

And others of them demand that you put on their toddler-shoes.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

"Missa! You -- wear -- dooooes!"

He hasn't done it in awhile. Probably would say, "You put on my shoes now" or something like that these days.

Wahhhhhhh, so biiiiiiiig.

[wshaffer.livejournal.com]

I do still write nearly all my fiction longhand. I'm really not sure if that's a ritual, or just process. I can compose straight to the computer when I need to, so I haven't fought the longhand habit very hard.

I used to do a lot of my writing in coffee shops, and that sort of seems to have become a semi-ritual - it's not necessary, but it does help me get into the "Okay, we're going to write fiction now, as opposed to the 3,845 other things we could be doing at the moment" flow. Ideally, I'd like to attach that same sense of flow to someplace in my home.

[palinade.livejournal.com]

I've fallen into a funny new habit--writing out initial ideas longhand before bed. Then I take that bit and type it into the computer, revising and improving as I go along. Not all scenes start this way, but I'm finding that if I get out the initial idea, scene, or character's voice longhand and then go in and tinker as I band out the rest of the scene, it flows easier than if I start with a blank screen.

[loup_noir]

I have to approach the actual work in a roundabout fashion. Any outstanding chores must be done or in progress (like laundry), my desk has to get tidied, email read/answered. Then I'm allowed to write. My brain has decided that the actual writing part of the day is the carrot to get me to do the other stuff. I'm not sure if it's something I want to change or not. At least this way mydesk isn't piled too high and the laundry gets done.

For many, many years, I was a programmer. Editing online is much easier for me than on paper. If nothing else, the CTL+F command makes so many things faster and the CTL+H where I can do global changes is my special buddy.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Heh. See, I am infinitely good at coming up with additional chores to do. If I had this rule, our entire house would be painted indoors and out and I would run a dozen different social and charitable committees and never get any writing done. And it would be sad. So I have an unpaid bill sitting on my desk and some words on "Singing Them Back" instead.

[scottjames.livejournal.com]

All of my writing is technical writing and non-fiction, but I cannot revise on the computer, either. I compose exclusively on the computer, but I have to print it out (even if I'm reviewing someone else's work) to revise or proofread it. Every once in a while I try to revise on the computer, but I always end up missing stuff, or reading without revising.

And no music. Unless it's excessively repetitive writing, music will mess me up.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Music with words, or just music in general?

[scottjames.livejournal.com]

Umm. I don't think I know. I generally don't listen to music without words at all, so I don't have that data.

[kaseido.livejournal.com]

I got over having to write in longhand, a stupid ritual of mine for many years, but I still need to copyedit on dead trees. Some of that's that it's easier to catch things on paper, but some of it is the visceral satisfaction of red ink & circles & arrows on a text. Weird -

[porphyrin.livejournal.com]

I'm getting over the 'having to write it while sitting at the computer' thing.

Now, since 'the computer' is a laptop and does have a wireless card, 'sitting at the computer' can be anywhere in the house or backyard or front yard.

But it's a clunky way to do things.

Also, I cannot write while on-call at work. Can't really read anything but VERY light fiction-- subconscious is too taken up with listening for the pager.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I think the on-call thing is totally reasonable. Are you going to have on-call time as much this fall and after?

[porphyrin.livejournal.com]

No, *thank you Jesus*.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

We, too, are relieved.

I haven't checked to make sure that's anything but the royal we, but I feel sure anyway.

[dendrophilous.livejournal.com]

I can't write bad first drafts on the computer. (I can write good first drafts, but then I get stuck, so that doesn't help.)

I can't revise things longer than 1000 words or so on screen. I'm trying to cut back to printing chapters only once instead of twice.

[drabheathen.livejournal.com]

I can not write unless I beat my head -- figuratively -- against a wall for an hour. It always takes at least forty-five minutes of staring at a blank screen, sweating, before I trust myself to write something.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I don't remember when I had that tendency beaten out of me, but I'm glad I did. It's much less frustrating this way.

[dsgood.livejournal.com]

When I'm stalled, I can often get going again by switching to a different text editor. (I find text editors much easier to write with than full-fledged word processors.)

I can make relatively small revisions on screen. But for larger revisions -- changing scenes around, changing the plot, etc. -- I print out and then retype from copy starting with a new blank file.

[avrelia.livejournal.com]

I don't write as much or regular as to pick-up annoying habits, but still. I am still getting over somethings. for a long time I could only wrote long-hand, and type it on computer. Now I can, but not when I don't know what to write. I have to write all plans and outlines and first drafts on paper. (including my legal work)

Revising on screen is hard, as well - at least once I have to print everything to see it with a fresh eye. I have finished so far only poems and short stories, so printing wasn't much of a problem, though.

[leahbobet.livejournal.com]

I can't write without a cup of tea. I need something to drink, to fiddle with, to do with my hands. But I can't think without a cup of tea, so this may not be writing-exclusive. *g*

[alecaustin.livejournal.com]

I have all kinds of stupid rituals that cycle in and out of my writing habits. That's how I know that they're stupid: I can do without them, and they serve no functional purpose, unlike the "soundtrack" CDs I make and the time I spend working on other things while I consider what needs to happen next/needs to be revised in the context of my current project.

I consider writing in longhand an option of last-resort, primarily because it's so much slower and less portable than typing, and because the LCD screen on my laptop lets me work, re-read, and revise for hours at a time.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Less portable than typing?

[skylarker.livejournal.com]

Much as it annoys me, I can't seem to write while simultaneously watching tv and playing computer games. L.A.B.