Writing Rituals

Today we are writing about how we physically get ready to write. Don’t laugh when I share my secrets with you. I write in bed, I write in the car. I write on the napkin at the restaurant and sometimes I sit at my computer, light a candle, play soft music to set the environment to write.

The other night I laid down to sleep and a poem started to come to me. I ignored it . . . it was still coming . . . ok, so I thought,  I’ll go find a pen and paper. I sneaked out of bed so I would not awaken my husband, found a flashlight, pen and paper and laid down to be ready if it started again. It did, I was holding my flashlight writing in the dark. When I finally fell asleep I had a nice sense of satisfaction and I slept like a baby.

What seems to be more important to me is setting the environment is to connect with my creativity. Doing something mindless is useful to me. It allows me to let down the guard that stands in the way of my creativity. My guard is critical – he tells me I have to have everything clean and perfect to write. He also tells me that I have to have absolute quiet to write and I have to have a ritual to write. I don’t! I write . . . It flows . . . When it comes, it comes . . . When I am done I am done.

I am done.

Sharron Magyar