Daily Rituals, by Mason Currey (Picador), has for its subtitle, How Great Minds Make Time, Find Inspiration, and Get to Work. It is a quirky, but highly entertaining book of anecdotes about how writers (as well as visual artists and composers) organize their working day. It is not about their process of creativity, but their day-to-day habits of work. Thus, Gertrude Stein wrote outside in the sought out presence of rocks and cows for fifteen minutes a day. Hemingway rose at 5:30 AM to write. Woody Allen takes many showers. Dickens liked silence and his desk arranged just so. Certain things come through. Early rising and working is more prevalent than night work. Long walks are common. Coffee is more important than alcohol. (Balzac drank fifty cups of coffee a day!)
What is shared by all of these creative artists is discipline. Even when these habits are idiosyncratic, they are regular habits, the daily means for the individuals to get down to work, even though Melville and Thomas Wolfe stood up when writing.
If I were teaching a writing course this would be the first book I would have students read. The message: I don’t care how you get to work, just get there.
7 thoughts on “Daily Rituals”
Coincidentally, I’ve just finished this book also . . I especially appreciated the frequency of mid-day naps in this compilation … :))
Ah, Sharon you always have just the right thing to say (and write)!
Thank you for this, Avi. I NEED to buy it and read it often.
I like George Winston’s influence when I write. Sounds like a must read book. Thanks, Avi
I was able to visit Hemingway’s house in Cuba. He stood while writing too. He also had a separate apartment for his many cats. It was wonderful to visit such a beautiful place!
Okay folks, what are some of your habits of getting to work.
Coffee. Then turning the phone ringer off, and turning the phone around so I don’t even see that a call is coming in to voicemail. Then putting headphone on for silence. Then it’s a GO.
At least Woody Allen’s ritual leaves his body clean ;).