Daily Rituals
I’ll be honest, I haven’t even finished this book so I shouldn’t write a review of it but I had to tell others what I’ve read so far. This book is fantastic! However, there is a caveat.
The book has nothing to do with teach you how to write but has everything to do with how writers and other artist worked. It’s a book about their daily process. Now, that sounded boring to me when I first read it but if you have a morning routine, evening routine, gym routine or you are working full time, juggling a family and trying to write the next great script or novel, then this book may be of interest to you.
This book tells you in a few paragraphs the Daily Rituals of great writers and artist. Here is the big caveat on this book and how I recommend you use it - make it part of your own daily ritual.
I’ve made it part of my daily ritual and I love it! Here’s how it goes -
I wake up around 6am. By 6:30 I’ve brushed my teeth, gone through emails, checked the news to see if we are all still on this planet then go to make coffee.
Coffee is a love of mine so it takes a bit of time to grind the beans and prepare but while it’s dripping I pull out two books that I keep next to all my coffee making machinery. One is the daily rituals. The other I will tell you about another time.
So while my coffee drips, I read one or two of the writers’ in Daily Rituals. At this point, I’m only on page 83 where I read how Henry James would start a new book the instant he finished one. I’ve never been able to do that. I’ve always needed some kind of mental break period between projects.
Also learned this about Kafka -
“Time is short, my strength is limited, the office is a horror, the apartment is noisy, and if a pleasant, straight-forward life is not possible then one must try to wriggle through by subtle maneuvers."
Don’t we all feel that, especially coming out of COVID and as the world seems to be finding new and old ways to unravel.
There is something to be said for knowing that the great writers had as chaotic lives as we do and that they found ways to overcome it and create great works. Perhaps that something is… inspiring. Its nice to know the greats also struggled. That we’re in that struggle with them. The war of art goes on and it is not so different for us than it was for them. It shows us we are no so different. That if we win that war of sitting down at our keyboard or with our notebook, we too may be telling our routines and rituals someday as well.
Everyone morning this book helps get me in the mindset to work. Once that coffee is ready and I’ve read my one or two writers rituals, I’m off to the computer where I will write until lunch.
I’ve made it part of my morning routine and therefore part of my daily ritual. I hope you will too as it is a nice thing to take in small doses with your morning coffee.
