Finished products sure do get a lot of attention, right? We’re not usually attending art shows of half-completed paintings or reading published work that stops midsentence. We don’t hear songs on the radio that trail off after the first verse, the vocalist pausing to say, “There’s going to be a rockin’ chorus here!” Finished products are fabulous and have an energy all their own – but man, do I dig the process. I absolutely love talking to artists about the journey – how they do what they do. That sculpture is beautiful, but how the heck did you get to that from a clump of clay?

The question of process

As you can imagine, there are as many answers to the question of process as there are creative beings in this world (and then some!). And as much I love hearing about “the creative flow” or the “connection to the Divine”, I must admit that my Type A personality goes a bit wacko when I don’t have clear and tangible ideas on which to attach. Ok, lovely, your creative spirit spoke to you and you started sketching… well what happened next? What were you doing when you heard her? Did you immediately start drawing or did you have time to finish your sandwich? What kind of sandwich? How how how?

On my quest to further explore the idea of the creative process (and get some answers, dangit), I went to some of my most favorite creative folks in the world – the Owning Pink Bloggers. My question: What is your writing ritual? You’ll notice that this topic is a bit different than that which Joy addressed last month in her fabulous post on writer's block. Essentially, this isn’t about how you get your ideas – it’s about what you do once you got ‘em.

A ritual, by definition, is any practice or pattern of behavior regularly performed in a set manner. (There's often a religious or spiritual connotation, but not always -- check out Sylvia's posts for great info on creating all sorts of rituals!) The Owning Pink Bloggers told me all about their writing rituals, which included everything from letting the dog out, making herbal tea, lighting aroma therapy candles and praying at the alter that the muses would appear and "the Divine would make me a vessel" (Lissa Rankin), to sitting in a favorite leather chair or spreading outlined pieces on the dining room table (Laurie Erdman). As much as the rituals varied, there seemed to be some common themes throughout -- space, time, discipline, practice... all essential elements in connecting with the creative process. 

So, without further ado, here is a list of tips assembled from the personal experiences and insights of the Owning Pink Bloggers – enjoy!

What is Your Writing Ritual? 10 Tips On Connecting With Your Creative Process

1. Find your time.This is a different concept than that of finding the time, which is totally important of course, but perhaps secondary to finding the best creative time for you. Back in my cubicle days I attended a time management workshop where the leader spoke about how often we misuse our creative time – we may feel most energized first thing in the morning, yet we spend those hours answering email or writing to-do lists. What a waste! Connect with what time of day most resonates with your creative energy and adjust accordingly. Can you push dinner back to take advantage of that sunset hour when the ideas are flowing? Can you stay offline until lunch so that juicy story on the tips of your fingers isn’t depleted by a.m. hours of email and Facebook? See if you can tap into when you feel most creative and hold space for yourself there.

2. Find your place. So you’ve connected with your time – but that sexy office chair and ergonomic keyboard isn’t really… doin’ it for you. Space has energy and like finding your time, it's important to connect with your creative space. Blogger Monica Wilcox writes:

“I like to change where I am writing depending on what I am working on. I find when working on my book, atmosphere really helps. So when I am writing a modern scene I go to a table in Starbucks, play some current inspirational music and dive right in. When I'm writing a scene out of the '80's I'll sit in a comfortable chair in my living room with classic country music playing; it takes me back every time.”

All of our writers suggested a change of scenery when the words aren’t flowing – it actually took me hours to work through the beginning of this post until I realized that writing in my bed was perhaps not contributing to the active flowing energy I desired (duh).

3. Make yourself available – you never know when the lightening will strike! Finding your time and place is just dandy, but more often than not ideas hit our writers when they least expect it. (I am reminded of Elizabeth Gilbert’s nurturing creativity talk on TED  – she describes a poet feeling a poem rushing at her like a storm cloud, and how she must race from the farm fields to the house and write it down, “catching” it before it blows by.) So not everyone has the freedom to drop everything when inspiration strikes, but we are equipped with gadgets and gizmos a-plenty to keep track of those ideas when they suddenly appear. Laurie leaves herself a voicemail and Monica carries a small notepad to remember those buggers – I have taken to using the voice recorder on my iPhone (the seedling for this very post was outlined there in a Trader Joes parking lot). Use whatever works for you and don’t leave home without it!

4. Feed your outline in whatever form it takes. I was very curious to see if many of our writers worked within specific outlines or structure when writing. Most of them surprisingly said that they didn’t -- at least not until the editing stages – though Dana Theus shared some insights on how she works with an outline of images to create her posts:

“…the thing that gets me into the groove and organizes the thoughts and words are basically a series of images that are laden with symbolic meaning (to me). There is almost (not always) a "final image" as well that encapsulates the ‘ah-ha’ of the insight I'm trying to communicate. For example, in No Two Leaps of Faith Are Alike, I had these images when I sat down to write:
1-Lissa and I chatting over IM and the feeling in my heartbrain when she challenged me over my Pleap. There was an idea there wanting to get out that was the gestation of this post - 4 months before!
2-Me sitting at my windowless office in 1998 getting fed up and deciding I didn't care what happened, I had to get out of this job -- combined with me on my sofa a month later amazed at how I'd quit and ended up with more money and fewer hours. This image was when I first felt a Pleap work.
3-A hopscotch board of Pleaps over my lifetime - the 'ah ha' being that there's no such thing as ONE Pleap, it's how we zigzag through life.”

So maybe it’s a series of images, maybe it’s just a few words here and there, or maybe you bust out the graph paper and map out exactly what you intend to write – whichever form your outline may take, work with it as long it serves you.  

5. Set an intention – or, in the spirit of academics, write your thesis first. Sometimes we just actually forget what the heck we’re trying to say. We’ve gone off on a tangent or we’re feeling a bit unfocused and suddenly… wait, what tips am I sharing? To connect with the creative hoosy-what's-it? Pretend that you’ve already finished this article and write the one sentence description of what it’s about. Use that sentence as an anchor when you find yourself drifting. An important side note to this, of course, is to be flexible with yourself – like the outline, use your intention as long as it serves you. If you find energy a-swirling elsewhere or your process takes you to a new topic altogether, go for it!

6. Set a deadline. I am writing this on Tuesday, knowing full well that it’s going to be published Wednesday and that I’ll be discussing it with our writers on our monthly call in the morning. YIKES. Instead of freaking out about this quick turnaround (or, ahem, kicking myself for not having started sooner), I’m working with it. Awesome. No matter what kind of gobbledygook ends up on this page, it’s going out into the world tomorrow. Deadlines don’t have to be scary – try thinking of them as gifts of clarity. I wasn’t sure what tasks I needed to prioritize today, so thank you Captain Deadline for making that clear! If a completion deadline feels too daunting, try setting mini targets – and get a witness. Call a friend and let them know that you’ll be sending them your image outline by the end of the week. Anxiety can be motivating or debilitating, so see what works for you. And as my grandmother says, “Every now and then we all just need a good kick in the tukhus.”

7. Connect with what it physically feels like to create something you love. My life coach once asked me if I could remember a time that I creatively spoke my truth. The memory popped into my head almost instantly – I was writing music for a film and decided, on a very tight deadline, to start from scratch. I started to explain the instance to my coach when he stopped me and asked, “Where do you feel it in your body?” Aha. Sure enough, there was a definite spiral of energy in my chest. When in doubt, see if you can connect to the physical feeling of creativity. Your sense-memory may not come from writing – maybe you connect with what it felt like to cook a delicious meal or doodle a masterpiece on a greeting card – connect with your body and let the feeling spill into your writing process. Blogger Megan Monique says,

“Another thing that helps me is breathing, focusing on my breath, stopping thought and then the idea comes to me more clearly.”

Quiet the brain and connect with the body.

8. Find your sounding board. My friend Emily has had a screenplay stewing in her brain for months now, but when I asked her why she hadn’t started writing she said, “Writing feels like such a solitary process. I love collaboration and I hate the idea of working alone!” I hear you, sister. Despite the connotations of the brooding writer, alone at his desk with a bottle of Jameson and a plate of insecurity, writing can be an extremely collaborative process – just get out there and find your collaborators. Ask some friends if you can share some ideas or a draft of your latest chapter, and open yourself to their feedback. (You can always connect with writers in the Pink Community!) Sometimes all you need is to get out of your own head. Along these lines, blogger Emily Simmer posed an interesting question:

“I think I maybe put too much energy into these early drafts, and by the time I've finished draft 3 and am looking at draft 4 I'm kinda out of steam - never mind paragraph headers and images. Maybe I should try an outline at first, so I don't drain myself fleshing out paragraphs that will be deleted anyway?”

My advice to Emily? Aside from outlines and drafts and all the hooty in between, avoid running out of energy by passing it to someone you trust for some fresh eyes and energy. (Or this case, ahem, ask your editor! I hear she’s just lovely.)

9. Practice makes perfect process – just show up. Yes, we’ve all heard this before and we’re going to hear it a thousand times more – just show up and write something. Anything. Get used to what it feels like to write. When I wrote my first music review, it took me four full days (seriously, I only left my desk to sleep and pee), two dozen anxious phone calls to friends, and at least three wah-I’m-starting-overs. Six months later I can work out an album review in a few hours. Lissa, similarly, will expel a brilliant three-page blog post in about twenty minutes (&^$#*^%!). The only way to get to know that blinking cursor – and love it – is by greeting it everyday. Why hello there, blank page. Delighted to see you again. Now I’m going to write all over your face. (That sounds weird, but you know what I mean.)

10. Don’t get too attached. Finding some semblance of routine, ritual, and structure for your writing process is fabulous – but we must remember to be gentle with ourselves and graciously allow for change. Maybe our creative time will change with the seasons, maybe our creative space suddenly feels too cluttered, or maybe today our sounding board of friends is feeling more like a vocal peanut gallery than a source of support; what “worked” yesterday may not “work” today. Awesome. Let’s reach for another tool in our writing boxes and open ourselves to new possibilities within the process!

So, what do you think? What are your tips for connecting with the creative process? Once you have your idea, how do you nurture it? What is your creative time of day? Where is your creative place? How do these tips resonate in other areas of your life, outside of creativity? I can’t wait to hear your thoughts!

I think it’s abundantly clear that there are a million ways in which we travel on the train of creativity – whether it's connecting to some greater power or just finding a really comfy chair, the creative juices flow. Most of our writers don’t have that singular go-to ritual that always works and rather draw on many practices to get the words to the page. On that note, I’d like to end this post with the input of one of my most favorite writers, former Editor-In-Pink and life coach extraordinaire Joy Mazzola who, when I asked her to explain her writing rituals, responded:

“No. I hath no rituals. That I can think of. Thank you for checking though.

Suck nothing. Except for abundant love through a straw. Of love.

Ew, that could be construed ... nevermind.”

Finishing my sandwich now,

Lauren