Do rituals get you to a writing, or otherwise productive, frame of mind? You’re not alone. Today’s post looks at the quirky ways some famous writers began their books. How they faced their blank page and ‘got into’ a writing rhythm to get the job done.
A little book of bigtime author secrets
After reading a book I bought years ago at a fundraising table in the foyer of the YWCA on Hornby, I began to share some of my own quirky starters and writing sparks. The book, which is still in my library, is called “Secret Lives of Great Authors.” It’s a fun, gossipy read. It was more thrilling to me than People Magazine of the day. Fittingly, I was there for the Y pool, where other local writers I knew also swam between drafts of their work to balance all our hours at a desk.My main warm-up ritual to writing, at the time, emulated a dog settling into its intended rest space. First it follows its tail in concentric circles over the spot it is preparing to occupy. Then a sigh follows with these words on the exhale: “Ok here we go.” Once I plop down with paper or computer, I won’t stop except for snacks, but we’ll get to that and other ‘professional procrastination’ techniques another time.
Who have you read in this fun list. Do you identify with one of their rituals?
Inside the Writer’s Mind
Those great first lines we talked about in a recent blog, can be deceptively simple, but they are often the result of many attempts while also tinkering with rituals, tricks, and mental shortcuts. As a sole practitioner writing alone, I employed both the practical and the quirky. The background music choice for me alternates between classic Reggae for the energy, or cello music for the calm and as a timer for a final edit. Now, here are the secret rituals of some famous folks revealed.
Speaking of working alone and even mumbling to oneself, Stephen King routinely read back what he wrote (or at least what he was happy with) before continuing with his strict, daily schedule and self-imposed mandatory word count. It helped him re-enter the mental space he needed to write his many famous and inventive novels. Before diving in, he reads the last page that felt “alive” to re-enter the narrative rhythm. Makes sense as that momentum makes it easier to begin the next paragraph (or line) without staring at a blank page.
Isabel Allende, the Chilean and Venezuelan writer, begins each new book on January 8. It is sacred to her. It’s the day she began her first book, The House of the Spirits, in 1981, and continues that tradition. Sacred to the max: she arrives early, lights candles for the spirits/muses, meditates, arranges fresh flowers and incense, and “surrenders” to the writing. She says she tries to write the first sentence in a kind of trance, as if it’s not fully her choosing—a “door into unknown territory” that the characters will open. This goes on for 10-12 hours a day with zero interruptions.
While we are in the neighbourhood, I was fascinated by “Love in the Time of Cholera”, a book I turned to for nighttime reading while staying in my nephew’s room on a visit to Toronto. He was in Guatemala and later Peru, using the Spanish he studied to achieve fluency. So, no surprise his library led me to explore Colombian, Gabriel García Márquez and other Latin American writers in English, on his shelves. GGM was an early riser. He would listen to the news, possibly read from 6 a.m. until 8, and then begin writing until early afternoon. He also liked to leave off, mid-thought, to write the next day, more naturally. After that, he walked away and did not think of the story. Looks like a rest is advised for all of us, and that big break. He famously guarded his emotional state and so preserved space for the first line to emerge.
How other famed writers prepared their minds to summon their opening sentences.
Toni Morrison rose before dawn to revel in the quiet as she brewed coffee in semi-darkness. As light arrived at her window, she wrote, believing that the early hours held less noise—both external and internal—and allowed her voice to emerge undisturbed.
Haruki Murakami was up and at ’em at 4 a.m. and wrote for several solid hours. Later, he reset his head by running or swimming (see I told you about the life-giving magic of a swim). His ritual was rigid. Sleep early, wake early, write. That regularity primes the mind to say, “Yes—this is writing time.” The first line often follows naturally in that continuity.
Susan Sontag kept notebooks she warmed up in, especially in the morning, and guarded her writing time. She avoided early calls and interruptions. Her quiet discipline helped preserve the headspace needed for lines she hoped would resonate rather than just fill the space on the page.
What do these rituals reveal to us as writers, as creators and in our lives?
Boundary & beginning: Many writers mark a threshold (pre-dawn hours, fixed ritual, “sacred” date) so their minds register, this is now the zone. Again, as a sole practitioner writing articles, marketing materials, and public relations campaigns WHILE a single parent, I often blurred boundaries. No hard starts and endings, little sleep. I suggest you be like the legends above!
Leaving space: Ending mid-thought primes the next session’s start. I could not afford to have writer’s block, so I began writing press releases or articles for publications that were giving me trouble, with the minimum that I could get down on a page. A headline, ‘for immediate release’, a brain dump, anything to break the blankness of the page or screen. Then I went to have a shower. When I got back, voila! No blank page, and lookie here now.. someone already got me started with a creative nudge.
Emotional calibration: Mood matters; these writers often minimized stress, distraction, or negative emotion before writing. Still werkin’ on that one here.
Sacredness & mindset: Rituals—candles, meditation, quiet time—help shift the brain from daily life into the realm of story. Yes, but going out to lunch alone with handwritten notes or printed pages to review also helped me!
Consistency over inspiration: Many of these routines are about showing up regularly rather than waiting for “perfect inspiration.” I imagined the muses on the bookshelf near me filing their nails, looking over at me and saying, “Well, she seems to be back again, so she must be serious. Let’s help her.”
More sneak peeks into how famous writers began their books
Victor Hugo – To stop himself from leaving the house, he had his valet hide his clothes. He’d write naked, wrapped in a blanket, until he hit his quota. (Fun to think about, but pretty much anecdotal, though likely)
Maya Angelou – Rented a hotel room in her hometown, stripped it of art and distractions, and wrote lying across the bed with only a Bible, a dictionary, and a bottle of sherry at hand. So very Maya, but I remember reading that Dolly Parton would rent a hotel room and have blackout blinds block the outside world to write her Christmas album in advance of record promotion season deadlines. She would deck the room out fully with Christmas decor, have traditional foods brought in and make merry as she made money and music we all love her for. I channelled that spirit as I wrote early press releases and chose artisans in the summer to highlight in the Manitoba Christmas Craft Sale. Thinking and feeling ahead, just like Dolly, to get the job done and meet the deadlines for writing and promoting. I often wrote ‘Christmas in July’ as an attention-grabbing headline.
Franz Kafka – Worked in an insurance office by day. So, he wrote late at night, often starting around 11 p.m. and going until 3 a.m., fueled by coffee and insomnia.
James Joyce – Wrote wearing a white coat, using crayons on large sheets of cardboard, lying on his stomach in bed, because of his poor eyesight. Overcoming it all, JJ! Likely true but not a fully documented story.
Gertrude Stein – Said she liked to write in the passenger seat of a parked car, using the hood as her desk, claiming the quiet isolation focused her. Anecdotal, but then Gertrude was unusual in all she did.
Agatha Christie – Didn’t have a dedicated desk; often wrote wherever she could — kitchen table, hotel rooms, even while sitting in the bathtub, sometimes balancing a board across it as a writing surface.
Charles Dickens – Required his writing desk to be arranged the same way every time (specific quill, blue ink, statuettes, fresh flowers). He also took long, exact walks (up to 12 miles) to solve story problems. Fully documented – Dickens the disciplined.
Truman Capote – Called himself a “completely horizontal author”: always wrote lying down, with a supply of coffee and cigarettes, then a martini to shift him into editing mode.
Eudora Welty – Would pin photographs of people and places above her desk to “see” her characters and settings before she began writing. Her use of photographs above the desk is reported by colleagues and in profiles of her, but it’s a useful ritual. I have done it for business target reminders, and so have my students, especially in esthetic fields, using celebrities as inspiration. Clever girl EW.
J.K. Rowling – Famously jotted early notes for Harry Potter on a napkin during a delayed train ride; later, she often wrote in Edinburgh cafés, preferring the background bustle. Known and verified. I’ll have what she’s having in those cafe scenes. What a success.
What tricks get you from the blank page to a winning writerly state of mind? Did you find reading about rituals that help writers write strong opening lines helpful?
