a guide to creative rituals

Last year, I started bringing a cup of tea upstairs and lighting a candle whenever I’d sit down at my writing desk. It felt romantic then, and it feels romantic now.

I have an author friend who selects a drink to match the novel she’s currently drafting—an earl grey blend for one story, a Colombian single-origin coffee for another—and keeps it as her exclusive drink of choice whenever she writes.

I’ve been thinking a lot about routines and habits as a writer. A while ago, I researched the routines of famous writers and remembered learning that Charles Dickens would take a three-hour walk down the streets of London for the sake of story inspiration…every single day.

Upon fact-checking this, I also learned that Joan Didion—amongst other quirks in her writing life—would daily take an hour in the afternoon, alone with a drink, to edit her day’s work. And whenever she’d find herself suffering from a creative block, her remedial habit was starting a needlework project.1 “It’s sort of mindless. You do it at a moment when you’re panicking and you can trick yourself into thinking you’re doing something useful.”2

Whether I knew it or not, I’d implemented a ritual in my creative life by steeping and carrying up my tea and lighting my candle before writing—in my own small way, not unlike Joan Didion.

Since then, I’ve found myself incorporating more and more small habits surrounding my writing and other creative work into my lifestyle: writing stream-of-consciousness “morning pages” in my journal first thing, listening to certain music for certain projects (like my friend who assigns drinks to stories), etc.

These habits evolved. Along with routines, these are the two vital pieces of creative rituals—they’re distinct things needed to build them.

Habits are the things we do and repeat, routines are how we arrange our habits, and rituals are how we make them magical together.

We might check off certain habits on our to-do lists just to say we’ve accomplished something, and we might draft a list of routines to make our lives feel more productive. But rituals are parts of the day we devote our attention to and feel.

Because of the meanings and symbols (think religious or ceremonial rituals!) we attach to habits as they gather into routines, our rituals hold an undercurrent of beauty. Instead of going on autopilot to get things over with, we begin to want to sink into them and live there.

Visual aesthetics aren’t the point of incorporating creative rituals into our lives, but they certainly can help with inspiration.

One of my favorite corners of Instagram is a community of women who share snippets of their own creative rituals through photography and videography…these photos are from a few creators I especially love seeing in my feed:

Again, aesthetics aren’t everything—aligning your creative practices through rituals isn’t about looking impressive. However, beauty holds immense power. Photographs can capture experiences and sometimes even transport us there.

Pretty things can give us hope. When our rituals feel beautiful, they remind us of how beautiful our lives are…no matter how messy and chaotic and out of place things might feel sometimes, life is always worth falling back in love with.

I keep thinking of Charli xcx’s song: “Everything is romantic…fall in love again and again, fall in love again and again…”3

Finally, how does this translate more tangibly to how we live our lives as artists?

We find the magic in the mundane. We seek out the extraordinary in the ordinary. We make beautiful things out of what already surrounds us.

Even though I make points specific to writers/artists, anyone can do this by simply living a life attentive to the beauty around them. Here’s a quick guide to building your own creative ritual:

Start by noticing two or more existing ordinary but beneficial habits (or habits you want to begin) in your creative life that are also things you love.
[Example: journaling and spending time in nature.]

Stack these habits in a way that makes sense to you and a day in your life. Anchor it to a time cue—it doesn’t have to be a certain hour of the day every day, but maybe it’s triggered by the beginning or end of another activity.
[Example: After work, go for a sunset walk, and when you get back, write a page in your journal.]

Take a moment to dwell on what this adds to your life, how it makes you feel, and what it reminds you of. If there are more pieces that hold meaning or just make it feel a little more whimsical, add them. And if there are any tangible or visual cues that you associate with your ritual, think about how you’ll use them.
[Example: This ritual combines your love of writing, mindfulness, and nature—it reminds you of the beauty that surrounds you, and it fills you with peace. You love birds, so you make a point to identify at least one bird during your walk. Even though you might not journal until you’re back, you keep your journal and favorite pen in your bag.]

Do you already keep a creative ritual, even a small one? If this post inspired you, I’d love to hear about the magic you find in your everyday life.

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