What’s Your Writual?
Writers are in many ways a product of the literary savage garden. We cannot grow or thrive without sustenance, nurture, and the optimal environment for our individual needs.
Which is why your writing (W)ritual is as unique as you are. Taking time to recognize what serves you (and what doesn’t) is an integral part of your process: your Writual is sacred.
Once you’ve created your optimal environment, it’s simply a matter of sustaining and nurturing your writing — training your brain to manifest magic through (W)ritual.
Which sounds way more complicated than it actually is — the hardest part is sticking to it!
Your Writual can be broken down into three acts or affirmations:
Focus
Your set writing goal, organizing and protecting your time, and using the correct tools to ensure maximum productivity...
Romanticize
Your reflective and conscious commitment to slowing down and immersing yourself in the act itself — from mindful ambience to spooky stationery...Manifest
Curating your optimal environment — your sanctum — to inform your mindset and habitually craft a routine that not only produces results, but allows you to fully engage with and enjoy the experience.
Your homework this week is to outline your Writual — what ingredients do you need to curate your sanctum?
Top tip
If there’s something new you'd like to incorporate into your Writual — a beautiful fountain pen, organizational software, visiting that new cosy coffee shop with your work in progress — add this as a reward for sticking with your routine for a month. Having this goal gives you something tangible to focus on, and the reward will be even sweeter knowing you've habitually worked to build a strong Writual with real results.
Here’s my Writual:
💯 Having a clear goal before I start the session is paramount. Whether I’m researching (annotating a chapter), writing (hitting my word count) or editing (checking references), I frame each task around the time I have available that day...
⏳ …which is why organizing — and protecting — a regular slot of time allows me to create a routine. Consistency here is key; you can absolutely be malleable and move your allocated writing slot as needed, or amend your goal to work on something more manageable during a shorter session, but your Writual won't work unless it becomes a habit. Nurture your writing.
💧 I always make sure I have water to hand (as well as way too many coffees, but I'm working on that...). Keep those big, beautiful brains hydrated, people!
🎵 Horror film and videogame scores create the perfect atmos(fear). Aside from the usual suspects (Carpenter, Korzeniowski, Morricone, Ortolani, Resident Evil, Silent Hill etc.), for a change I’ll stick on the score from the film, TV show, or game I'm writing about or that's mentioned in a piece I'm editing.
🎧 On that note, noise-cancelling headphones are the MVP in my arsenal, allowing me to adjust my ambience in order to minimize distractions and slip into the correct headspace. Into the further you go...
🕯️ As I work from home, I use scents to help segment spaces — including getting myself in the ‘write’ headspace. My Writual scents include woodsy, moody, green notes.
✒️ As a lover of spooky stationery, it’s a great way to inject some personality and fun into my research, writing, and editing. Plus, putting pen to paper — annotating by color, and writing notes by hand — has been scientifically proven to enhance knowledge retention.
🖥️ …and is also why I use a hybrid paper-digital system (which I'll explore in another post...). Even if I’m still at the paper stage by the end of the session, I end each Writual by digitally recording where I’m up to — along with next steps so I have a clear plan for the next session.
☕ Well, almost. I always end my Writual with a treat, no matter how small. Very mindful, very horreur.
And that’s all there is to it. If you outline your Writual, curate your sanctum, and consistently nurture your writing with a bespoke routine that serves you — I can guarantee that you will not only see results, you’ll make magic.
