Rituals, Creative Work, and You

Daily Rituals: How Artists Work

Mason Currey

Knopf, 2013 

978-0307273604

As one year winds down and another begins, I like to reflect on how I've used my writing time and what changes I might need to make in the year ahead. Because the creative life is often a solitary one, I love looking in on others' lives for inspiration. Here's a peek into Mason Currey's Daily Rituals: How Artists Work, a book I found impossible to put down.

Ludwig van Beethoven* poured water over his hands while humming scales. Jonathan Edwards pinned bits of paper to his clothing to remember ideas while horseback riding. Anthony Trollope paid a groom five extra pounds a year to bring him coffee each morning at 5:30.

Daily Rituals: How Artists Work is a collection of dozens of vignettes about "writers, composers, painters, choreographers, playwrights, sculptors, filmmakers, poets, philosophers and scientists on how they create.” I’ve always been curious about the processes and acts of self-discipline artists bring to their work. As an author who has sometimes struggled to find a rhythm to my writing, this book’s glimpse into everyday lives was both inspiring and familiar. While there were differences in each artist’s daily rituals, some habits were repeated in most creative processes**:

structure

solitude

simplicity

exercise

Structure allowed Trollope to "tutor his mind" and write for three hours before going to work at the Post Office. Gustave Flaubert believed being "regular and orderly in your life [allows you to be] violent and original in your work." In other words, when the structure is established, you are freed to focus on what counts.

Solitude and simplicity are two disciplines that often function hand in hand. Time alone, free of distraction, is necessary to create. A stripping away of extraneous things gives a creative the space to work. Some artists deliberately would forgo social commitments or would choose a hermit-like existence. Others would make room for community but keep those hours separate from the work. "What you need to do is clear all distraction," Anne Rice says. "That's the bottom line."

I was surprised how many artists engaged in daily exercise -- calisthenics, swimming, and the like -- long before this was considered the ideal. Walking was by far the exercise of choice, serving as both a break from the work and sometimes a new way to view it. Those walks I take with the dog when I'm feeling stuck? I'm in good company.

This book has inspired me to think about how I might best keep my days simple and distraction free. In the midst of my daily solitude it has made me feel a part of something bigger than myself. I’m carrying the creative torch like those before me and those who will come after -- important work indeed!

*Guess what? Today is Beethoven's 245 birthday.

*I'm focusing on the positive here. Many artists relied on various vices to (supposedly) bring out their best work. A few, like George Sand, felt "the work of the imagination is exciting enough...Whether you are secluded in your study or performing on the planks of a stage, you must be in total possession of yourself.”