The following is copied and pasted from my Facebook Note of Saturday, 6 December.
Pre-writing activities: to what degree are they necessary?
Some specialists would argue that they are necessary for every writer at every stage in his/her writing and I would probably hazard a guess that every writer does employ them in her/his own way before embarking on a project. As for myself, I use a fluid, flexible definition of "pre-writing activities" and employ them before, during and sometimes after the actual appearance of words on the page/screen. I share below some of my own strategies (¿?) and most of them can be applied at any point in the writing process and as many times as necessary, not necessarily in this or any particular order. And in some way, the multi-sensory ritual prepares me for what is and hopefully will be the principal activity of my life.
1. Clean kitchen (Yes, I know I don't write in the kitchen...and your point?)
2. Play with dogs
3. Make coffee, AM; open wine bottle, PM
4. Look around house, desperately, for something that needs to be repaired NOW, by me
5. Let dog(s) out/in
6. Take beverage upstairs
7. Turn on computer
8. Change into "lucky writing outfit"
9. Check e-mail
10. Clean/straighten office
11. Select lighting that takes into account both vision and mood needs:
1. Clean kitchen (Yes, I know I don't write in the kitchen...and your point?)
2. Play with dogs
3. Make coffee, AM; open wine bottle, PM
4. Look around house, desperately, for something that needs to be repaired NOW, by me
5. Let dog(s) out/in
6. Take beverage upstairs
7. Turn on computer
8. Change into "lucky writing outfit"
9. Check e-mail
10. Clean/straighten office
11. Select lighting that takes into account both vision and mood needs:
- overhead incandescent
- desk lamp to illuminate keyboard and primary/secondary print sources
- Chinese lantern string of lights
- little alabaster rose incrusted lamp whose illumination is its utter charm
- candle(s) - for atmosphere and scent, but if circumstances call for it, I'll add a Virgen de Guadalupe or a Sagrado Corazón de Jesús - the ones in the big glass containers
12. Cue up music
13. Get resources out (also includes re-arranging bookshelves and selecting post-writing reward book (I can hear the plastic crinkling as I unwrap 2666)
14. "Check e-mail"
15. Place special notebook and special pencil on desk, just in case
16. Apply hand lotion
17. Refill beverage container
18. Sit before computer
19. Open Word
20. Open a vein
Care to share your rituals?
I got quite a few responses to that, this being Paper Writing Season, which means that many of my associates were doing just that avoiding doing just that. Just like I was. Looking in on Facebook every once in a while is almost like being in a big study group and I've enjoyed the communal aspect of this phenomenon. Reading status updates and spending a few minutes in chat allows us to see that we don't really suffer alone. But since before I'd even heard of Facebook, I've shared an end-of-quarter ritual with a classmate from my cohort. For all seven quarters I've been at UC Davis, sometime during PaperWritingWeek we spend an hour or so on the phone, talking about our papers in general terms, our latest academic dilemmas and their resolutions, TAing and occasionally swapping news or gossip. No matter where I am in the writing process, if she calls, I stop. And each time, after the conversation, we each report experiencing some sort of breakthrough. Mine this afternoon - realizing that my thesis for this synthesis paper was actually none of the possibilities I'd set apart in bold, planning to delete the ones I'd not addressed in the paper's body, but rather the thing I'd most been writing about all along. The thing I've most wanted to write about all along. Serendipitous, but not.
Muchas veces, lo que viene unos Cien años después, presta gran significado a Lo anterior.
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