The other day someone asked me: Do you have any rituals you perform when you finish a book?
Rituals? Other than taking a quick count of all the new lines that have carved themselves into my face?
Then I got to thinking–what exactly qualifies as a ritual? I went to dictionary.com for enlightenment, and after scrolling through all the religious related stuff, I found one definition that seemed to apply. A ritual is any practice or pattern of behavior regularly performed in a set manner.
Hmmm. I started thinking harder. What exactly are the patterns of behavior I engage in right after I put the last touches to a manuscript and hit the “send” button that shoots it off to my editor? The fact that I was on the brink of actually finishing a book gave me the perfect opportunity to discover the answer to that question. Like a good investigative reporter, I took notes.
After emerging victorious from a battle with a surprisingly challenging story, one would think that a writer’s practices would be celebratory in nature. And in my ideal fantasy world–which unfortunately exists only in my mind–they are. I can imagine myself performing a happy dance, popping the cork on the champagne bottle that is always waiting for me in my refrigerator, pouring a glass of the bubbly, and then calling friends and family to share the great news. I’ve put the final period on another one! Yaayyy!
But that’s not what happens in Cara Summers’ real life. After I completed my last book (and I suspect all the other ones) my actions all seemed to center on cleaning. Top of the list–I have to face the tornado that has torn through my house. Perhaps when I was writing that last steamy love scene…?
Finding the task a bit daunting, I break it down into a to-do list (which I address in a very random order).
1. Gather up the papers that have found a home on tables, chairs, and every other flat surface including the floor.
2. Disguise (for the benefit of my more ecologically-minded neighbors) the number of trees I’ve killed by recycling the evidence in a nearby apartment building dumpster.
3. Remove anything even remotely resembling penicillin from the refrigerator.
4. Delete the usual 1000+ email messages from my inbox.
5. Try to resusciate all the plants I’ve neglected (and hopefully not killed).
6. Change the sheets on my bed.
7. Use that new (very expensive) moisturizing cream that is absolutely guaranteed to erase every single one of the new lines I’ve acquired by frowning at my computer screen.
The list goes on…and on. But you get the idea. And I’ve figured out exactly why I do all those things. Besides making my house livable again, performing these mindless chores gives my brain cells (the ones I have left) a chance to rejuvenate.
And then I find one more essential thing to do before I start the next book. I recharge my creativity by making what Julia Cameron, author of “The Artist’s Way,” calls an artist’s date. I do something special that has nothing to do with writing. Something that feeds my soul. I may visit a museum or see a live play. This May I did something really special. Joshua Bell, the acclaimed violinist, came to Syracuse, and my daughter-in-law and I attended the performance. It was literally breathtaking. Joshua Bell looks like he’s twelve and plays like an angel. And for his encore he fiddled his way through countless variations of “Yankee Doodle Dandy.” My soul rejoiced,
Now I can start my next Blaze.
Can you think of any rituals you perform after completing a particularly challenging task?
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I love rituals, Cara!!! What a fun topic.
Isn’t it funny- when I finish a book I do the same thing. Clean. Craft – something scrapbooky and fun. And most of all, read. I spend however many days until the end of the next weekend reading. That part of the ritual is funny – if I turn it in on Friday, I read until Sunday night. If I turn it in on Monday, I read until Sunday night. Monday seems to signal the ‘start to work’ part of my brain, which is when I’ll tackle those big cleaning projects. Closets, cabinets, painting projects, etc…
I thought I was the only one who let my house go to the pigs while writing! So nice to know I’m not alone. I, too, clean house after finishing a book. And, like Tawny, I catch up on my reading and TV watching. What did we do before DVRs? Setting a VCR to record every week and making sure I have a “free” video cassette in the machine seems SO archaic now.
Tawny and Jillian,
So happy to hear I’m not the only one who lets everything go when I’m under the pressure of a deadline.
It helps that I want to be clutter free when I start that next book. Otherwise, I’d probably be living with rats! No lie.
Cara
Ooooh, the lead up ritual to starting a new book!
Grocery shopping, cuz its the last time I’ll go until the book is done
Laundry so there are plenty of socks
The bookstore to stock up on reading for when this book is done
One last cleaning sweep so I don’t feel like I’m leaving the family in a dustbowl
I hope to engage in the cleaning ritual next week. And filing. Gak. :-O
After I finish a book I sleep. Usually off and on for a couple of days.
Then I start the process of weeding through the scariness that is my desk.