Monday, October 4, 2010

An Author's Life: Writing Rituals (XX)

Every writer I know creates rituals to facilitate the writing process. I, too, have rituals. Many of them.

For example, it should come as absolutely no surprise that I begin big writing projects ─ personal or billable ─ by creating analog and digital filing systems. Color-coded. Then, after everything has been written, edited and delivered, I clean and rearrange everything around me.

Turns out I have another time-tested ritual for starting a writing project: I clip my fingernails way down ─ but not unattractively so, heaven forfend.

I do this not to give myself less to bite while on deadline, but to type faster, which is why I spent part of Sunday afternoon cutting off nails that, had they been acrylic tips, would've cost a fortune to replace.