Rituals: Get Your Jumps Out

by Melissa Corliss DeLorenzo

Photo by Sanja Gjenero

There is much written about the idea of writing and ritual. To establish, or not. To create, or avoid. There are rules, there are ideas. I don’t like rules. Ideas I can live with as long as I can take or leave them, alter or combine them. Some argue that ritual is a must in order to maintain continuity in practice. Some insist that being too rigid is dangerous to the very spontaneous act of creativity. Both sides have validity.

When I was a kid, I was the kind to sneak off and squirrel away with a book. My sister was more of the bounce-around variety of kid. To this day, while I have never learned to do a cartwheel, my sister can do little flips, headstands, full backbends. When she was a kid, she would say to our mother, “I have to go get my jumps out.” And she would go outside in the backyard and do rolls and flips and run into cartwheels. Her jumps.

Sometimes I think that is the purpose ritual serves—to get your jumps out so you can sit down and do the work.

When I sit down to work, inevitably, I get antsy. I look around for something that “needs” to be done. The dishes, maybe the dog needs water, perhaps that load of laundry in the dryer is done and can be folded. My inbox is always calling—maybe I’ll just look over one or two emails really quick. So, I get up a few times and do these things. Up and down. Can’t keep still.

To stave these jitters, they say to be sure your writing space is just so. My writing space has been through several incarnations. It’s been in the room we call the “library room” (where we keep all our shelves of books), on the kitchen counter and finally where it resides now on a desk I dragged from the library room into the kitchen. It’s definitely working for me. I don’t know exactly why. But I honestly think that “writing space” is not a specific physical place, but the space that resides internally in the writer herself. The physical space only aids the writer in her craft. Don’t fool yourself that once your space is perfect, or once you have the new laptop or as soon as you have everything organized just so, that the writing will flow, that you will finally be able to do the work. I think the trick is to accept distraction as a part of the writing life, wiggle them out however best works for you and get down to doing the work.

So, yes, de-clutter your space, eliminate distractions, have the tools you prefer handy, meditate prior to writing, go for a walk, do whatever it is you need to do. I’m not suggesting these things won’t help. But know it’s all just a fancy way of getting your jumps out.

Go get your jumps out and do the work.

What are your rituals?
What purpose do they serve for you?

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