The Couch Ritual

On Monday, I had my first actual day of working in my new writing shed. There was a lot of pressure. Pressure on me to get work done, pressure on the shed to help me get the work done. 

It turns out that that pressure was just what I needed: because I felt like I had to get work done in the shed, I did. And the biggest surprise is how much work I'm getting done on the couch/daybed/storage bench. It's super comfy, and a perfect place to read things over and write longhand. (Photo above is Cosmo doing his own hard work on the couch. Also I have ordered a cover for it, so it's going to be slightly less disheveled looking eventually.)

At first I was thinking it was the couch itself that was making me so focused and productive. I've never had a work couch (or a comfy work chair) before. I've worked in a corner of our dining room, a corner of our living room, briefly in a spare bedroom, and then in my own bedroom. If I wanted to sit somewhere comfortable that wasn't my desk, I had to sit in the living room, which is a place I also associate with watching movies, not with working.

So it's nice to have an analog spot to work, away from the distracting glow of my computer screen. But I stumbled into something else important, which is that, in my mind, I had designated the work couch as a place I would get work done, just like I had designated (and put pressure on) the shed as a productive work space. And then -- and this is important -- I happened to have some work I needed to do. I had a picture book I had to revise and get back to my editor. So the very first thing I did on that couch was focused and productive.

After a few extremely productive couch-work sessions, I felt a little guilty about writing about it here. Not everyone has space for a work chair. I certainly didn't until we made this work shed. I didn't feel right telling you the secret to getting good creative work done is having a whole separate room with space for extra furniture.

Then I thought about the another thing that has been a big part of my writing ritual, and that's lighting a candle. I read somewhere that you can light a candle at the beginning of your work session to signal to your brain that it's time to write, and I've been doing that for years. But I'll admit I didn't do much on my end other than light the candle and do some work. I didn't plan from the outset to ensure that writing time happened when the candle was burning. For a long time, it didn't matter. I did write when it was burning (part of the genius of burning a candle when you're working is you can't walk away and do something else because you might accidentally burn your house down, and you have to stay long enough for it to melt all the way across the top, which is about 45 minutes). But the past few years have been distracting, and I started doing other things when the candle was burning (doomscroll, squint at the news, groan apocalyptically).

I had the ritual, but I didn't have the rules around it. I thought all I had to do was light the candle, but what I really needed to do was light the candle and have the rule that I could only write when the candle was burning. No doomscrolling. (I'm hoping it's not too late. That rule starts now.)

So: if you can create a comfy place to sit and get analog work done, do it. But what you really need is a specific ritual with rules around it. I remember in college I used to play thunderstorm sounds when I went to sleep (on a cassette tape, it was 1991). And then once I was driving through a thunderstorm, and I almost had to pull over because it was making me so sleepy. My brain thought thunder means sleepytime. You can play with this. Make the associations for your brain. Make it easy for your brain to know when it's time to get creative work done. I say make it weird and particular. Read one page of Big Magic while drinking ginger tea, then put on the "Room with a View" soundtrack and start writing with a sparkly blue pen. Or clean the breakfast dishes, eat a Clark Bar, and do a headstand. It doesn't matter, so long as it's something you consistently do before writing. If you are especially vigilant about sticking to the rules in the beginning, it won't be long before it will seem natural to get focused, productive, and inspired work done after your particular ritual. Soon it would feel wrong to watch YouTube videos of sleepy bunnies while drinking ginger tea. It would seem like putting on your bathing suit, swimming half a lap, and starting to read a book in the middle of the pool. It'll feel weird, like something that's just not done. 

I suppose what I'm saying is "the way to be a productive writer is to trick yourself into writing!" but you know what? There's a lot of distraction in the world, a lot of reasons to groan apocalyptically. You owe it to yourself and to us to keep writing. And if you need to do some tricking to get there, so be it.

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Book release date has been moved

If you know anyone who had a book come out in the past two years, you probably know someone who had a publication date changed. This happens all the time, but has been especially prevalent during the pandemic. There are shipping delays for everything! So, Yours in Books is still coming out, and coming out soon, but not coming out next week as planned. Instead, you can look for it in a few weeks on September 21, which you'll surely be able to remember because of the song and all of Demi Adejuyigbe's increasingly elaborate and delightful videos (2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020).

So! You still have plenty of time to preorder, AND plenty of time to plan to come to the Print: A Bookstore event, since it has also been moved to September 21.

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Thoughts and Links

• I stopped by Print: A Bookstore this week. One of my favorite parts of the store is the zine wall. This week I got two: A Rough Guide to Bicycle Maintenance by Shelley Lynn Jackson, and The Least We Can Do: White Supremacy, Free Speech, and Independent Bookstores by Josh Cook. And now I have just discovered that Microcosm Publishing has Zine Superpacks and I might need all of them? For sure getting this one and this one.

• Ramona grabbed three graphic novels at Print, and she recommends all three to you: Measuring Up by Lily LaMotte and Ann Xu, Jukebox by Nidhi Chanani, and Clash by Kayla Miller.

• I impulsively got some chalkboard tape last week to go with the chalk Dave got me for Christmas, and now I can't decide what to stick it on. Give me your ideas!

• My friend Carter's upcoming picture book Circle Under Berry has gotten two starred reviews so far, and she made a super-cute book trailer for it this week, which you should absolutely watch. 

  

• Did you come hear Lindsay Leslie and I talk about our new books with BookPeople on Tuesday? We had a great time talking about how we come up books and our writing processes. Lindsay waits for an idea to really be calling to her before she starts writing, whereas I tend to work on an idea for a bit and then sometimes realize it's not working. Also Lindsay often comes up with titles first, and I usually come up with them last. Lindsay's new book is So You Want to Build a Library, and it's a super fun and imaginative way to think about what you might want in your ideal library, like maybe a sundae bar and a hot tub. If you're in Austin, you can get signed copies of Lindsay's book at BookPeople, and I sent them a bunch of bookplates, so you can get a signed copy of Yours in Books from there, too! (Photo above is by my friend Kim Campbell -- thank you, Kim! Also note how much better my Zoom background is here in the writing shed.)