Housecleaning is part of my writing process. People always tell me to leave the dishes in the sink and the dust-bunnies on the stairs, as if there’s something pathological about needing to clean first. For a while, I believed them and tried to force myself to just sit down and write when I had ten minutes. But I could never get in the zone like that. It’s like pulling teeth. I don’t know how it is for you, but my mind is a pretty busy place. It’s like a multi-lane super highway in there. I can’t just throw myself into it. But it isn’t knowing the dishes are in the sink and the bathroom needs scrubbing that keeps me from writing. It’s actually more the other way around. It’s that the act of scrubbing is a kind of ritual. A meditation of sorts for those with busy hands. If it’s quiet while I’m cleaning up, my mind races at first, touching each noisy thought, soothing it and putting it to rest. At least for the time being. And then finally, if I keep at it long enough, my hamster wheel brain stops and I feel like a clear channel for the story that wants to come through. At that point, if left to my own devices, I will usually sit down and bang out some pages.
I can’t always clean the entire house before I write. It’s a bummer, but most of the time, it’s just not quiet and calm enough at home for me to get in the zone at all. But I’m not going to beat myself up about that anymore. My kids are getting bigger, and someday I’ll have nothing but quiet time to clean and write. In the meantime, I try to seize the day when I know I’ll have the house to myself. I just wish I had understood this a long time ago instead of trying to force myself into someone else’s ideal writing scenario. I spent a lot of time staring at my blinking cursor, telling myself if I was a real writer, I’d write something every day.
So in short, I hope you’ll trust your own process as you discover it. Special chairs, scented candles, brisk walks, warm tea… A lot of people have prewriting rituals. Feel free to explore and try other people’s ideas to the extent that you want to. Try to create some workarounds for when situations aren’t ideal. But don’t let anyone tell you that what works best for you is silly.
