A review by gengelcox
Daily Rituals: How Artists Work by Mason Currey

informative inspiring medium-paced

3.5

I transitioned at the beginning of this year from being a writing and communications contractor to writing full-time for myself. The previous job had allowed me a good amount of autonomy, but the freedom I now enjoy has been both a blessing and a curse. I can write whatever and whenever I want to, but I can also not write whenever. As the year evolved, I realized I needed to establish some sort of guide for myself in order to accomplish what I wanted to as a full-time writer. Without outside deadlines to pressure me to produce, I needed to create goals and systems that helped me achieve my dreams. One of my systems was a checklist of items I wanted to do every day: write a certain amount of words, read an assortment of stories and nonfiction articles, keep up with critiques of peers, etc. But even that proved not enough.

This book by Mason Currey compiles the daily habits of over 200 writers, artists, and composers—people who create things from the blank page or canvas—and it’s an enlightening diversity of approaches to the dilemma I found myself facing. As with anything to do with artistic creation, there’s no one solution that works for everybody. What you glean from Daily Rituals is what worked for some people in the past. I’m likely to try and implement the morning writing time, trying to block off three hours before noon to produce the 500 to 1000 words I want to write daily, but I found it interesting to learn that Stephen King doesn’t give himself a time limit but instead a strict word count. He starts writing in the morning and doesn’t allow himself to do anything else until he’s written the 2000 words. Some days, he’s done before noon. Others, he works until later in the afternoon. That wouldn’t work for me as I find it useful to break up the writing constantly, partly because the breaks provide new fodder for the thoughtmill.

One also learns from Daily Rituals how much alcohol and amphetamines fueled so much work of the past. Currey presents this information without judgment, although he notes where the drugs eventually took over the life of the artist. And then there’s the evident privilege of a number of past artists, who had spouses, friends, or servants who catered to their crazy schedules.