A WORKING LIFE OF RITUAL
Thoughts on creating a daily environment that supports artistic endeavors.
When I was young I felt most creative at night, so I built my life around 11:30pm or Midnight to 3am. My West Coast friends got used to be calling around 10 or 11pm my time when I wanted to take a break or was written out. I was still wired. Couldn’t sleep. I think I had a bunch of long distance relationships with L.A. women just so I could have someone to call after working. There was a famous Jewish dinner named Junior’s in downtown Brooklyn which closed around midnight. I would take a writing break, jog the long eight blocks, buy a slice of the chocolate fudge cake, jog back to my place, devour the cake and then get back at it.
Those were my rituals. As I got to know more artists I realized that work rituals for non-nine to five folks were crucial to giving a sense of stability to our seemingly random existence.
That said, for all my at times manic writing, I also got deeply connected to my internal clock and learned to respect its decisions. Sometimes it said "No." Not ready. In those times I could feel something building, something happening in my subconscious that I would just have to wait for. That’s when I focused on shopping for groceries or doing laundry or the New York Knicks. Squeezing out work on deadline to pay bills was inevitable. But for bigger, more ambitious projects, I had to respect my subconscious and give into its rhythms when necessary.
As I got older my clock has shifted but not my need for rhythm and ritual. I don’t do all night writing sessions anymore, partially because working in TV and film requires more meetings and, too often, I have to be up at the ungodly hour of 9am or earlier. Now I’ll wake up early, have breakfast, make notes and do calls. I try to hit the gym right after lunch time when the spot is relatively empty. A lot of my best problem solving happens during this time.
Whatever creative challenges I face I try not to think about them and just be in my body. I can do a yoga class, lift weights or do cardio, but the commitment to sweat allows my subconscious to work. Next stop is one of a series of restaurants or social clubs in New York or Los Angeles where I eat and write until after rush hour. Back home I’ll put on basketball or an action flick (neither of which demands my undivided attention), read, make calls and work on a completely different project than I did in the afternoon. Breaking up my day into separate creative components is crucial to getting things done.
You can have multiple meetings in a day. You can have several jobs. But you can't create at the highest level with a distracted mind. I write books, both fiction and non-fiction. I write screenplays and TV shows. I direct, both documentaries and fiction. But, at no time, am I doing these things at the same time. On any given day I work on several things. But the hours I set aside for any particular project belong to them. You can do a lot of things, seemingly at the same time, but actually each project exists in its own compartment of time separated by moments of contemplation.
One of my favorite films about artistic ritual is Jim Jarmusch’s 2016 film Paterson. Starring Adam Driver as a bus driver/poet, the film emphasized how much the rhythms of the character's daily life and its many quiet observations informed his poetry. It was a reminder that writing doesn't just happen in front of a computer, but in your encounters with shop keepers, while doing cardio or when walk your dog. These rituals, and their rhythms, inform your work. They are the meditative moments where your subconscious works wonders for you.
It's why I don’t believe in writer’s block or, more precisely, won’t accept it as an excuse. When you are "blocked" flow onto something else. If you are having a hard time moving to the next chapter in a book, the next note on song, or stage in a painting, don't stop creating. I will write in my notebook about my day, a person I encountered or a movie I watched. I’ll shift my focus and let my subconscious lead me back to the main project or projects. When blocked just shift. Don’t stop can’t stop as Diddy once said.