Rituals + Routines to Ramp Up the New Year

Welcome to 2024, writers.

We now have our feet firmly planted in 2024 and I’m excited to welcome you to my new home on Substack. For now you’ll get the same content - craft lessons, inspiration, reading and listening recommendations, and more - but over the next few months these offerings will evolve. My hope is that Substack will give us the space for community and connection that so many of you told me you want more of. I'll also bring you the kind of “surprise and delight” content that I love from my favorite newsletters and creators of all kinds. 

Of course, this will be the place where I share behind-the-scenes content and updates from my book and any of my own writing that makes its way out into the world like my recent essay on wandering that was published in Vogue.

Now that you’re here, I want to toss the idea of New Year’s resolutions into the trash bin of 2023 since 87 percent of us think we’ll stick to our resolutions, but the majority don’t. Instead, what I want you to think about for 2024 is ritual and routine. The secret, if I can really even call it that, is to create rituals and routines around your writing that you can stick to. I know, folks - it’s not as sexy as you were hoping. But as Charles Duhigg writes in The Power of Habit, if you form a “habit loop,” or find a ritual you can repeat ad nauseam, then the routine of writing will flow naturally from that trigger. So, if you’re like me and you love yummy-smelling candles, lighting a candle when you sit down to write and then blowing it out when you’re finished creates an inviting ritual that tells your brain: it’s writing time. 

ruackerman

A post shared by @ruackerman

But rituals don’t have to involve buying candles. Or cute notebooks (though I love those too). Rituals can be as simple as breathing exercises, meditation, yoga, a cup of tea, anything really that will cue your body and mind that it’s time to write. Rituals and routines create good habits. And good habits are how we begin – or continue - our writing journey.

The other thing I believe wholeheartedly in are talisman, an object or a photograph or a piece of jewelry or a pair of socks (!), that centers you and brings you back to your writing when you hold, or look at, it. Talismans are thought to protect us or bring us good luck, but I don’t see them as woo-woo in any way. To me their purpose is to help create a space that allows me to come to my writing from a place of curiosity and play. 

So much of what we do as adults is about making money or being an expert. But writing, for the most part, is about turning off the expert part of our brains and letting ourselves dive deeper into our subconscious. Routine and ritual carve out the sandbox within which to play. 

What are the rituals and routines that you use to get yourself into the writing mode?

In Community, 

Ruthie

A vending machine that dispenses art at the Whitney.

Christyn inciardi

A museum show spotlighting the American textile designer who was erased because, you guessed it, she was a woman.

The Vietnamese bakery with the coolest merch. @ban_be

Comin’ in early with my picks for best books of 2024: this one and this one. @jennromolini @lyzlenz

I’m a sucker for a good walking tour and this one with Kriss Roebling, great great grandson of Washington and Emily, the brilliant minds behind the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge, blew my mind.

Is it just me or are these fruit dishes the cutest thing you’ve ever seen?@helen_levi

Tell me these hand-dyed socks made by an artisan group called the Indigo Grandmas aren’t the best thing ever. @philiphuangnyc

I ate the $29 hot dog at Mischa because Pete Wells told me to. @mischa.nyc

Upcoming Courses

**FEATURED CLASS**

Writing Rituals and Routines (one day)

Skip the writer’s block and arrive at the blank page in your creative flow with my tried and true tips on organizing + ritualizing your writing routine. In this two-hour seminar I’ll let you in on all of the secrets I’ve gathered over my 20+ year career in writing and editing. Also! Special guest Christene Barberich, writer of the newsletter A Tiny Apartment and founder/former editor of Refinery29, will join us to share her favorite rituals and routines that inspire her work and life.

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Outlining Class (one day)

Your outline serves as the skeleton of your book. Without it, there is no roadmap, and nothing to turn to when you hit inevitable roadblocks. This two hour class will provide you with the template you need to take your story to the next level by providing you with actionable instruction on what to include in your outline and why.

How to Write Your Modern Love Essay from someone who wrote her own (one day)

No happy endings here. In honor of Valentine’s Day I am offering a course on how to spin all kinds of love stories (platonic, parental, romantic, etc…) into a piece that fits the Modern Love mold.