Some writing related rituals are harmless, just a signal to ourselves that it's time to get creative. However, they can turn into compulsions, as mentioned in a post in Mitch Wagner's "the Information Week" blog post about his friend, science fiction writer Cory Doctorow (left):
"Prior to his 250-words-a-day-routine, Cory said, he was blocked for many years. He was a ritualistic writer. He had to be smoking while he wrote, had to play (and win) a certain computer game (I think it was Minesweeper) before he got started. He said he saw a hypnotherapist who made him see that all this nonsense was in his head. He could write anywhere. Moreoever, the only difference between a good day writing, when things came easy, and a bad day, was in his head. Going back and re-reading he couldn't tell which passages came easily to him and which were difficult.
The hypnotherapist also helped him quit smoking, he said. That was important because, by tying together smoking and writing, he was coupling together one of the things that gave him most joy in the world with something that was killing him.
Writing every day, he said, creates a smooth communication channel to your unconscious, where all the real writing gets done (he didn't use the word "unconscious.") For example, he said, he described how he worked on a novel for several years, only to have to put it aside for a long time because he couldn't think of an ending. One day, he thought of one, wrote it up, and then set out with a heavy heart to do the unpleasant task of rewriting the novel so that the ending would make sense and was properly foreshadowed. But when he re-read the novel, he found that no revision was necessary -- the ending was already foreshadowed; he'd been leading up to that ending all along, without being aware of it."
To me, these two things are great illustrations of the fact that our subconscious mind can work for us and against us. It provides us with great ideas, works while we sleep or are thinking of other things, and gives us great joy. Sometimes, though, it can also trap us in negativity or repetitive thoughts and behaviours. Some people are afraid that if they tamper with the negative stuff (for example, through counseling) it may drive away the good stuff, too, but that's wrong.
