Creating a Writing Ritual and Setting Yourself Up For Success

It's a beautiful day here at Little Forest, the sun shining, a light breeze, birds chattering in the treetops.I hope all is well with you on Day 3 of The January Writing Challenge. I'm loving getting back into the morning pages, such a lovely way to greet the day. Last night I looked up previous notes I'd made on a novel project and wrote a list of questions I had, things I don't know about the characters that I need to find out, facts I need to research and plot holes I need to work out how to fill.Thanks for sharing your thoughts and progress. And thanks to Desney who shared this tip in yesterday's comments:A tip for creating the writing habit: develop a little 'setting up' ritual. For me, it's making a pot of tea, pouring milk into a sweet little jug, and setting this tea ceremony out on the table where I write. Then I light a candle right in front me me, pour a cup of tea, and away I go, writing. When I've finished the writing session, I blow the candle out, with gratitude.I love the idea of creating a writing ritual and am working on coming up with one that works for me. It's that whole notion of being prepared and ready to get into the writing. Making sure you have all your writing tools set up and ready to go can also help. Try to have a dedicated space where you write regularly. Have your pen and notebook ready or even open to the page you intend to start on. Have pencils, highlighters or any other equipment you need readily available. If you use photos or images to inspire your writing have them on a pinboard above your space or at least closeby. The same goes for any books you use for writing prompts (poetry books are great for this). The easier and pleasanter you make it to get into writing the more rewarding the experience will be and the more likely you'll race back to do it again.If you have any writing rituals or tips to keep yourself going we'd love to hear about them.