A Peak into the Daily Habits of Creative Geniuses
Book summary of “Daily Rituals: How artists work” by Mason Currey
TL;DR:
Snapshots of the daily habits of 161 inspiring creatives boil down to this: artists have habits just as any other professions, and their routines are personal. There is no secret “success routine” other than finding what works for you personally, follow it, and consistently work hard.
This is one of those books that cannot be summarized.
The book is inspirational rather than actionable. It’s easy to read and easy to put down. If you consider yourself to be an artist, you will find insights that change the way you perceive your work or organize your habits.
Each person reading this book will feel resonated with a different artist and have a different takeaway. Below are some of the lessons I learned from this book.
1. Most artists have routines
Most artists swear by routines.
- Poet W. H. Auden lived by an exacting timetable throughout his life as he believes “the surest way to discipline passion is to discipline time”.
- Ernest Hemingway was well-known for his habit of writing every early morning, even if he had been up late drinking the night before.
- Write Murakami believed routine can be a form of mesmerism for creativity and reaching a deeper state of mind.
- Beethoven prepared coffee for himself every morning before start working. He often counted coffee beans one by one to ensure there were sixty per cup.
There are exceptions to the rule. Marilynne Robinson, for example, said she is “incapable of discipline” and only write when something makes a strong claim on her. Georges Simenon, one of the most prolific novelists of the twentieth century, worked in intense bursts of literary activity for two to three weeks, followed by weeks or months of no writing at all.
Still, the majority of artists in the book have habits that allow them to create on a regular basis. Many eat the same food for breakfast and lunch, work at the same time every day, and have a fixed schedule for exercises and social activities.
2. How do artists get inspiration?
Some artists rely on routines instead of waiting for inspiration. As artist Chuck Close famously said, “Inspiration is for amateurs”.
Many artists like taking a long walk and carry a notebook with them to record any ideas. Beethoven walked almost every afternoon, always with a pencil and a couple of music paper sheets in his pocket. Philosopher Kierkegaard believed the walks were where he had the best ideas.
Another practice is stopping before the creative juice has been exhausted.
- Earnest Hemmingway believed you should stop writing when you still have your juice and know what will happen next, so that you can start the next day from there.
- Henry Miller found any work after noon was unnecessary and believed that he should “getting up from the typewriter, away from it, while I still have things to say”.
- Thomas Mann worked for only three hours every day from 9:00 to noon. Anything that didn’t come by noon would have to wait until the next day.
And then there are some weird practices. For instance, novelist Thomas Wolfe once got a stream of inspiration after fondling his genitals. Since then, he used this masturbation-alike ritual to find inspiration.
3. The creative process is not easy even for geniuses
Ingmar Bergman, one of the most accomplished filmmakers of all time, described his job as “Eight hours of hard work each day to get three minutes of film”. Joyce Carol Oates compared every first draft as “ pushing a peanut with your nose across a very dirty floor”.
Award-winning writer Jonathan Franzen felt like a failure when his writing during the week was bad. He described Fridays of those weeks would end with vodka, and he would be “consumed with a sick sense of failure”.
Genius composer Chopin often had ideas came to him suddenly, but it took heart-rending efforts to create those ideas. He would be in his room for days “weeping, walking, breaking his pens, repeating and altering a bar a hundred times, writing and effacing it as many times, and recommencing the next day with a minute and desperate perseverance”.
All these are reminders that creating something new is challenging, and the artists will inevitably face self-doubt from time to time.
4. What are the types of environment that can stimulate creativity?
Most artists in this book seem to need solitude for creative work.
They often work in the early morning or late night when everything is quiet and keep a closed door even to their families while working. Leo Tolstoy, for example, worked in absolute isolation when writing War and Peace. After breakfast, he would lock his room and avoided coming out until five o’clock when he joined his family for dinner.
Some artists deliberately designed an uncluttered life so that they can focus on their work. Carl Jung chose to live in a small village with no electricity and telephone, a life he described to be similar to a man of the sixteenth century. Simone de Beauvoir lived a life of “no parties, no receptions, no bourgeois values” to focus on her work.
Some artists prefer to have music or chattering sound at the background. For instance, Chuck Close liked to have TV or radio playing in the background to keep him from being anxious.
This article is one of a series of book summary on the creativity topic. Check out the rest of the series if you want to learn more about developing creativity:
- Science-backed ways to boost creativity (synthesis of all the book summaries)
- “A Technique for Getting Ideas” Summary (a five-step process to generate ideas, written by a marketing expert)
- “Daily Rituals: How artists work” Summary (this one, a glimpse into what an average day of many famous artists look like)
- “Cracking Creativity: The secrets of creative genius” Summary (chock full of techniques for creative problem solving)
- “The Medici Effect: what elephants and epidemics can teach us about innovation” Summary (the importance of working at the intersections of various fields and how to do so)
- “The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life” Summary (how to build creativity habits that nurture your craft)
