Thursday, October 14, 2021

Hannah Dennison on Writing Rituals.

 RHYS BOWEN:  I'm so happy to include my good friend Hannah Dennison in my week of celebration this week. Hannah and I are fellow Brits. We used to meet for long chats, but since she's moved back to UK we have to meet for long Facetimes. I miss her.  And I love her new series set in the Scilly Isles (not the silly isles) just off the coast of Cornwall. So it's great to welcome her here today.

HANNAH DENNISON: It’s so great to be back posting on Jungle Red today. Thank you, Rhys, for inviting me. My second adventure in the Island Sisters Mysteries, Danger at the Cove, came out mid-August and this is the tail end of an intense couple of months of promoting it. For those who aren’t familiar with my new series – or, by some miracle, missed seeing all the hoop-la, it’s set on Tregarrick, a fictional island in the Isles of Scilly, an archipelago twenty-eight miles off the southwest Cornish coast. As the series title suggests (how I longed to call it the Scilly Sisters, Rhys’s idea and sadly, out voted by my publisher), the series is about two sisters who find themselves chatelaines of a crumbling Art Deco hotel and naturally, murder and mayhem ensue.


 For the last two years I have been working flat out writing two books at the same time (I don’t know how anyone writes three) and continuing to work virtually as a Miss Moneypenny for my boss in Los Angeles. As you know there is a time difference of eight hours which, because I now live in England is eight-hours behind. I have a lot of late nights.

 But now I am in the no-deadline zone for three more weeks before I start writing the next book and I am feeling discombobulated. I’ve finished mucking out my office (I had horses growing up, trust me, it’s an accurate description) and have caught up with chores and friends who thought I went to Mars, but I am still floating around in my pajamas until 11:00 AM.

 The pajama “thing” started fifteen years ago when I got up at 4.30 A.M every morning so I could write before heading off to work in downtown LA. I’d get straight out of bed, collect three cups of coffee (two with foil on top to keep the heat in) and climb into the bed in the guest room – all made up with nice pillows and linens—with my laptop and my cat Mister Tig who has long gone. I’d stay put for two to three hours, not leaving that spot. At weekends, I’d get up a little later, but then I’d be in my pajamas a little later, too.

 Without realizing it, I’d created a ritual. It had become an important part of my creative process. Anne Lamott, in her wonderful book, Bird by Bird mentions donning lucky socks; Christa Faust says her office must be immaculately tidy before she can even begin to write; Stephen King goes through these motions when he sits down to write; "I have a glass of water, or I have a cup of tea. I have my vitamin pill I have my music; I have my same seat; and the papers are all arranged in the same places.” Jill Mansell says she can’t start without a mound of jellybeans—another admits to having the television on playing reruns of CSI with the sound on mute. One of my students—a Methodist minister who lives in Wales—told me that before he writes his sermon, he drapes a scarf around the back of his chair and lights a candle.


The same is often true for readers. My sister only reads in her special reading chair in the corner of her sitting room, my mother must have a gin and tonic on hand and me, I must have something to graze – preferably chocolate. Unfortunately, I’m quite sure that does not qualify as a ritual but as a bad habit.

 Sometimes I worry that my pajama ritual has become a bad habit, too. Of course, I can write fully dressed (!) but not those early drafts. That initial part of my writing process comes from the subconscious muse. When I wake up in the morning, I must go straight to my laptop. If I stop to shower, it’ll take me a while to get into my creative groove. Does anyone remember Julia Cameron’s book The Artist’s Way (1992)? She talks of “morning pages” – the stream of consciousness that spills onto the page immediately on waking before the distractions of the day take over. Although I no longer do morning pages, the discipline has stuck, and it’s become an unbreakable – and very good, habit.

 There is a big difference between habits and rituals. A habit is an activity you have repeated so often that it becomes automatic like brushing teeth or mindlessly eating popcorn when watching a movie (my guilty pleasure). There is very little energy or thought that goes into it.  A ritual is the exact opposite of a habit because there’s an energy, and a commitment behind it. It’s a conscious preparation and an intention that needs to be honored.

 As fellow writers and readers, do you have rituals that have become habits or vice versa? I’d love to hear what they are. Perhaps one of them might inspire me to replace my pajamas with something a little more professional.

 BIO

British born; Hannah originally moved to Los Angeles to pursue screenwriting. She has been an obituary reporter, antique dealer, private jet flight attendant and Hollywood story analyst. Hannah has served on numerous judging committees for Mystery Writers of America and teaches mystery writing workshops for the UCLA Extension Writers’ Program now on Zoom. After twenty-five years living on the West Coast, Hannah returned to the UK where she shares her life with two high-spirited Hungarian Vizslas.

Hannah writes the Island Sisters Mysteries (Minotaur), the Honeychurch Hall Mysteries (Constable) and the Vicky Hill Mysteries (Constable)

 

Social Media Links

https://www.hannahdennison.com  

https://twitter.com/HannahLDennison

http://instagram.com/hannahdennisonbooks         

https://www.facebook.com/HannahDennisonBooks/

47 comments:

  1. Congratulations on your newest book, Hannah . . . I’m looking forward to finding out how the hotel renovations are coming along . . . .
    I never thought about writers having rituals . . . this was really interesting.

    I think pajamas sound cozy and comfortable and conducive to creativity.
    I chuckled over special reading chairs and drinks and chocolate [although I could definitely adopt the chocolate ritual] . . . I’ll read anywhere, anytime, anyhow . . . .
    My only real morning ritual revolves around coffee . . . I’m much better prepared for the day after a cup or two or . . . .

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    1. Coffee is definitely critical! My mother doesn't drink coffee or tea and but pops these pills called ProPlus (anyone remember them from way back?) I looked on the packet and they are 50g pure caffeine. But there's something more satisfying about drinking a cup.

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  2. Congrats on your book which I loved and so happy to hear that there is a third book coming. The main ritual I have is when I wake up, I must put on the TV morning news.

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    1. I'm so happy you enjoyed Danger at the Cove! I daren't watch the morning news otherwise I'd go down the rabbit hole. I'm always tempted when I am stuck on my plot.

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  3. Congratulations on the new book! I loved the first one, and thanks for sharing your writing ritual with us.

    I'm also an early morning writer, but I don't stay in PJs. I throw on my writing hoodie and some old jeans, go downstairs to make my coffee, and come back up to my office. I check the Wicked Authors blog and this one, run through new emails, do a bit of Facebook and twitter, read Heather Cox Richardson's daily post. I find I need about an hour to check in with the world before I start writing or I won't be able to settle.

    Then I grab my second cup of coffee, check in with Ramona's Sprint Club on FB, and open my Scrivener project. The first hour is sacred writing time. I stay at my desk for four or five hours every morning but Sunday, but the first hour is key.

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    1. Gosh Edith - I just LOVE your ritual/schedule. You seem to get a lot done and at the same time, just serenely cruise along. I'm so envious. I am definitely going to check out your recommendations (although of course I know the Wicked Authors blog!!)

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    2. Also, Hannah, I love that your mom reads with a G&T. I have been known to do that, myself - in the summer, on the deck at the end of the day, nothing is better.

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  4. Welcome Hannah! I so admire your determination to get up at 4:30 and write before work! We have a friend visiting and I was sitting on our porch with him trying to write. After about ten minutes (and he's very quiet), I had to leave. "This is not my writing spot," I told him. (I write in bed.)

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    1. Ha ha that's so funny Lucy about your writing spot. It's so true how we get used to a specific place. Happily I no longer have to get up so early and honestly, I don't think I could do that again. I was driven by sheer panic at the time.

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  5. HANNAH: Congratulations on your new book.

    Like Dru, Edith and Roberta, I am an early riser even in retirement.
    I immediately change into my daytime clothes, drink my lemon water, and spend time looking at the morning news online, FB and some blogs, including JRW. Then some breakfast and my first (only) cup of coffee about an hour later. Then I spent at least an hour reading the next ARC/book on my nearest TBR pile.

    Having said that, my ritual/habit is thrown off today. I have to leave home in 40 minutes to go to the hospital for another new procedure to hopefully fix my blurry vision, after 2 cataract surgeries done in the summer.

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    1. Wishing you the best for clear vision, Grace!

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    2. Thinking of you all day, Grace! Sending prayers your way!

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    3. Oh Grace - I am so sorry to hear about your vision. Fingers crossed they can sort it out. Thanks for stopping by and sharing your ritual.

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    4. Grace, I hope they finally manage to correct your vision problems. Thinking of you today.

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    5. Grace, best wishes! Fingers crossed.

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    6. Hope all goes well today, Grace.

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    7. Thanks all. The laser zapped away the "crinkly wax paper like film" on my lens which is like seeing through a frosted window. No immediate improvement since I have 4 different eyedrops in that eye but it should get better in a while (few weeks).

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    8. It'll be fine, Grace. I just got zapped a couple of weeks ago in my left eye for the blurry membrane syndrome which evidently happens quite often after cataract surgery. It took several years to occur in my case.

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    9. Thanks, Pat, this is good to hear the procedure worked for you. My eye surgeon was a bit more pessimistic. He said I would hopefully notice an improvement. But since my eyes are quite different we agreed to have one eye adjusted for long distance and the other for upclose vision/reading. I might still have to get reading glasses in the end, which I was hoping to avoid.

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  6. This is so interesting. Welcome to JRW, Hannah and congratulations on your latest Island Sisters Mysteries. The cover is simply gorgeous. Please tell us some more about these sisters and how they end up on the Scilly Islands restoring a crumbling hotel.

    I, too, am an early riser and coffee is definitely part of my morning, but I wouldn't define anything I do as a ritual. There are several wonderful reading spots in my home and I choose one depending on where my husband is (still sleeping, mowing the lawn, watching TV) and the weather. I do check JRW every day.

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    1. Hi Judy - I love that you have a few reading spots! Thanks for asking about the "sisters." The cover is based on a hotel in Devon called Burgh Island Hotel -- but I moved it (the fun of being a writer) and stuck it on a fictional island off the coast of Cornwall in the Isles of Scilly. The two sisters, Evie (recently widowed) and Margot (a former Hollywood film producer) reunite when Evie discovers the hotel now mysteriously belongs to her ... and murder ensues (of course).

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  7. Congratulations on the book, Hannah!

    Being a person who, for years now, has very little time to write, there aren't many rituals around that. At noon, I open my personal laptop and write. I get one hour, I can't waste time. I have found, however, that I do better with a hot beverage, usually tea, in my hand.

    I like a hot beverage when I read at night, all curled up in my chair in my library/den.

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    1. Hi Liz - I bet that hour is productive tho! Sometimes having too much time is counter productive - at least with me. I love a hot chocolate at night - curled up with my dogs ... although "curl" is wishful thinking. They sit on me and each weighs 65 lbs.

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  8. Lemon water! Curious minds. (Grace, I'll be thinking of you today)
    My writing ritual involves sharpening pencils. Even though I *write* at the computer I like having sharpened pencils because... actually I have no idea why.
    And Hannah, what's a Vizsla? Aside from my 'new word for the day' :-)

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    1. Ooooh I LOVE sharpening pencils. I wonder if it's a throwback from school. But it definitely smacks of a ritual -- just the very nature of sharpening them! My Vizslas --- they are Hungarian Vizslas - pronounced veeshla in the USA and vizzla in the UK. They are a rich red-chestnut color with long ears - a similar breed would be a German pointer or a Weimeraner (spelling?) The vizslas are called "velcro dogs" because they follow you everywhere --- especially to the bathroom which is a bit challenging ...

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  9. Hannah, congrats! Scilly Sisters they shall remain in my mind! I love it when I find a new series, especially one set in a place far away.

    I am indulging in my morning ritual right now--get up, feed the cats (indoor and outdoors), grab a drink, open up my computer and check in with the world--JRW is my first stop, a couple more things to check, then my daily walk. Reading comes at night, after work, after supper, after chores. There's always been this luxurious feel to being propped up in bed with a stack of books, a good light, and hours stretching before me....

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    1. Flora ... I think I want your ritual. It sounds SO luxurious! And, after a busy day - completely guilt-free!

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  10. Congratulations on your new release!

    I do my best writing during the winter months, in my pajamas and hooded sweatshirt at the kitchen table. First thing in the morning, coffee mug next to my laptop.

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    1. Excellent!!!! That sounds just like me - I'm probably unusual in that I love the dark mornings. I feel as if I am the only person awake but now I know you are too!

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  11. Hi dear Hannah: I have to write in my office, at my desk with all my research materials around me and no distractions. Other than that I get lots of writing done on planes. I think it’s knowing there is nothing else to do! And I hope the news book is a big hit!

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    1. Thank you Rhys! I second the writing on planes. I am able to make the tiny seat space "my own" and don't get distracted by the movies etc. Naturally I always make sure to have the little miniature bottles of wine on hand!

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  12. I turn on the TV first thing in the morning, I want the noise. It will stay on until bed or when I leave the house. I have tinnitus and the noise distract from the ringing that never goes away.

    Your new book looks inviting, Hannah. I have a new destination to discover.

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    1. Hi Deanna - I cannot imagine what it must be like to have tinnitus. I am so glad you have found a solution to that. I have a friend with tinnitus - I am going to recommend she try that too.

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  13. I stay up late to read in peace and sleep in late. I'm a night person by nature and retired so I can do that now. Unfortunately my husband is a morning person, and a loud one at that! I don't have reading rituals. I grab a book and plop down to read. I have a routine of sorts for mornings. Get dressed, get coffee, check in on things on my laptop, turn on the news while I skim through the newspapers and work the crosswords. I leave the TV on as white noise but turn it off at night when I get serious about my reading.
    I really enjoy the Honeychurch Hall books but have gotten woefully behind. And the Scilly Sisters sounds fun!

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    1. Hi Pat - yes, like you I am definitely a morning person. Only twice in my writing career have I "pulled an all-nighter." I hope to never do it again! Must be a challenge having hubby doing the opposite! I love hearing that you enjoyed Honeychurch --- I hope you enjoy the Scilly Sisters too.

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  14. Hannah,

    Welcome to Jungle Reds! Wonderful to learn about your rituals. My rituals would be similar to Rhys.

    When I wake up, I cannot think until I have a cup of coffee. I am currently taking an online cozy mystery writing class and I like to have my research materials around me with no distractions.

    My life coach years ago recommended Julia Cameron's Artist's Way book and I remember reading that donkey years ago!

    Thought of your Scilly Island series when I saw photos from the Royal Family's visit to the Scilly Islands (I think it was the Duchess of Cambridge and the Duke of Cambridge with their children).

    Look forward to reading your cozy mystery novel.

    Diana

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    1. I kept all my morning page notebooks from those days. I am a bit embarrassed now - rereading them - all I did was complain about the same old thing ... but it definitely prepared me for the discipline of writing every morning! And yes, you are right. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were there - sadly not when I was recently -- it was fun to see the lovely house they stayed. It's such a tiny island I know I might have caught a glimpse if my timing had been better!

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  15. Hi, Hannah,

    I LOVE THIS SERIES SO MUCH!!! Delightful to see you here today. I love the pajama ritual! I wish I had a ritual. I've just
    gotten an office with a door, so closing the door to keep my people out might be my only ritual. LOL.

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    1. ha ha ha Jenn ...you are so hilarious! I cannot keep my dogs OUT of my tiny office but I put in a single bed against the wall so they can sleep there within touching distance - as you know, they are velcro dogs ...

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  16. I think I need more rituals; maybe that will speed up my page production! :-)

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    1. ... it's definitely worth a try! When I first started writing I kept charts of how many minutes I wrote a day. Sometimes it was just 10 minutes but I felt I was making progress. I still keep writing charts all these years later. It's a mind game but it makes me feel like I've achieved something :) Oh and when I skip a day, I color the square in green (no idea why).

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  17. I loved hearing all about other writers' rituals, but if I were you I'd stick with the pajama thing because obviously it is working fine. For you, that is your professional garment!

    Can't wait to read the books. vLove any stories that take place on an island.

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    1. Thank you Judi. Perhaps I need to buy more attractive pajamas? I loved Diane Lane's pajamas in Under the Tuscan Sun. I tracked them down - they're called Bedhead Pajamas but you need a mortgage to buy a pair ...

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  18. Hi, Hannah, and congrats on the new book! I love your rituals--and I definitely need to work on mine. Not a pajama person, because I have to let the dogs out first thing and even in the back yard I'm very visible to the neighbors. I walk the dogs (usually!), have toast, then sit down at the computer with my coffee. My husband is a total night owl and sleeps late, so I love those quiet morning hours. I just need to make better use of them!

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    1. I LOVE the quiet morning hours especially at this time of year with autumnal mists. I too have to let the dogs out but I wear my pajamas - I wonder why my neighbors give me a wide berth? They're not racy - just good old Eddie Bauer ... no lace or frills ...

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  19. I am worried about rituals because if I have one and then for some reason I can't do it, will I not be able to write? I do keep a word count charts, though and I have a I-suppose-it's-a-ritual of entering my words from the day before when I start my days work. Once I write down yesterday's words, that means I have made a deal with myself to start todays. Even when I am on tour, I bring my chart.
    So does that mean I have a ritual?
    And like Rhys, I love writing on planes. It's so--focused.

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    1. That's a very good question! It sounds like an excellent habit but also a ritual as well! I take my charts with me too :)

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