I find that I have only have so much “gas” in the writing tank, partially because writing is mentally taxing.
What makes writing easier? Structure, for sure. We have our pens or keyboards, our cups of coffee. Then there is the process: the sitting down, the decluttering (of mind or external distractions like music), and even working from notes or outlines. I happen to write really well on planes, locked in a seat, ideally with no internet access. In @DrBastiat’s case, it seems that bourbon is required. But for any and all of us, writing properly requires that a fair amount has to be “just right.”
In short order, structure becomes ritual. Though that ritual may not be logically required or formally defensible, it is our ritual, and we do it because it works.
Writers are not alone. Everyone needs structure in order to be productive. There is a popular (if unsubstantiated) story that Beethoven counted out precisely 60 coffee beans every morning as part of his morning ritual. And every one of us has rituals and routines for most of our lives – they are essential for us to be productive.
Why is this so?
My personal belief is that we need structure because mankind has a problem with choices. If we have too many choices, we are paralyzed. So before we can go forward, we must first limit our choices! Beyond the obvious problem for libertarians, there is also a paradox here for a creative endeavor: creativity requires constraining ourselves in non-productive areas.
Decisions that have too many options take much longer than the ones that we take for granted. So we settle into unconscious procedures, so that we don’t have to think about which leg we put in the trousers first, or how we make our coffee or breakfast. With those things taken care of using our little rituals, we can spend the rest of our time being creative.
At least that is the theory.
There is no doubt that Orthodox Judaism is highly structured: praying 3 times a day; endless “down the rabbit hole” into specifics of Jewish Law; and larger “big picture” tasks like always trying to remember to give charity every day and setting aside time to learn Torah, etc. I have been asked by non-Jews how it is possible to be an orthodox Jew – there are, after all, more “thou shalt not” commandments in Judaism than there are days of the year. My response was from my father: “If you know what to eat, how to act, and who to sleep with, you can spend the rest of your life making important decisions.” I quibble – the choice of person you sleep with is really not an unimportant decision. But the general thrust remains valid.
I am beginning to think that G-d does this, too. When He created the world, He made up processes and rules for the physical world – we can refer to them as the Laws of Physics/biology/chemistry, etc. And inside that world, we can be creative. Indeed, creativity is commanded of all living things! With the set rules in place, of course.
But G-d did far more than set natural laws. G-d also seemed to makes rules for Himself. Consider: nothing G-d ever does is reversed – so He seems to have a “no backsies or do-overs” rule. So, for example, instead of restarting from scratch with the generation of Noah, He brought a flood instead, working with what was already here.
More than this: G-d limits his obvious miraculous interventions even with our forefathers, as he clearly preferred to let mankind make our own mistakes.
G-d even limits Himself in space (to allow for the physical world to exist) and in time (so that, as the Torah relates to us, G-d experiences the events of the world alongside humanity, and not from some “out of time” dimension). Self-limitation is just another way of counting coffee beans, is it not?
These rules may be as arbitrary as our daily rituals – or they may indeed be intended to teach us that emulating G-d means that we should be emulating Him when it comes to creating structure and then adhering to it. In other words, perhaps we are to embrace structure and ritual because it is what G-d Himself does!
Zoom out, and see if from this perspective: Because G-d has His processes and rituals, like those of any creative person, the net result is creativity. And this might be true for G-d as well as for mankind. We are all bound within the structure of the world G-d made. And we are more creative for it!
P.S. There are countless common analogies for the above, of course: all games need rules, and gunpowder only works when it is constrained and the energy is focused, or any art form (e.g. sonnets) that has standard conventions. But the key novel contribution, I think, is the idea that G-d does the same thing.