I was listening to a tech podcast this week that included an interview. The host kept asking these long questions that were basically stating the guest's entire findings or opinions ending with "does that sum it up correctly?" Luckily the guest was skilled at mining a topic to elaborate on out of those paragraphs; if they'd just taken the question as asked, it would have been all yes and no answers.
When I first started teaching a choreographed group fitness class, I thought I had to cue every movement. I was pausing the music between songs to demonstrate techniques and then filling the room with my instructions on mic over the music: "Double pulse; double tap; down and up; three more; and speed it up!" After a couple of years, I took an advanced class in this group fitness style, and it was a revelation how little had to be said to have people follow along just fine. Body language, big gestures, and a few key words here and there were enough.
For my day job, I attend an annual "unconference". An unconference is where the participants collectively create the schedule and both teach the sessions and learn from them. It takes some skilled coordinating done on the fly as participants propose topics, experienced unconferencers group topics to create sessions, sessions are voted on and scheduled, and then moderated. Multiple sessions are run concurrently and participants are encouraged to move between sessions as their interest is piqued. It works because people attend sessions they know a lot about and where they are ready to answer questions. It also works because people attend sessions they know nothing about and where they only have questions.
If you are wondering what all of this has to do with writing rituals, I trust you will figure it out.
