In "Bird by Bird", Anne Lamott compares writing to a tea ceremony: "That thing you had to force yourself to do--the actual act of writing, turns out to be the best part. It's like discovering that while you thought you needed the tea ceremony for the caffeine, what you really needed was the tea ceremony. The act of writing turns out to be its own reward." Lamott's ideas resonate with the author as both a writer and as a teacher of writing. The author has worked with hundreds of advanced learners and gifted students over the years, and the subject they tend to struggle with most is writing. The author opines that if teachers forget Lamott's idea of ceremony--the rituals and routines--of a successful writing classroom, they may send the wrong message to their students about the very nature of writing as a process. If teachers focus their attention only on the product, they will forget the rich processes that lead them to a product they will want to share. Since there is not one process for all writers, they need to build in rituals that enable students to discover what works best for them.