Heather Demetrios's Blog, page 3
January 26, 2019
Lotus & Pen #1
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The Lotus & Pen #1: An Interview with Mary Quattlebaum
I wanted to start 2019 off with a big dose of inspiration, so today I’m beginning a new series I’ve been secretly working on for a few months, the Lotus and Pen, where I interview fellow writers who meditate. One of my favorite things to do is ask writers how they approach their craft and process, and I’m curious to see, for those who meditate, how the practice plays a role in their lives as artists. I’ll be asking all the writers the same questions, then sitting back and letting all of us bask in the warmth of their wisdom.
I wanted to inaugurate this journey with children’s author and WCYA faculty member Mary Quattlebaum, who was really the first writing teacher I encountered who actively used meditation as a teaching tool to help students dive deeper into their sensory imagination in order to enrich their craft. I’m sure those of you who’ve worked with Mary as an advisor or, as I did, in a residency workshop, have been asked to close your eyes once or twice.
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One big takeaway I had from this enlightening conversation with Mary was that she believes, as I do, in practicing meditation for the sake of meditation. Yes, it may have fringe benefits on your creative life, but the gifts of the practice—how it wakes you up to yourself and the world around you—is reason enough.
To find out more how to begin your own practice and enter 2019 with some of this mind magic, you can check out this post on first draft meditation practice.
Now, without further ado….
How long have you been meditating and what kind of meditation do you do?
A long time and not long enough, and I mean that literally! I wish I had started as a child or teenager, and I wish I had not cut out my practice when life got especially busy or stressful. I notice greater focus, compassion, and calmness in myself when I’m meditating and being mindful on a daily basis rather than being prey to the incessant chatter of “monkey mind.”
As for what kind of meditation … Vipassana, primarily, though I also do meditations focused on sound, voice, and movement. I try to meditate in a device-free space so I tend to eschew apps or recorded meditations.
What effect do you think meditation and/or mindfulness has on your creative life?
I feel more centered and aware and able to sink both more deeply and more quickly into the relaxed, alert mind state that helps facilitate creativity and flow. But I also want to mention that I try to experience meditation as a deeply engaging activity in and of itself rather than as a means to a certain end (becoming a better novelist, say).
Has there been a time when you have called upon your meditation or mindfulness work to help you with some of the downs of the artistic life, be it a creative block, a rejection letter, a bad review, etc.?
Yes, indeed! I first began meditating as a way to manage depression and anxiety. The writer’s life—well, anyone’s life—is full of ups and downs and joys and disappointments that we navigate as best we can while recognizing the feelings and needs of our fellow beings.
Walking with mindfulness, especially with our dogs, has always been my go-to, when life gets intense. They are so alive in the moment, so eager to run and sniff and take in the world, and their example helps me feel more centered in the body and moment. Plus, they are fun and goofy! My family now has an elderly border collie, who is calm and gracious and a joy to be with.
Let’s talk craft: you may or may not have thought about this before, but do you think that there are ways in which your practice on the cushion, as we say, has helped you in your actual writing on the page?
That’s a good question but just for myself, I try to avoid thinking too much about cause/effect in terms of one particular area of life but appreciate the beneficial rippling effect of a regular meditative practice. Sort of like not wanting to privilege one species in an ecosystem.
In another way, meditation has probably worked against the “career” aspects of being a writer in that I find social media very distracting and tend to avoid it.
Do you have any go-to creative or writing activities that are related to meditation, visualization, etc.? We’d love to try them out for ourselves!
I try to do visualizations of scenes, characters, memories that focus on the five senses. That can help me attend more fully to the experience that informs the writing. Here’s a visualization/wordplay that can be applied to self or character, as a way of attending to physicality and process
Wordplay (memory): Close your eyes and let your mind call up a time when you were trying to learn something new (drawing, cursive writing, jump shot, a musical instrument, skipping rope, whatever). Deepen your awareness of this incident by exploring it with each of your five senses. Be that child again. Now write that up, using at least 3 of your 5 senses. Remember to show, rather than tell, the feelings.
What are ways you’ve brought meditation into your process? For example, do you meditate before you write?
I try to meditate first thing in the morning, about 30 minutes. And when I sit down at computer or with pen/paper, I try to take several calming, centering breaths.
In addition to your actual meditation, what other activities related to this practice do you engage in? For example, do you incorporate mindfulness tasks such as mindfully doing housework like one might do at a meditation retreat or do you read Buddhist or other “dharma” books that tease out some of meditation’s lessons on things like accepting impermanence or working on our relationship to craving?
For me, it can be very pleasurable to be mindful when doing certain things (walking the dog, gardening, housework, even being in that delicious feeling of lassitude before falling asleep). One of my favorite guides is Chop Wood, Carry Water: A Guide to Finding Spiritual Fulfillment in Everyday Life.
What kind of instruction do you get in meditation? For example, do you go on retreats, listen to an app, have a teacher you work with…?
Years ago I took several meditation/writing workshops with two poets who were body-oriented psychotherapists. They helped shift me from privileging the head/intellect/will in writing to experiencing writing as emerging from a deeper, more integrated space within the self and the world. The workshops were body-centered, sound-focused, playful, non-linear, surprising, challenging, and restorative. I am so grateful for the instructors’ approach and this transformative experience. I also co-taught several similar workshops with a poet friend who is a body psychotherapist. But please note, this approach is quite different from the lecture/workshop model in the academic world—and those interested will want to seek out trained instructors.
Do you have any go-to books or other resources that you recommend writers who are interested in these practices check out?
For the curious, no matter their work or lifestyle, I recommend Dan Harris’s two books 10% Happier and Meditation for Fidgety Skeptics. They present research into and explore excuses related to meditation in a down-to-earth, good-humored manner, free of dogma or mystical lingo. Those interested, be they business executive, wait staff, artist/writer, teenager, or teacher—may find the meditation that best suits them from the many offered in the second book. (The first book is more of a memoir of how Harris, a news reporter, found/benefits from meditation and surveys the scientific/medical/psychological research on the topic.)
I also love to hear about other people’s practices and helpful resources.
More about Mary:
Mary Quattlebaum is the author of 26 award-winning children’s books, including picture books and nonfiction that feature animals or ecosystems, and of stories and poems in anthologies and children’s magazines (Spider, Cricket, Ladybug, Highlights). Titles include Mighty Mole and Super Soil, Jo MacDonald Saw a Pond, Hero Dogs: True Stories of Amazing Animal Heroes, and most recently Brother, Sister, Me and You (about animal siblings). Mary teaches in the MFA program in writing for children and young adults at the Vermont College of Fine Arts, reviews children’s books for the Washington Post and Washington Parent, and speaks frequently at schools and conferences. She grew up in the country in Virginia, surrounded by wild and companion animals. She now lives in Washington, DC, with her family and an elderly border collie, and tends a small backyard habitat that attracts pollinators, rabbits, birds, earthworms, squirrels, and even an opossum. www.maryquattlebaum.com
As usual, you can sign up for my newsletter, The Lotus and the Pen, to get downloads of guided meditations and worksheets, discounts on my courses, creativity and mindfulness hacks, and access to my Inspiration Portal.
January 12, 2019
Bloom
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I don’t know about all of you, but New Year’s Resolutions don’t work for me. Instead, I’ve gotten on the word-for-the-year train, and it seems to suit me just fine.
This year, my word is BLOOM.
I wanted a word that would support me in my desire to both grow roots and reach for the sun. I love the idea of my creative life–my whole life, really–being a secret garden where I can flourish.
And then, on accident, I ran across the Rumi poem, Surrender, just after I had chosen my word:
Very little grows on jagged rock.
Be ground. Be crumbled,
so wildflowers will come up where you are.
You have been stormy for too many years.
Try something different. Surrender.
I’m excited to see what 2019 brings for me in my creative and personal life. I’ve got lots of travel for the first half, a big move back to the States for the second, and all kinds of adventures in between. I’m turning in several books and working on a few more. Busy, busy! But I’m working hard to be mindful to go sloooooow. It takes time for seeds to peek above the ground, and they need lots of tender loving care to do so.
When I do find my home and set up shop, you better believe I’m going to start my first-ever garden. And I’m going to fill my house with flowers.
Here I am on my 36th birthday, which was earlier this week. I kept thinking of blooming while I took this picture in my temporary office here in Switzerland, and I can feel the peace radiating from me. The quiet joy.
Blooming.
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What’s your word for 2019? If you haven’t chosen one yet and are looking to explore more to figure it out, I found the lovely Susannah Conway’s mini-course, Find Your Word, (free) to be so helpful, as was her Unravel Your Year workbook, which she also offers for free. Lots of delicious journaling.
Happy New Year, friends! May we all bloom.
As usual, you can sign up for my newsletter, The Lotus and the Pen to get your free 7-Day Meditation Starter Kit for Writers.
The newsletter = special downloads of guided meditations and worksheets, discounts on my courses, creativity and mindfulness hacks, and access to my Inspiration Portal.
December 18, 2018
DEAR HEARTBREAK Is Out Today!
~ A. S. King, Dear Heartbreak
DEAR HEARTBREAK is out today!
My dears, this book….oh, this book. If you love Cheryl Strayed’s Dear Sugar, then this is for you. If you’ve ever taken a breath, ever had your heart broken, ever needed a shoulder to cry on, a good laugh, some hard-won wisdom…this is for you.
Side note: I do believe this makes a most excellent holiday gift for the teen or adult reader in your life. A quick read, lotsa heart, pretty as a picture (that cover!), and lots of diversity. Ahem. 
December 10, 2018
The Loneliests
This month, I participated in the YA Open Mic segment on the Barnes and Noble Teen blog, where they give us authors free reign to speak from the heart about anything we want. With Dear Heartbreak coming out next week, the topic I chose–loneliness–seemed apt. It’s also a big reason why I decided to edit Heartbreak. Here is the piece I wrote, but I encourage you to go to the post on the Barnes and Noble blog and check out those of the other eight authors. It’s such a great segment. And then, of course, I hope you’ll want to read Dear Heartbreak, too. You can pre-order now, anywhere books are sold, or go pick it up on December 18th.
How A Light Bringer Lights Her Own Fire
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For the past two years I’ve been dedicating much of my life to coaching writers, leading the occasional retreat, building and teaching courses, creating and sharing materials on craft and creative living and mindfulness for writers, and in a myriad of ways sharing what I’ve learned from being an artist and navigating this crazy world of publishing. Blog posts, videos, worksheets, Facebook live posts, and—biggest of all—creating an online community for lady-identifying authors where we give and get daily nourishment.
Many of you, I suspect, also wear hats such as these: it’s part of the landscape of being a writer, especially once you enter the professional sphere. In part, it’s a necessary income stream (writing, alas, doesn’t always pay all the bills). But writing has always been an apprenticeship-based art form, I think, even though so much of it is done in solitude. We value the sharing of knowledge, the passing on of wisdom, from one writer to the next. It’s a very generous community in that way, and I think when we figure things out, we’re eager to share them—and eager to learn regardless of our level of experience. And that’s a beautiful thing. I adore—adore—teaching and working with fellow writers. Sometimes more than writing itself.
All this work with others has been a real coming together of years of creative living, spiritual meanderings, and of pursuing my love of writing, and it’s been amazing to share what I’ve learned along the way with my fellow travelers – and learn from them, too. There’s so much big magic floating around out there. The community I founded online has become a genuine outpost for women to hold space for each other and create much-needed lifelines and connection in what is often a very isolating life we lead as writers. It’s been a privilege to see.
While all of this is very delicious, my shift toward focusing on working with writers also opened me up to more hustling. As if it wasn’t bad enough as an author (buy my book, buy buy buy), now I had to hustle as a teacher / coach / mindfulness evangelist. Classes I wanted people to attend, retreats to sign up for, blogs to read, and on and on. And while I absolutely loved (love) what I did (do) and believed (believe) in it, I couldn’t deny that it was a slippery slope. A slope that led away from my writing and, ultimately, myself, if I didn’t guard the work, my time, and my headspace.
In actively supporting other writers, I was necessarily having to take time away from my own work, and my own well-filling.
Now, the adage is true: when we help others, we help ourselves even more. So I often got even more than I gave. And every time I finished a class or got off a call, the buzzy feeling I had confirmed that I was where I needed to be: this was vocation. But I knew I had to be mindful of burn-out. I tried to take care of myself, though it was hard not to give every drop of energy I had, and it was so much fun to talk shop and to create community and to make things and to help others through the darkness I’d walked through myself. To be a light-bringer.
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Problem is, all this light I was bringing to others was causing my own little flame to gutter. No one’s fault, except perhaps mine: my own eagerness and passion, my obstinate belief that I could do it all. This had a ripple effect on everything—and the writing, most of all.
I knew it was time to slow down. Big time. To get expansive. To get back to the work.
Several months ago, I spoke about my decision to have a hiatus from social media. Update: best. Decision. Ever. I have more flow, lots of big internal shifts, and I’m able to wrap my head around some really important things I’ve been mulling over. This was my first step in slowing down and coaxing that guttering flame to burn brighter.
For a long time now, I’ve been running on fumes. I bet a lot of you are, too. I’ve managed, through meditation, to stay upright, but it’s been too much. And now the chickens are really coming home to roost, as the deadlines pile up and I navigate the complexities of life abroad. All of this has created clarity on what has to go, what isn’t serving me or the work. I tend to be a gal who works in extremes, for better or worse, and so it took moving to Europe and a slew of unfortunate events for me to finally make some big decisions that were a long time coming.
It really comes down to boundaries. Yes, the boundaries you create with others, but—in my case—it was more about setting some boundaries with my perfectionist, ambitious, creative self. The self that wanted to please my publisher and get a book in on deadline even though I needed more time. (New Heather emailed her editor and said I need more time. Editor said this was okay and all’s well that ends well.). I had to set boundaries with the self that wanted to create bespoke worksheets for students and clients instead of being okay with knowing that what I was giving was absolutely more than enough already and that every time I slid into worksheet-making behavior I wasn’t working on my books. New Heather is currently not making worksheets. New Heather is honing her sense of when she is in a space of healthy output for others—a positive energetic exchange—and when she is draining herself. And she adjusts accordingly.
Giving of our time and creative energy to others, be it fellow writers or our readers, is a perk of the job. But in order to do that job well—writing—we have to be able to show up for ourselves, too.
A quick way to check in to see if you’re not setting good boundaries with yourself (and students, clients, readers, etc.) is to simply stop when you feel overwhelmed. Stop, close your eyes, and just follow your breath for a bit. Tune in to how your body is feeling. See where this feeling of stress or overwhelm is residing. Just sit with it for a bit. Don’t push it away. Breathe. Just a couple of minutes. Meditation teacher Tara Brach calls this a “sacred pause.” It can help you get a little clarity, stepping outside the maelstrom. A bit of walking meditation goes a long way, too.
It’s good to remember that what makes a flame stronger, brighter is more oxygen. So: deep breaths.
Breathe. Write. Repeat.
As usual, you can sign up for my newsletter, The Lotus and the Pen, to get your free 7-Day Meditation Starter Kit for Writers.
The newsletter = special downloads of guided meditations and worksheets, discounts on my courses, creativity and mindfulness hacks, and access to my Inspiration Portal.
November 22, 2018
Practical Mindfulness Exercises To Hone Your Craft
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I talk a lot about how mindfulness and meditation can help the writing process, but today I want to talk about how it can help the writing itself. Your craft. Your story-telling ability. Mindfulness can be the lens through which you see the work itself, not just how you go about approaching your creative life. These are a few exercises that will help you go deeper with your characters and sharpen your world-building, as well as fine-tune your prose on the word-by-word level. We’ll even get into how mindfulness can help you revise.
Specificity Through Paying Attention
I’ve often mentioned how mindfulness practice can help you in the all-essential art of paying attention which is, perhaps, the most important quality in any writer. But what about the words on the actual page?
There is no better place to start this work than poetry. To me, poetry is what happens when mindfulness and words make love. You would do well to read more poetry, to look at the attention to detail that the writers bring to the text, and to use poets’ advice on how to go deeper. And then go be like Mary Oliver and lay in fields for hours on end, staring at clouds and daisies and decaying animals before you write a word.
One of my favorite writing exercises that brings mindfulness into the mix comes from Susan Goldsmith Wooldridge’s Poemcrazy. (An excellent read). In one of her many wonderful, playful, illuminating exercises, Wooldridge suggests a daily practice of grabbing a notebook, going outside, and walking somewhere alone and then jotting down what you observe through all your senses. In her words:
“It’s important to narrow everything down, make it as specific as you can, down to the tip of a blade of grass, or you’ll leave the reader out. For emotion to arise, writing has to be very specific—describing a particular moment or experience in a particular place.”
It doesn’t just have to be a walk. When I lived in New York City, I loved getting on the subway, closing my eyes, and just listening. That is some good sensory detail right there. In fact, I just used years of that practice in a scene I wrote yesterday. The important thing in this exercise is not to be a lazy git about it. You really have to keep digging until you get that description juuuuuust right. Describe that sound so that we really hear it. Avoid clichés. Revise it. Make it SING.
When you sit in meditation, you get even more bang for your buck with exercises like these. It primes you to be more present when you have these experiences. To fully show up. It whittles away the non-essentials.
Revision Through Being Here Now
Zen teacher and writer Natalie Goldman said in a recent talk at the Brooklyn Zen Center that when she’s revising, she asks this question: Where was I not present?
This doesn’t mean herself—you don’t want authorial presence, otherwise you’re breaking what John Gardner refers to as “the fictive dream,” that lovely place of suspended disbelief where the reader forgets they’re reading a book and they actually believe they are in Narnia or Middle Earth or kissing a certain vampire who shall not be named.
Where was I not present is simply asking yourself: where did I not show up when I was writing? Where did I check out? Where did I give up because it got too hard, because I didn’t want to go deep enough? Where was I thinking ahead and not really in the scene I was writing?
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There are three big ways you can see that you’re not present, ones I use as guideposts all the time:
The Missed Moment: We often know we’re not present in the writing when we have what our dear faculty member Amanda Jenkins calls a “missed moment”—something extraordinary was skipped over by the author. They missed the mark. It’s that moment when someone says something like, Yes, well, I’ll tell you now that I killed my mother but, whatever, let’s go fight the Dread Pirate Lord and then have ice-cream and then everyone actually does go fight the Dread Pirate Lord and then have ice-cream and you’re like OH MY GOD YOU KILLED YOUR MOTHER WHY ARE WE NOT TALKING ABOUT THIS? Missed moment. (I would say that ENTIRE final scene of the last episode of Season Seven of Game of Thrones was a missed moment. Oh, it was so missed. I am still mad about that).
The Niggling Feeling: We also recognize when we’re not present when another Amanda-ism comes up: the “niggling feeling.” You know when you’re reading and you get a sense that something’s off, but you’re not sure what it is? Chances are, it’s a moment you weren’t present. Some dialogue that isn’t right, a line that needs revision, a word that’s not quite there. You might not know what is wrong. But it’s not working. Do not settle for Good Enough! Get present and revise.
Being In The Character’s Skin: And the third way we might not be showing up is the queen of them all, yet another of Amanda’s eternal truths about writing: we’re not getting into the skin of the character. Meaning, we haven’t inhabited them. Our protagonist is narrating events, they are just telling us what’s happening. We aren’t feeling it, they aren’t feeling it. Think of yourself as a method writer. Just like an actor gets into character, you need to, as well. This is where you bring in all five senses and let it rip. No matter how much it hurts them and you. Show up, do the work. Bleed on the page.
So the next time you’re revising, or even reading over your work, ask yourself: Where was I not present?
Character Creation Through Compassion Practice
A really big part of mindfulness practice is compassion. There are formal meditations that go with this, such as lovingkindness (mettā) meditation, and countless books on how the Buddha talked about compassion for all beings in the larger context of Buddhist practice.
We writers, even the most curmudgeonly among us (and I count myself in that crew), are an empathetic bunch. We have to be, in order to inhabit the skin of so many different kinds of people. There is a curious egoic elasticity within us: we must, somehow, be able to be male and female, gay and straight, peoples of all colors, rich and poor, intelligent and ignorant, powerful and weak. On a big writing day, I have rallied an army with a crown on my head and begged for mercy as a slave, made love to a woman, then a man, killed a child, and started a revolution. It was just a normal Tuesday.
Writing teaches us to love people we never used to see. To understand people we thought we could never comprehend. We even fall in love with our villains. I sobbed my eyes out when I had to kill one of mine, and he was a terrible, terrible man.
Mindfulness allows us to hone our compassion and empathy, to strengthen this muscle. In part, it’s because we’re paying attention. We start to see things more clearly: not just on the macro, cosmic level, but on the micro. We notice the tired sigh of the woman behind the checkout counter because we are not checking our phones. Because we have decided to be present for the experience of buying our groceries, rather than looking at Instagram while she bags our food. We see her sigh and we feel something for her, a kinship of humanity. We remember that sigh, days later, when we sit down to write and one of our characters looks up from her work, exhausted. We get it down, just right, because we have the perfect moment already stored in our memory.
Exercise:
The next time you go out—whether it’s with friends or just to the gas station—do so with the intention of being fully present, as a compassionate witness to the humanity of those around you. Don’t multi-task or look at your phone. Listen to them. When you notice your mind wandering off, bring it back into focus. Really look at their faces. Note the details: the sweat on their upper lip, how their hands flutter when they talk, they way their eyes close slightly when they laugh. How would you describe their voice? How do they move? Do they make eye contact with you? What does that feel like, looking into their eyes? What color are their eyes?
Make an effort to listen more than you talk. What does it feel like, to show up for someone? To not have it be about you? What are they afraid of? What makes them smile? How can you be a bright spot in their day?
You won’t be able to write all this down while you are with them (awkward!), so just be present, but be very, very aware. As soon as you’re alone, write as much as you can remember about them and the interaction. Finally, reflect: how are you the same?
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Mindfulness asks us to listen more than we talk. And when we listen, we hear things. And when we sit down to write, those things bubble up. The wisdom of others. Their confusion, too. Our words begin to ring with more authenticity because they are flavored with the spice of the real world and our presence in it. Ultimately, that’s what writing is. It’s saying, in all manner of ways to our readers: I see you. I hear you. It is large-scale compassion built, brick by brick, from these smaller moments in our own life. Moments of connection, engagement, and presence.
You’ll notice that in all of these things I’ve mentioned, it all comes down to showing up. To being fully present. Whether it’s on a walk where we truly absorb everything we see and hear and feel and try to articulate that with as much specificity as possible, or whether we’re revising, looking to see where we checked out, or whether we’re constructing characters based on our ability to authentically connect with others in the world. It is always, always about being right here, right now. In this moment.
That’s the kind of writing I want to read: writing that shows up.
Breathe. Write. Repeat.
As usual, you can sign up for my newsletter, The Lotus and the Pen, to get your free 7-Day Meditation Starter Kit for Writers.
The newsletter = special downloads of guided meditations and worksheets, discounts on my courses, creativity and mindfulness hacks, and access to my Inspiration Portal.
November 6, 2018
How Walking Meditation Will Help You Write
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This post originally appeared in my Mindfulness Monday column on the Vermont College of Fine Arts blog
One of my favorite practices as a writer is walking. I’m not at all alone in this.
:: Henry David Thoreau :: How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live! Methinks that the moment my legs begin to move, my thoughts begin to flow.
:: Hemingway :: I would walk along the quais when I had finished work or when I was trying to think something out. It was easier to think if I was walking and doing something or seeing people doing something that they understood.
It’s been calculated that William Wordsworth, whose poetry is rich with natural imagery and public spaces, walked as much as 180,000 miles in his life (six and a half miles a day beginning at the age of five – what?!).
Walking has been a part of my writing process for years and years. Somehow, it always does the trick when I need to shake out the cobwebs, reboot my system, or find some inspiration. Without fail, a walk will help me sort out a tricky plot problem, give me a cool new story idea, or provide a line or scene that I’ve just got to get down on the page as soon as I’m home. There’s a reason walking works, and it’s worth making an effort to bring more of it into your process.
In this post, I’ll be getting into WHY walking is so helpful for writers (this great New Yorker article outlines some of what I’ll be sharing below) and then I’ll be getting into some practical things you can do to bring walking meditation into your writing process to increase flow and focus—and maybe get some of those Eurekas! you’re hoping for on your WIP. I even have a handy video tutorial!
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Why Walking Is A Magic Potion For Writers
What is it about walking that is so helpful to us as writers?
Chemical stuff in the body. Namely, your brain gets more oxygen. Think improving focus and memory.
Ever had an Aha! moment while walking? That’s because the act of walking promotes new connections between brain cells.
A fairly recent study has shown that walking actually helps us have innovative ideas and strokes of insight. This is because the mind is allowed to wander freely and things can naturally bubble up (more on this later, because this is somewhat counter to what I’m going to tell you about traditional walking meditation practice). Maria Popova has some great insights about walking as creative fuel on Brain Pickings that’s worth a read.
Where we walk is important too—think green. Think nature. Think expansive. This is because nature gives rise to tuning in more to the senses. To paying attention. And this is what meditation is all about.
Walking Meditation For Writers
In his New Yorker review of Frédéric Gros’ book, “A Philosophy of Walking,” Adam Gopnik asserts that walking “is the Western equivalent of what Asians accomplish by sitting. Walking is the Western form of meditation.”
Gros seems to agree. In Philosophy he says: “You’re doing nothing when you walk, nothing but walking. But having nothing to do but walk makes it possible to recover the pure sensation of being, to rediscover the simple joy of existing, the joy that permeates the whole of childhood.”
Walking is actually one of the four postures of meditation suggested by the Buddha. It’s as legitimate as sitting. So it’s a great option for those of you who aren’t ready to hit the cushion or chair just yet. (Although, if my mile-a-minute monkey mind can do it, so can yours.).
What I love about walking meditation is that it’s a great head-clearer. Sometimes, I’ll just set my meditation timer and do five minutes of walking meditation between hour sessions of writing, just to get my body moving. It really helps. It doesn’t have to be this big deal. Get up and do the practice for a few minutes. You’ve got to start somewhere. Longer walking meditation sessions—twenty minutes or so in a backyard, if I’ve access to one, or in a living room if the weather isn’t playing nice or I don’t have a yard to use—is great for going deep. It’s a proper meditation session and very often yields enormous results. Some of my biggest life choices have come as a direct result of walking meditation.
How Walking Meditation Is Different Than Taking A Stroll
When I go for a walk outside, that’s a walk—not walking meditation. The meditation practice is very intentional, along a short, set path. You go back and forth, focusing entirely on the feel of your feet moving across the earth. The Zen teacher Thich Nhat Hanh says to, “Walk as if you are kissing the earth with your feet.”
Your object of meditation is the feel of your feet moving. So when your mind wanders, you actually want to bring it back to your object of meditation. Now, this is counter to what that study earlier in this post said is so great about walking and creativity: it allows your mind to wander freely. True, we do bring the mind back to its focus for the meditation, but I haven’t found this to be a creative hindrance because it’s working my flow muscle (That’s because what’s happening in your brain when you meditate is the same thing that happens when it’s in flow. I talk more about that here).
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I’ve found that walking meditation gives me laser focus and calm. In fact, this same study I mentioned earlier about the connection between the free-floating mind while walking and creativity says that if you want laser focus, an ambling walk isn’t actually ideal for that, so walking meditation is PERFECT for you procrastinators or very distracted writers out there.
So, if you’re looking to clear your head, regain your focus, re-align yourself: a traditional walking meditation session could be just the thing.
If you really want to have your mind wander freely or play jazz with walking meditation, you can still do the traditional set up, but then allow your object of meditation to be what we call in the Insight Meditation tradition “Choiceless Awareness.” This means that you allow your mind to notice the different things around you: sound, like, a thought, a feeling. You stay with that thing until the next thing comes, and so on. In this way, you allow yourself the openness and expansiveness of a stroll, but you’re more intentional about the process.
How To Do Walking Meditation
Here is a very short video on the process that I made for my fellow writers.
Here is a blog post with some illustrations and more information on choosing your walking path and what to do with your arms etc. that I wrote a while back.
Thich Nhat Hanh Technique
In a profoundly moving interview that Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh did with Oprah a while back in which they discussed many things, he spoke quite a bit about walking meditation as a means toward self-realization. I really love his technique, and I share it here with you. (I can’t recommend watching the interview enough. It just might change your life).
He says that when you walk, you should take a few steps and think to yourself, I have arrived, arrived, arrived in the here and the now. Then in your next few steps think, I am home, I am home. This is to instill a deep knowing in yourself that your home is in the here and now. I tried it and really enjoyed practicing this way.
I recently led a retreat where we did some walking meditation, and the writers really dug getting to learn more about this practice. Slowing down is really, really good for us writers. And getting out of a chair is good too.
Walking meditation can open up a lot for you, and create space in the clutter that comes into our minds in such a chaotic and busy world. I hope this practice brings you all the Ahas! and focus and flow you long for.
Breathe. Write. Repeat.
As usual, you can sign up for my newsletter, The Lotus and the Pen, to get your free 7-Day Meditation Starter Kit for Writers.
The newsletter = special downloads of guided meditations and worksheets, discounts on my courses, creativity and mindfulness hacks, and access to my Inspiration Portal.
November 5, 2018
Revision Intensive Course
My online Revision Intensive with Writespace begins this Sunday! There is space left, and we’d love to have you.
Register here.
The skinny:
This workshop will explore strategies for approaching revision for all genres in fiction, as well as give writers the opportunity to put them into practice. Participants will have the chance to revise the first chapter of their work-in-progress with me as the workshop begins, and then receive feedback from the group on this revision before going once more into the breach. We’ll also be digging into how to deal with our inner critics and some of the other psychological stumbling blocks that often come up for writers during revision. Through lively online discussion, challenging exercises, and invigorating reading assignments, we’ll begin to see why revision is what real writing is all about.
Warning: you just might fall in love with revising.
This course is suitable for all levels. However, it is an intensive and may be best suited for intermediate students who’ve been writing for a while. Participants will need to have at least the first chapter of their works-in-progress finished before the workshop begins. Bonus points for those who have a complete manuscript and are using this course to kick-start or boost their revision process.
We’ll be looking at revising scenes and chapters, as well as what revising an entire work might look like, though it will not be necessary for participants to have a finished book. This will be a warm, fun, engaging environment–as Michelangelo himself said, “I am still learning.” We will all still be learning, so all are welcome!
Here are a few things to wet your revision whistle:
I created a kickass HUGE revision checklist, which you can get right here on the Inspiration Portal
I recently interviewed myself about my revision process and what I think the keys are to revising: read that here
Read the whole Once More With Feeling interview series, where I interview some of your favorite authors on their process
I’ll leave you with this bit o’ inspiration from author Claire Messud on revision:
“You hope that as you boil down what you have seen and known into your writing, you reduce the best of yourself too.”
Here’s to getting to the essence of our work–and ourselves!
Register for the course
Breathe. Write. Repeat.
As usual, you can sign up for my newsletter, The Lotus and the Pen, to get your free 7-Day Meditation Starter Kit for Writers.
The newsletter = special downloads of guided meditations and worksheets, discounts on my courses, creativity and mindfulness hacks, and access to my Inspiration Portal.
November 1, 2018
Your Mindful NaNoWriMo
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It’s that time of the year again! I know some of you are going for your 50K words and participating in National Novel Writing Month this November, and I salute you! Since I’m on deadline, I’m going to have to bow out this year, but I wanted to make sure you had a few tricks up your sleeve to make sure you could hit your daily word counts and keep up your flow. Below are a few ways you can bring mindfulness–and maybe even a little meditation–into your process each day. And then: watch those words fly out of your fingers!
Mindfulness
Mindful Tech: Make it a point to be mindful about how you use tech this month. You want to hit your daily word count – 50K words in one month is no slouch. You can’t do that if you’re on your phone all the time. So make a rule for yourself:
No phone in your writing space (And turn your phone on silent)
Disable all notifications on your phone for the month (see Mindful Social Media)
Disable your wireless while writing – if you need to look up something on the Internet, keep a pad of paper nearby and add it to the list–check it after your writing session
Create a vacation responder on your email: I’M WRITING THE GREAT AMERICAN NOVEL. SEE YOU IN DECEMBER. This will take the pressure off of responding to people right away. You want to reduce stress and mental clutter as much as possible this month.
Do not check your email, texts, alerts, or messages at all while in a writing session.
Mindful Social Media: Social media is clutter you don’t need in your head. In order to get expansive and allow those dots for your story to connect as fast you need them to in order to reach your goal, you can’t be scrolling through Twitter, Insta, and Facebook. Here are some suggestions (and if you need lots of help with this, go to my Inspiration Portal and work through my Mindful Social Media For Writers worksheet):
Turn off all notifications for social media on your phone for the next month
Create rules for yourself in terms of the accountability groups you are part of for NaNo. A big, fun part of the process is the community and that’s great–but make sure that you don’t get so caught up in your NaNo group chats that you don’t make enough time for writing and dreaming and thinking.
See if you can got on a social media hiatus. I know, I know. Maybe you want to post updates about your progress, okay, fine. But you want to create the best possible conditions to allow this monumental effort to succeed. Being on social media is not an ideal creative container. I learned this the hard way and recently made some big decisions for myself regarding social media that have made me MUCH more creative and grounded.
Mindful Politics: With the election right in Week 2 of NaNo, this could really throw some people off. Give yourself permission to not be overwhelmed by the political situation. Now, if you’re working the phones or polls that day, then get up early and get your writing in first thing, if you’re planning on writing that day, otherwise it won’t get done.
Don’t let the outcome of these elections keep you from telling your story. Stories matter. YOUR story matters. These are hard times and we need you more than ever.
Stay off social media.
Turn off your TV
Go vote, get your writing done, and THEN watch the returns, if that’s even your thing. Don’t spend all day following the ups and downs.
Mindful Snacking: Another way to sneak some mindfulness into your busy NaNo schedule is to take a couple minutes to mindfully eat your snack or meal. So, instead of eating while writing, give yourself at least five minutes to do nothing but experience your food. Let’s say you’re going for your favorite writing snack: a nice big piece of dark chocolate.
Be totally focused on the chocolate as you open it. Note the packaging, and the color and texture of the chocolate. Think about where it came from, the people that had to work to make this deliciousness for you. When you pick it up, note its weight and texture, and then take a nice long sniff. When you finally eat it, go slowly and really savor the experience: the taste, the feel, all the gradations within that one piece of chocolate. If thoughts arise that are not related to the chocolate, just gently note them and go back to your snack.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the next time you write about a character eating something, your description will be richer for having done this particular mindfulness practice. It’s also a really nice break.
Mindful Emotions: The month is going to bring on a slew of emotions for you and your characters. Here are some strategies for dealing with the ups and downs of NaNo mindfully.
Here’s a post I wrote for last year’s NaNo on when your inner critic comes to call or you just feel overwhelmed and like maybe it’s not going to happen. Don’t give up! We have strategies for this.
Here’s a post on starting again if you’re really behind or stuck, and knowing that it’s not over until the fat lady sings. (And even then…you’re still alive. You still have a book on you. It’s not OVER).
This is a great mindfulness technique--the Sacred Pause–that you can use whenever you feel blocked, overwhelmed, or just like you need a breather. Quick and dirty, it works every time.
Meditation
It might seem counter-intuitive to take time away from writing to meditate, but I promise you that even giving yourself five minutes to close your eyes and do a short meditation before you begin writing will get you focused and into your story much quicker. But a great way to bring some meditation into this time is also walking meditation and breath work–see below.
Quickie Meditation
Sit at your desk and, before you begin working, set your timer for five minutes (the Insight Timer has great gongs). Follow your breath. If thoughts come, just let them pass by like leaves in a fast-flowing river. You can read my short and sweet post on finding white space (as in, the literary term) through meditation for LA Review of Books here.
Same as above, but this time, just focus on the ambient sounds. Everything is welcome, even that blaring horn. It’s all part of the meditation. Mindfulness is about allowing whatever is present to just be there. Same with writing.
Set a timer and do five minutes of walking meditation between writing your chapters or scenes to refocus. Walk slowly, in a straight path, about twenty paces. Stop. Turn. Walk back. Your object of meditation is your feet on the ground. See below for more on walking meditation.
Sitting Meditation
If you’ve got twenty minutes, you can check out any of my meditations for writers on the free Insight Timer app. Just click below or go to the specific links I’ve provided.
RAIN Meditation (great when your inner critic is being mean)
Mindfulness Meditation (sit and breathe with me for 20 minutes: focus and flow)
Lovingkindness Meditation (when you need some gentleness)
Walking Meditation
Here’s a post I wrote on how to get started with walking meditation. It’s great to do between writing sessions as a break to clear your head and re-energize for the next bout. You can do it inside or outside.
There are tons of benefits of walking for creatives–and the science to back it up! Even just going outside for a walk, while not walking meditation, will really get those creative juices flowing. If it worked for Thoreau and Hemingway (and me!) and every writer I know, it’ll work for you. Bonus: fresh air!
4-8-12 Breathing
I love this breathing exercise, which meditation teacher Ralph de la Rosa introduced me to in one of his newsletters. You can find his recording here, but it basically works like this:
4: Breathe in through your nose for a count of four. A nice, big inhale, filling your belly.
8: Hold your breath for 8.
12: Exhale through nose or mouth for a count of 12. If you run out of breath, just keep breathing, but also keep up the count. Then continue the sequence again.
( Inhale for 4. Hold for 8. Exhale for 12.)
You go seamlessly through the sequence as long as you wish. I suggest going through it for 5 or 10 rounds. You could also set a timer for three minutes a so. It’s another great thing to do before you begin writing, or as a transition between chapters, scenes, etc. Or any time you just need to clear your head.
I hope this is of benefit to you, my fearless writers! Best of luck as you write your hearts out this month. I’m rooting for you!
Breathe. Write. Repeat.
As usual, you can sign up for my newsletter, the Lotus and the Pen, to get your free 7-Day Meditation Starter Kit for Writers.
The newsletter = special downloads of guided meditations and worksheets, discounts on my courses, creativity and mindfulness hacks, and access to my Inspiration Portal.
October 24, 2018
The Complete Once More With Feeling Revision Series
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Below are all the interviews in the Summer 2018 Once More With Feeling Revision Series, updated now to include the one I did with myself in October 2018. Here, I talk to some of my favorite authors about their revision processes and how they feel about this part of the craft. Scroll down to get access to a downloadable Revision Checklist to use during your own revising.
Enjoy!
Amy Ewing: NYT Bestselling Author Talks Revision Process
Ingrid Sundberg: The Queen of Craft Talks Revision
Jessica Rinker: Smash Revision Like This Writer Smashes The Patriarchy
Miriam McNamara: Revising With Pride: A Debut Author On Revision Feels
Camille DeAngelis: The Dedicated Imperfectionist
Melanie Fishbane: Revision: Where The Story Is
Editor / Author Maggie Lehrman: Beware of Mindweasels!
Throwing Down the Bones with Bonnie Pipkin
Heather Demetrios: Everything You Need To Know About Revision
As usual, you can sign up for my newsletter to get your free 7-Day Meditation Starter Kit for Writers.
The newsletter = special downloads of guided meditations and worksheets, discounts on my courses, creativity and mindfulness hacks, and access to my Inspiration Portal.
