Meditation and the Writing

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Life’s frustrations and issues are the biggest creativeblocks for me. I normally only write in the evening during the week, and by thetime I get home from the office—my brain is filled with blockage. The angryclient, the bizarre phone call, the search for the perfect babysitter are justexamples of the things that lodge themselves within the tunnel that allows theideas to flow to my keyboard. 

Many famous writers such as James Joyce, Edgar Allen Poe,and Ernest Hemingway are known for self-medicating with alcohol or othersubstances to help lubricate that flow of ideas. For many it is a way to shutoff the mundane chatter that goes on inside the head to allow the characters tobe heard.

“Do you drink?"
"Of course, I just said I was a writer.”
― Stephen King

“Write drunk; edit sober.”

-Ernest Hemingway

Though I am notaverse to drinking a glass of wine or two to shush out the day, I find that thebest way is to sit in a quiet place for ten minutes or so and just meditate.Meditation allows us to find those thoughts that are hiding beneath the pile ofproblems, excuses, and random brain chatter. Meditation can be much better thanalcohol for writing and for life in general due to the fact that meditation haszero calories, no side-effects, lack of a hangover, and it’s free. In fact,meditation is actually very good for your health and your spirituality.

Meditation is not a way of making your mind quiet.

It’s a way of entering into the quiet that’salready there –

buried under the 50,000 thoughts 

the average personthinks every day.

– Deepak Chopra

If you arehaving trouble accessing your creativity, give yourself a ten minute break inthe silence or with soothing music, focus on your breath, dismissing all theother thoughts that are stifling your prose. Let your body relax, soothe yournerves, and calm your thoughts. When you find yourself alone with your breath,then just listen. The characters are there waiting to tell their story. Yourjob is just to write it down.

Self doubt: A writer’s true worst enemy

When you sit down in front of your computer, you have your thoughts, your ideas, and your beliefs. You do your very best to deliver these hatchlings to others, and have to have faith that what you have to say is both vital and entertaining. Faith, such an easily swayed concept. The clay that we leave out on the shelf allowing life to mold and change at its will.

It baffles me how I can read through a chapter and feel proud of what I just accomplished, and then later read the exact same words and want to wear out the delete key. It’s the way of the human psyche. We do it with our mirrors, our jobs, and every other aspect of our lives. Why should writing be any different?

Yesterday, while exploring the Fernbank Museum I ran across something that made me question the way that I designed a character in my novel. Something that I had put tons of research into and months working out the kinks. This one little thought made me question all the hard work that I had done. This then left me doubting if I should even waste my time writing all of this because it will never see the light of day. And in a weak moment, I nearly destroyed a book.

Self-doubt is a viscous cruel tool that the brain will use to help us take easy roads. To not start that art project, to not say hello to the nice stranger, to not submit the resume. If we allow it to, it will let us remain on the couch and watch the successes of others. While we, wait for someone else to tell us that “we can do it”.

I ignored this voice in my head. I made notes of my questions and then went back to my research. It may be crap, but I will give it a chance to defend itself. I put the self doubt on the bench, and I took my place at bat. Self doubt will have to sit this one out while I will swing. I may miss, but at least I tried.