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    The Mindful Writer
    The Mindful Writer
    The Mindful Writer
    Ebook117 pages1 hour

    The Mindful Writer

    By Dinty W. Moore

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    About this ebook

    Find inspiration and insight on writing as a spiritual practice through astute quotes, thoughtful advice, and productive excercises on both mindfulness and craft.

    This isn't your typical “how to write” book. Author Dinty W. Moore, a well-respected writing coach and teacher, thoughtfully illuminates the creative process: where writing and creativity originate, how mindfulness plays into work, how to cultivate good writing habits and grow as a person, and what it means to live a life dedicated to writing.

    The Mindful Writer features bite-sized essays that will delight and inform not only writers, but also other artists, mediators and mindfulness practitioners. Built around heartening quotes from famous writers and thinkers, it is a resource that readers will turn to again and again for guidance and encouragement.

    This edition includes a new introduction exploring the centrality of mindfulness in a writer's practice and craft as well as a selection of writing prompts to get you started on writing mindfully right away.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherWisdom Publications
    Release dateJun 21, 2016
    ISBN9781614293705
    The Mindful Writer
    Author

    Dinty W. Moore

    Dinty W. Moore's memoir Between Panic & Desire was the winner of the Grub Street Nonfiction Book Prize in 2009. His other books include The Accidental Buddhist, Toothpick Men, and The Emperor’s Virtual Clothes. He is a professor of nonfiction writing at Ohio University.

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    • 4/5
      Thoughtful little book that holds plenty of wisdom for writers, especially on those bad days. Just let go, and go you will. An excellent treasure for the writer starting out.MGP

    Book preview

    The Mindful Writer - Dinty W. Moore

    Introduction

    WHY MINDFULNESS?

    There are shelves full of books aiming to help beginning writers with every aspect of the writing craft, from character to scene, from image to metaphor, from plot to point of view, and beyond. All these are important elements to study and master, and many of the books are quite useful, but at its center, writing is a less complicated endeavor than these many texts suggest. I believe there are two primary skills that a writer needs to hone, skills that supersede the others, skills that need to be practiced and perfected not just at the beginning but throughout one’s career.

    The first skill a writer needs to cultivate is an understanding of the inner workings of the sentence, paragraph, and page, just as a mechanic or engineer might learn how every working part of an engine propels an automobile forward. How do nouns best do their job? How do verbs suggest imagery in a reader’s mind? What is the most efficient way of providing readers with as much information as possible — setting, tone, character motivation, voice — in the smallest number of words, while still writing elegant prose or poetry?

    The second skill a writer must develop — one that goes beyond the adroit use of language — is the art of seeing with fresh eyes, thinking with an open mind, searching the nooks and crannies of any subject to find what has not yet been explored, or what might be explored further to shed some original light and engage the reader.

    This book is aimed at helping writers nurture this second talent — seeing with fresh eyes and open mind — through a process known as mindfulness.

    Let me expand: Too often beginning writers find themselves drawn to the common, customary, and comfortable conclusion or realization, to what we all seem to know and agree on as a culture: a moral of the story, so to speak. And why not? We have been shown all of our lives — in film, on television, via countless cultural messages — that certain ways of experiencing a subject are valid, acceptable, and safe.

    To give just one instance, it is of course sad when a loved one dies, whether a cherished grandparent, a friend, or a spouse. It is true that our first reaction to the news is often one of shock, perhaps followed by a sense that it is not fair . . . this person should be here still.

    But as valid as that reaction is, it comes as no surprise to a reader, and more importantly, it does little to deepen the reader’s (or writer’s) understanding of death, loss, and the loneliness that often follows.

    Writers spend all their time preoccupied with just the things that their fellow men and women spend their time trying to avoid thinking about, the novelist and memoirist Harry Crews reflected some years ago. It takes great courage to look where you have to look, which is in yourself, in your experience, in your relationship with fellow beings, your relationship to the earth, to the spirit or to the first cause — to look at them and make something of them.

    That’s the writer’s job in a nutshell, to look where you have to look. Or as the brilliant poet Mary Oliver puts it, To pay attention, this is our endless and proper work.

    You will see that this book speaks primarily to writers and often uses quotations from writers to make its key points.

    The truth, however, is that the practice of seeing sharply and authentically, feeling what is honestly there to be felt, opening ourselves to emotions and experiences we might otherwise avoid, is part of every art form. Actors, painters, dancers, and musical composers have their own concerns and terminology, but they know very well that exploration and discovery are necessary to make art.

    A final advantage of deliberate mindfulness is that it can help you to concentrate on your work — a true challenge in our modern, digital, gadget-driven world. Being mindful of what distracts you, of what leads you to walk away from your writing desk, of the inner voice that chides don’t bother, the work isn’t good enough, is the first step to turning off those distractions, or voices, and getting the work done.

    It isn’t easy, but no one said it would be. Work is work, whether digging a ditch or, like the poet Seamus Heaney, digging in with your pen.

    One last word, before we go forward. The practice of mindfulness is based in Eastern spiritual tradition, and much of my approach draws from the Buddhist tradition. But this book is ultimately about writing not religion, and you can be of any faith, or undecided, and still practice mindfulness.

    Call it what you will, but by all means, slow down, listen, observe, and try to write the deeper truths.

    THE FOUR NOBLE TRUTHS OF THE WRITING LIFE

    As the author of The Accidental Buddhist, a memoir exploring my potholed attempts to fit Buddhist practice and philosophy into a typically busy, overindulgent modern lifestyle, I am often asked to explain how the Dharma teachings have influenced my writing. Despite the frequency of the question, however, for many years I found myself unable to provide anything close to a satisfying answer.

    I knew that the Buddha’s core teachings had seeped deep into my life, in ways that I had not originally anticipated, but

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