Long overdue update on mindful writing: Some resources for using mindfulness to enhance writing

A long time has passed since I last penned a post on using mindfulness during the process of writing. Although I combine mindfulness and writing frequently, I have not updated my resource list recently (except in my head). So here are a few links for those of you interested in mindful writing.

First, here's an old post on the topic written after I'd attended a seminar taught by Professor Donna Strickland. In this post, you will find some excellent advice included in her presentation: Does writing ever cause you suffering? Try mindful writing: Learning to write with comfort and presence.

Second, take a look at an article by Professor Strickland written about the class she taught on mindful writing. In this article, she focuses on trying a new practice or technique. Click to read "Before Belief: Embodiment and the 'Trying Game'" (Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning).

You will note that in both the above resources, Strickland refers to the work of Robert Boice. In this blog post at The Mindful PhD, Nancy Chick writes about Boice and includes his seven practices of writing mindfulness: Awakeness and staying in the moment; clear seeing of what needs doing and can be done; calm efficiency in doing it, including timeliness; freedom from destructive emotions; connectedness and compassion with self and others; letting go; and gentle self-discipline.

Next, here's a six-part series on mindfulness and writing at Christian Wymann's blog Mind Your Writing.

I'll close out today's list by recommending a book for you: The Mindful Writer: Noble Truths of the Writing Life. A review of the book with a brief summary is here.

Do you have any recommendations for additions to this list of resources for using mindfulness to improve your writing? Although there are lots of resources available to use writing to improve mindfulness, resources for the reverse are not as plentiful so I'll appreciate hearing from you.

My last post on this topic was almost exactly five years ago; I promise not to wait that long for the next post.

Image credit: allfree-clipart

Comments

[amy spies]

I'm a writer in film/tv/new media - fiction and non-fiction. I also am leading mindful writing groups and a mindful writing workshop. Here's a post I wrote on mindful writing on the Huffington Post (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/amy-spies/how-to-break-through-writ_b_6440178.html) and it is also on my website (amyspies.com)