Meditation and Creativity

I write a lot. I don’t often go a day without writing at least a couple of hundred words. Sometimes I worry that I am not giving my mind time away enough because I go non-stop. If I’m not writing, I’m reading or listening to a podcast. Movies and TV take up a little too much of my time too. (It’s research!)

I also meditate a lot. I subscribe to the belief that everyone needs to meditate for 10 minutes every morning and every night and if you don’t have time for that, you need to do 20 minutes morning and night. I always journal after meditation and often gain useful insights into my writing projects.

What if I don’t have time to sit in silence for one hour a day? Then sit in silence for two hours a day.

Zen Poem

Yesterday I saw an idea for a new cover for a collection of short stories and novellas I’m packaging. I’ve already made a mock up which I’ve sent to the designer. I am excited to see what she’ll come back with.

I also had a thought about my current work in progress, Thalia Henry and the Ghost Writer. There is a famous writer in my story who I have written as a man but this thought wafted through my head yesterday –

I’m writing Strong Female Characters, so why is this mentor figure a male?

There are other men in the story, both rounded characters in their own right (I hope!!) but they are love interests for the main female characters.

I am excited about writing this incredible new character, and I feel the story will blossom around her. I’ll still finish the story with the male character and publish both with different covers etc.

I’m now looking for quotes by amazing women writers of the past like Virginia Woolf and Gertrude Stein.

“A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction.”― Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own