Writing in Poets & Writers magazine, Ellen Sussman (author of the best-selling novel, French Lessons) describes her pre-writing prep, a quick way to switch into the writing mindset. She writes:
“I start my workday with five or ten minutes of meditation. I’m not big on meditation—at least I wasn’t until I took a workshop with Andrew Todhunter, a writer who talked about the benefits of focusing the mind for a short time every day. I realized that in five minutes I could quiet the noise in my brain (and believe me, there’s a children’s orchestra in there, banging away on instruments of distraction).”
Her method doesn’t require years of practice or any particular spiritual belief. Here are the steps as she does them; I’m sure you could adapt the position to one that’s comfortable for you:
1: Sit on the floor, legs crossed, on a pillow.
2: Slowly count to ten, trying to clear your mind of everything but the counting.
3: If you start to think about anything else before you reach ten, start the count over again.
That’s it. It’s simple but not necessarily easy. Sussman admits that she starts over a lot. However, she says, “Something happens a few minutes into this process. My mind quiets. My thoughts settle. My breathing eases.”
She goes directly to work after this short session and finds it much easier to focus on her writing as a result.
You could do this exercise first thing in the morning, or when you’ve been doing something else and need to leave behind whatever concerns you still have swirling around your mind so you can approach your writing in a calm state. It takes only five minutes—you have nothing to lose, and a focused state to gain.
(If you're looking for other ways to find more time to write and to make the most of the time you do find, I suggest getting a copy of my book, "Focus: use the power of targeted thinking to get more done," published by Pearson and available from Amazon and other book sellers.)
