Asking myself the questions
Digging into my mindful writing practice
Since I launched the Discovering Mindful Writers series in April this year, nine writers have appeared so far. It’s been very interesting to me to see that many of them have said that answering the questions really made them dig more deeply into aspects of their thinking and writing practice. After a chat in the comments on ’s interview, I decided to answer them myself.
Before I get to that though, I just wanted to let you know about a couple of new short courses I have just released. Both are available on a sliding pay what you can afford fee scale starting at just £15. It’s really important to me that creative writing is accessible to all so all of my Mindful Writer courses are available either as a low-fixed fee, on pay what you can afford, or on a dana basis where you make an offering and pay what you think it is worth.
The Compassionate Writer has been adapted from a module in the Year of Mindful Writing course and helps us to be more compassionate to ourselves, other people, and everyone who appears in our writing, both fiction and non. Ageing Gratefully helps us to reframe the messages we get about getting older. After losing 16 loved ones in 7 years, many of them before they reached the age of 50, I know that ageing is a privilege and a blessing. It’s not to be dreaded and feared but embraced wholeheartedly!
And I am also really looking forward to working with people on the Well Writer Course that starts in February and runs for 7 months. We live in challenging times and it can be hard to remain positive and focused on our wellbeing and developing our creativity, so join me and other likeminded souls to get practical tools and strategies for thriving in both your personal and creative lives.
Now to my answers to my questions!
With love,
What does mindful writing mean to you?
I initially answered this question in January when creating the coursework for A Year of Mindful Writing so it has been interesting to revisit it almost a year later. A year in which I have come to many realisations about my writing practice, which I wrote about here. For me, mindful writing is linked to keeping an open heart and following it. To immersing myself in whatever it is I am writing and really letting the true feelings I have about it emerge; and when writing fiction allowing the true voices of the characters to flow through me. It’s about trying not to censor myself and think about who will read it but instead just letting myself be completely honest. It’s something I have to keep working on as my upbringing meant I was a people pleaser for the longest time and would always try and adapt myself to what people wanted me to be, say, do, to keep the peace and keep them loving me. So now writing mindfully is about really being me.
How does a mindful writing practice fit into your wider mindfulness journey?
My writing was the last thing that I brought into my mindfulness journey. For many years my writing was completely caught up in ambitions for my fiction. I felt like that was the only important writing I did and I had to be a huge success to prove myself worthy as a person. Then when I developed a mindfulness practice, followed by a spiritual one, I realised that none of the things I’d come to believe were the most important about my writing mattered at all. I let it all go and now have the healthiest relationship with my fiction writing I’ve ever had. And I have grown to love other writing just as much. I write just for myself to explore my feelings, to process my past, to get better at my craft, to connect with others, to play. It’s an integral part of living mindfully for me.
What do you write? Essays, poetry, fiction, plays?
I write personal essays, memoir, fiction, and writing courses. I feel drawn to poetry but also a bit afraid of it. I have never considered myself a poet and I don’t know if I have that inside of me.
What drives you to write?
It’s a compulsion I have always had. From the moment I could read I always wrote stories, and plays too when I was young. From about the age of eight or nine, I always said I would write a novel one day. Life happened and it took me until I was forty-four to get the first one finished and published but I did it! I didn’t write for a long time from my early teenage years until my late twenties and because I wasn’t doing it when awake, my brain started doing it when I slept and I used to wake up most mornings with sentences and paragraphs writing themselves in my head. So I thought I better start writing again. I did a qualification in editing and proofreading and got a job as a magazine editor, and started writing bits of fiction again. But I didn’t really get started with fiction properly until I was in my late thirties and have since never stopped writing stories.
What stops you from writing?
Nothing really. I am always writing something. The posts I share on Substack, course work, short stories, newsletters, and I am currently writing a novel that I work on for just one hour a week when I run the Writing Hours. Occasionally I feel all worded out and take some time off writing but it doesn’t happen often!
What do you aspire to achieve with your writing?
To connect with others. To use my writing to bring us together over our shared humanity wherever we are in the world, whatever we believe. To write stories that create positive human connection and bring messages of love, peace and unity to the world and celebrate the amazingness of being here having this human experience. And to be true. To myself and my heart. So I was excited to see ’s new project, The Zest of the Lemon, which is all about sharing the joy of being alive through poetry, prose, and visual arts. I shall be writing something to submit for this and I hope you all will too!
How do you write? Are you a planner or do you just start writing from an idea and let it lead you?
In my fiction, I’ve let go of trying to plan anything and just let what unfolds unfold. The only preparatory work I do is with the characters and I spend a lot of time asking them questions and writing their answers in their first person voice before I start writing the story. Then when I do start, I just turn up to the page and see what happens.
For the posts here, I have some lists of possible things to share and sometimes I will go there and choose something to write about but most times, something will be on my mind, or in my heart, and I will write about that and see what it wants me to learn and say.
I hope you enjoyed my answers! If you’d like to join me in a more mindful writing life, you can upgrade to a paid membership (currently 50% off for a Solstice Special offer) and get a mindful writing ebook and monthly Mindful Writing Marathons.
I also have a new Community space on my website where we can be social online away from the noise of social media. I’m planning for it to turn into a haven for thoughtful, heart-centred and compassionate discussions that help us to grow and develop as humans and writers in the time we find ourselves living in. Join us.
Seeing your answers to these questions was such fun, Amanda. You extend a gift to Substack writers by allowing us to explore and study the whys and wherefores of our writing and promote our sites on yours. Thank you.