My Writing Process

Writing, for me, takes more focus than almost anything else I do. I'll generally sit down and try to get myself into the right headspace, and then hopefully stay there long enough to get a significant amount of work done. This usually involves music and a few minutes of meditation to sort of calm my thoughts down and clear the mental slate.

This can vary a bit depending on my mood and what kind of work I'm doing (putting new words down on the page usually takes more focus than editing or re-reading previous work, for example.) Music might be soft or loud, meditation might be quick or long or even omitted entirely if I've got something in my head that seems like it needs to get out right away and I'm already in the right mindset.

In other situations, I usually try to meditate in as quiet a spot and time as I can, but for writing I almost always meditate with music, and I suspect this has something to do with a connection between music and poetry and prose, the rhythm and texture and tone of it all. I don't think that it's a coincidence that so much music comes with words attached in the form of lyrical poetry.

None of this has really changed much for me since I started writing in earnest for other people to read. For anyone looking to find their own process, I do strongly recommend trying some form of mindfulness to center yourself and clear your mind…but everyone is different, and writers, including those at the top of their craft, can have pretty radically different processes. Your brain is your brain, and in the end only you can really figure out how it works, though it doesn't hurt to look for help from an insightful source.