A Meditating Writer’s Dilemma

In the creative process writers attempt to enter into the treasure trove of images, ideas and symbols–the unconscious. In the darkness of this underworld they wait for a glimpse from millions of dormant and forgotten thoughts and feelings. Sometimes, for a moment, light flashes on a raw emotion or idea. As the ideas and images float to the surface, they inspire creative action. When such a glimpse is received the writer must write it down immediately before it goes back to where it came from.

In my daily meditations I experience that the processes of meditation and creative writing cancel out some characteristics and overlap some others.

While meditation dissolves personal conflicts it also fizzles out a new, intensely passionate, story idea. Fictional conflicts dissipate. The tension filled idea that had excited me changes into blissful calm. No conflict to solve, no problem to unknot. I guess this happens because the meditating mind does not know the difference between “my” conflicts and the fictional ones.

So though meditation helps me let go of my fears and negativity and leaves me in comparative peace, it also fizzles out the passion that I feel when the story idea first pops up in my mind. Meditation dissolves personal conflicts but the fictional fervor also fizzles.

Now, when I get a new story idea I stop meditating for a while. I write an outline, rough scenes, a few characters and perhaps an ending so that the initial passion stays burning underneath the heap of ash I have written. In the subsequent meditation sessions the original idea is not affected.

Once the idea is on the paper I am ready to go back to my daily meditation. Meditation helps me when I revise and rewrite. It helps me make sense out of the outline I have written and random flashes of images and ideas I get. It helps me develop a story from a jumble of conflicts to a meaningful piece that I am restless to express and get published.

In meditation I have found seeds for missing links for some of my stories and novel.