Concentration Exercises for Writers

It’s the start of a brand new week, writers, and that means it’s time for a fresh attack on our writing projects. The first, old friend-enemy in the creative process is our own attention span and ability to concentrate. The fifty different tasks we have to do in any one day fly like angry bees in our heads, eliminating the chance for silence and solemnity, for thoughtfulness and wondering — the stuff that any creative writing session needs. Today, let’s pledge to give our brains the silence and space they need by using one of these handy concentration exercises. These are things I’ve learned through my sporadic studies of meditation, or just by being myself and learning what has worked in the past for getting me “in the zone.”

1. Map out a familiar space in your mind

As part of their meditation practices, Tibetan monks imagine a sacred space, such as the palace of a god or Buddha, the ones that get depicted in two dimensions in sand mandalas. They don’t just picture this place in the fuzzy way we remember our childhood home or our workplace. They stretch their memories to an extraordinary level by holding the entire place in minute detail, moving room by room, “assembling” each room in their minds. They picture the wall hangings, the chandeliers, the drapes, the rugs, the windows, the sculptures on the walls, all in perfect detail, all at once.

The exercise: Pick a familiar place, some place that you feel great affection for, and move through it carefully in your memory, assembling the pieces of each room in as much detail as you can muster. Pause to remember the painting on the wall, the tassels on the floor rug, or what books are on the shelves. Pause to look out the window in your mind and assemble the view. You are the creator here, putting together a world, and it’s up to you to create it in exacting detail. This exercise is very calming for people who suffer from pain or anxiety, but it’s also a wonderful discipline for memory and concentration.

After the jump: more useful concentration exercises.

2. Build a house, brick by brick.

Sometimes we allow ourselves to get overwhelmed by the hugeness of our writing project. When that happens, it’s important to slow things down and enjoy the details that go into the huge tableau. If you’re paralyzed by your story, sit down and try working on just one scene. Decide to yourself what simple thing must happen in this scene; then set about getting in that direction. If even that seems too tough, go even smaller. Build the scene piece by piece. Figure out who should be there and how they feel about each other. Identify who is tense with whom and how they could show that tension. Build the story brick by brick, and before you know it, you’ll have a scene.

3. Become a great eye.

No, I don’t mean the eye of Sauron here; I’m referring to the great eye that Emerson wished he was in one of his writings. He wanted to be a walking eyeball, so that he could travel through nature and simply absorb it, observing everything and truly seeing it without judgement. For this exercise, sit in front of a window or go to a local park, or if urban scenes are more your thing, visit a busy city square. Sit down somewhere, or move slowly through the environment, and because a great eye. Take absolutely everything in. Absorb it all with the same delighted attention to detail. Judge nothing; love the garbage can as much as the trees and flowers. Study the faces, the movement, the colors. Later, you’ll be able to use these details in your writing, but more importantly, you’ll be able to use this sense of calm and unity that comes with the exercise.

4. Ask one question, and work on answering it.

As you can see, the key to concentration is singularity. If you are able to focus on just one thought, task, or observation at a time, you’ll give that one thing the attention it deserves. Instead of trying to write a story about all of the civil war or how men and woman treat each other, begin with just one question. What would it be like to lose a child on the subway? How would it feel to break up with someone you’ve been with for years? Choose a similarly pointed question, a question that you really want to find the answer to. Write something that attempts to answer that question. You may be surprised by how focused and therefore how effective and moving that piece turns out to be.

What are your concentration aids, readers? Do you meditate, listen to music, take walks? Do you prefer to multi-task? Sound off in the comments!