Alan Wilson Watts. The Way of Zen
John Dewey. How we Think
Kekule. See Alan Rocke. Image and reality
Einstein’s Dreams. Alan Lightman
Mednick, S. (1962). The Associative Basis of the Creative Process. Psychological Review, 69, 220-232. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0048850
Mindfulness for Beginners: Reclaiming the Present Moment—and Your Life Reprint by Jon Kabat-Zinn, https://www.amazon.co.uk › Mindfulness-Beginners
A Philosophy of Walking
Frédéric Gros, John Howe (Translator), Clifford Harper (Illustrator)
On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft. Stephen King
Nikola Tesla: Imagination and the Man That Invented the 20th Century
Sean Patrick
A Place to Bury Strangers (Atticus Priest #2). Mark Dawson
How to Write a Bestseller. Self-Publishing Formula. Suzy Quinn
https://learn.selfpublishingformula.com
Silence of the Lambs. Thomas Harris
War and Peace. Leo Tolstoy
The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Joseph Campbell
The Girl on the Train. Paula Hawkin
The Protectors. Ray Hodgson
A Patient’s Perspective: The Caregiver’s Guide To Living With Dementia
by Chieko El-Jisri (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
On the Brink of Giving up? Scientists confirm mindfulness meditation can help in internal conflicts
the Polish Association of Social Psychology, March-2022
ADVICE FROM OTHER AUTHORS
FROM ZEN AND THE ART OF WRITING
“Don’t take anyone’s writing advice too seriously.”
--- Lev Grossman
Make people believe in your story first and foremost
The Colombian author Gabriel Garcia Marquez received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1982. The celebrated author of novels such as A Hundred Years of Solitude was also a journalist. When asked about the difference between journalism and writing fiction, Marquez replied:
‘In journalism just one fact that is false prejudices the entire work. In contrast, in fiction one single fact that is true gives legitimacy to the entire work. That’s the only difference, and it lies in the commitment of the writer. A novelist can do anything he wants so long as he makes people believe in it.’
This last sentence is key: It doesn’t matter if you write realist fiction set in contemporary Leeds or futuristic sci-fi set in 3001. Create believable characters who have credible motivations and flaws.
How to keep going
John Steinbeck has a few tips to ensure that you keep up a head of steam.
Abandon the idea that you are ever going to finish. Lose track of the 400 pages and write just one page for each day, it helps. Then when it gets finished, you are always surprised.
Write freely and as rapidly as possible and throw the whole thing on paper (or computer). Never correct or rewrite until the whole thing is down. Rewrite in process is usually found to be an excuse for not going on. It also interferes with flow and rhythm which can only come from a kind of unconscious association with the material.
Forget your generalised audience. In the first place, the nameless, faceless audience will scare you to death and in the second place, unlike the theatre, it doesn’t exist. In writing, your audience is one single reader. I have found that sometimes it helps to pick out one person—a real person you know, or an imagined person and write to that one.
If a scene or a section gets the better of you and you still think you want it—bypass it and go on. When you have finished the whole, you can come back to it and then you may find that the reason it gave trouble is because it didn’t belong there.
Show don’t tell
Don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.” -Anton Chekhov
This quote is a classic case of “show, don’t tell.” Showing makes your writing far more interesting. Help move the reader along by adding some imagination and colour to your passages.
Helping concentration & creativity
Each writer has her or his secret path to the muse.” -Maya Angelou
"I know I’m not the only one to struggle with finding a quiet place inside myself. I’ve tried everything from locking myself into a dark room, to hiding my cell phone, and listening to my favourite music. My secret path to the muse is listening to Binaural Beats. As I write this article, I’m listening to the soothing sound of Delta Waves for Deep Healing Sleep". Maya Angelou
Maya Angelou would’ve loved this book. She was very close to meditating while writing. I wonder if Tolstoy would’ve used binaural beats if they were around in his day?
Tell The Stories That Only You Can Tell
“Tell your story. Don’t try and tell the stories that other people can tell. Because [as a] starting writer, you always start out with other people’s voices — you’ve been reading other people for years… But, as quickly as you can, start telling the stories that only you can tell — because there will always be better writers than you, there will always be smarter writers than you … but you are the only you.”
— Neil Gaiman, award-winning author of the comic book series The Sandman and novels including Coraline and The Graveyard Book
Stop while the going is good
Ernest Hemingway “Always stop while you are going good and don’t worry about it until you start to write the next day. That way your subconscious will work on it all the time. But if you think about it consciously or worry about it you will kill it and your brain will be tired before you start.”
There are no recipes for good writing
“Inexperienced writers tend to seek the recipes for writing well. You buy the cookbook, you take the list of ingredients, you follow the directions, and behold! A masterpiece! The Never-Falling Soufflé!
Wouldn’t it be nice? But alas, there are no recipes. We have no Julia Child. Successful professional writers are not withholding mysterious secrets from eager beginners. The only way anybody ever learns to write well is by trying to write well. This usually begins by reading good writing by other people, and writing very badly by yourself, for a long time.
There are ‘secrets’ to making a story work — but they apply only to that particular writer and that particular story. You find out how to make the thing work by working at it — coming back to it, testing it, seeing where it sticks or wobbles or cheats, and figuring out how to make it go where it has to go.” - Ursula K. Le Guin
The most important advice
“Don’t take anyone’s writing advice too seriously.” – Lev Grossman
BE YOUR OWN PERSONAL SCIENTIST AND DISCOVER WHAT WORKS FOR YOU