With as much time as we writers spend on words: reading them, writing them, editing them, and re-writing them, the idea of meditation with words probably sounds crazy.

Okay, maybe it’s a little crazy.  Just bear with me a moment here.

When most of the time we spend with words is plot driven or character driven or, hell, just driven, it’s good to have writing time that is without form and direction.  In other words, free writing.

Sometimes, a free write can devolve into silliness, sometimes unpleasant baggage can rise up to the surface.  In either case, those words allow you spirit and your intellect to travel around, all willy nilly, in any and every direction.  Sometimes all at once.

You’d be surprised at how clear-headed you can feel afterwards.

When I first started free writes, it felt just as difficult and “over-thinky” (Yes, that is a thing, it is my thing, so believe me – I know it IS a thing) as the act of meditation did.  Now, both actions bring me a sense of peace and centering that I do not find otherwise.  Not even in my quest for the perfect endorphin.  🙂

If you are like me, and have a tendency to over think anything that comes without instructions, I’d like to offer a short list of words (instead of prompts) from which to start your free write.  Most of these are just words I love, words that resonate with me for reasons I can’t explain.  That makes them perfect stepping off points for a free write.

• ineffable
• geworfenheit (thrownness, into being for example)
• melancholia
• cacophony
• lightness
• roots
• eradicable
• contradictory
• uprising

So, in no particular order, you have a few of the words I used to grasp in order to begin a free write.  I also recommend music, or an image, if you need to get a different sense in on the act to kick start the process.

Free writes, meditation on paper.  Just a small thought to make the Monday less Monday-ish.  🙂

Blessings to you all.