Monday, January 3, 2022

Mindful Writing Mantra and Essay [Excerpt]: Guest Post by Salem State University Student

 


Delay in Writing is Confidence in Writing


Emily Gummer


Emily Gummer is a junior at Salem State University studying Psychology.

...As I picture my mantra, the enśo is broken; this leaves room for growth. Even the best writers always need room for growth. The enśo is covered with flowers to further represent growth. I used flowers because they are one of my favorite things in the world. They are beautiful and peaceful--even the ones that aren’t. Flowers are all shaped differently: even the ugliest ones hold beautiful scents. By adding flowers, my writing is able to be ugly sometimes, but the scent is just as beautiful as the prettiest pieces of writing. 

Using my mindful writing mantra, I will take some time delaying this assignment so that maybe I will get some new ideas about what I’d like to add. Doing so will add confidence to my piece and my overall writing experience. 

For my mindful writing mantra, one would take an inhale while saying, “Delay in writing,” hold that breath, “is,” and exhale with, “Confidence in writing.” Thinking of my mantra as a breathing exercise will help me to write my paper. Breathing exercises are a great tool to use to ground yourself in the present moment: doing this while writing will clear any distractions you may be experiencing as you complete your written piece. 

I will continue to think of this mantra as a powerful gust of wind that will push away the fogginess surrounding my ideas and creativity. 

My writing mantra will guide and aid me, specifically during the prewriting phase because the majority of the time I procrastinate and find difficulty in beginning. My mantra may also help me during the revising or editing phase because if I need to add anything delay may occur, which is fine to experience. I’m going to bring up ghost readers and audience demons, mindlessness as misperceiving and Invention methods. About my draft of this project--I really enjoy my examples and descriptions of audience demons in which I describe them as actual demons... I also really enjoy my style of writing and the content I have added, especially with those examples.

...Reciting a mantra over and over even before you start writing may remove any preconceptions that you have about your piece. Preconceptions are the beginning thoughts that come to your mind. Thinking and saying your mantra might help you think about the moment; in turn, thinking about the moment might put the preconceptions to ease. Saying your mantra over and over while in this stage can help you go past that. 

Many of my preconceptions include not writing something that will capture my reader's attention, but as you write you must let go of all the preconceptions as well as the opinion of the audience. The preconceptions you may have started out with become smaller and smaller until they have disappeared. 

Producing new ideas can be very difficult for people who don’t believe they are as creative as they’d like to be. By creating a mantra to help you in these specific situations, you will be able to come up with those ideas and become more creative throughout your piece of writing.


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