Here are some ideas for writing - not intended to be prescriptive in any way:

Who has given you this power of writing? It is from Sharada Devi.

-Shri Mataji, 1994 Puja in Jaipur

Realised Literature

A short list of Self-realised writers and divinely inspired works that spring to mind,

and some novelists and poets I seem to recall having been mentioned by Shri Mataji,

but some I am not sure about (please feel free to comment, add to or correct the list)

Writers and Poets (in no particular order):

Shri Jnaneshwara

Willam Blake

William Shakespeare

William Wordsworth

Leo Tolstoy

Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay

Mirabai

Fyodor Dostoevsky?

Franz Kafka?

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Novalis

Victor Hugo

Gustave Flaubert (I think Shri Mataji mentioned him)

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Shri Mataji mentioned a writer called Cronin, perhaps referring to the novelist A.J. Cronin?

Dante

Kahlil Gibran

Frances Hodgson Burnett

Charles Dickens?

C.S. Lewis

Hildegard von Bingen

Chekov?

Emily Dickinson?

Somerset Maugham?

Keats?

Works:

Devi Mahatmyam

Ramayana

Mahabharata

Amrtanubhava

Working Method Ideas:

Before writing, invoke Shri Ganesha, Shri Saraswati and Shri Sharada.

Write regularly. Set aside part of every day to write, if possible.

Don’t wait to “be in the right mood” for writing - usually inspiration comes from starting the act of writing. Some kind of deadline stops the project becoming too open-ended.

As Meg said, it’s usually best to write the first draft without stopping to edit. You need not even form proper sentences. Just get the ideas or the story out. You can edit later.

Having an outline, and a sense of how the story will end, makes it easier to avoid going off course and having to scrap large amounts of work and rewrite.

This may seem like an approach lacking in spontaneity, but I find that surprising things occur to me, even when working to a plan, so the process is not as boring as it sounds. Some writers really prefer to just work intuitively, and this is fine, especially for shorter works. Some writers prefer to start by writing certain crucial events or scenes that they are sure must be there to tell the story, then they fill in the story that links these events.

Keeping a diary, and perhaps a dream journal, keeps the writing muscles exercised regularly, and can become a source of ideas in the future. Don’t record details of events that are easily found in the public record; record your unique response to events.

I usually keep a file of key images and words, quotes etc, for each writing project.

Beware of letting research for your book lead you away from the point of the project, and from what you want to say.

“Write. Don't think. Relax.”

-Ray Bradbury

Writing Fiction

There’s a LOT of advice on the internet about writing craft, and you can get lost in it all, but here’s some of what I got out of it:

Beginning (Mooladhara): Early on, perhaps In the first ten pages or so, you need to give the reader two things: something that will awaken their curiosity (a hook), and a protagonist they can care about, otherwise they will lose interest in the story. The protagonist needs to be someone the reader can identify with: a human being with human vulnerabilities and flaws, not a cardboard cut-out idealisation. Not to say that the protagonist can’t be a saint, but they should be an interesting saint, involved in the world, unique, just as each Sahaja Yogi is unique. Some of the most memorable protagonists in literature have Shri Ganesha’s qualities: a certain innocence about them, an innate wisdom the reader will resonate with, and initiative the reader will cheer for, also a magnetic quality that comes from being grounded in the real.

The best way to get the reader to care for the protagonist is to show them that the protagonist cares about something or someone very deeply. This could take the form of a goal or desire to be fulfilled. The goal need not be world domination, it could be something quite simple and internal.

To engross (or ensubtle) the reader, you might want to try writing in ‘deep point of view” - the narrative puts the reader into the head and heart of the protagonist, avoiding anything that would pull the reader out of that POV, for example, too much exposition. In deep POV, even description of setting should reflect how the protagonist would experience that setting.

Unless there is a good reason, avoid shifting the POV between the heads of different characters within a scene.

A basic aspect of the art of storytelling is the withholding of parts of the story until towards the end, to maintain the reader’s curiosity and create a sense of mystery or suspense. But beware of withholding so much that the reader becomes confused or starts to feel the writer is deceiving or manipulating them.

Dramatic tension is essential for a story that will sustain interest. There needs to be some form of conflict, but it need not involve violence, and could be internal conflict, within a character’s mind. Dramatic tension is created by antagonists and obstacles which the protagonist must overcome to reach their goal. These obstacles allow the character’s initiative and wisdom to come out.

The story will not be memorable if the reader’s emotions are not stirred in some way, however, a realised writer can awaken very subtle things in the reader, ultimately beyond emotions.

It’s often best to write the first draft of the story in chronological order, but during the editing process, some scenes may turn out to be better treated as backstory. If they give away too much of the story, and spoil the suspense, they could be shifted to a later point in the narrative. Too much time-shifting can become confusing for the reader, however.

Ending: There could be some sense of opening up (like the Sahasrara) at the end. Not simply a bringing together or tying up of story threads, but perhaps there could be some ambiguity, and a sense of expansiveness and universality, rather than just giving the reader closure.

Love and best wishes

Graham Brown