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Description
Fusing the craft of writing with the philosophy of yoga, The Yogic Writer charts a path to the heart of creativity through the practice of yogic breathing, somatic exercises, and meditations. In response to an oftentimes paralyzing focus on outcome and product, Jennifer Sinor summons decades of experience teaching creative writing and yoga to guide our attention back to the body, the place from which all art arises.
When invested with deep awareness, writing transforms us as human beings. The Yogic Writer connects the recursive process of writing – creating space for intentions, drafting, revision, and sitting in sites of possibility and potential – with the four stages of breath. Through brief insightful essays, Sinor meets writers in the present moment, providing craft advice while challenging us to explore how we look, who is really writing, and how to listen to our bodies.
Steeped in ideas owed to ancient wisdom as well as creative writing pedagogy and Sinor's own experience, The Yogic Writer offers a unique, alternative approach to finding creativity that forsakes external validation for internal knowledge and experimentation. Inspirational, affirmational, and personal, this book is for anyone seeking permission to embody the life of a writer that they already know, deep down, to be theirs.
Table of Contents
Beginnings-Puraka
Writing with the Whole Body
The sheaths of the yogic body
Born to Write
Not seeking external validation
Set Your Goats to Roam
Art as the externalization of the internal
Breathing to Write
Breath practice: intentional breathing
Effortless Effort
Allowing your attention to be called to what you love
Form the Circle and Step Inside
Creating a sacred writing space
Don't Wait for Cadaver Gums
Importance of daily practice
The Portable Altar
Flexibility in your practice
Casting Language
Keeping a writing notebook
X Always Marks the Spot
Writing prompt: mapping childhood
Picture This
Writing prompt: writing from a photo
I'll Never
Writing prompt: writing into the difficult
Inhale the Stars
Breath practice: focus on inhalation
Fiction Doesn't Exist
Finding compassion for yourself
On Fire
Writing prompt: sparking intuition
Archives Aren't for the Dead
Writing from primary materials
Trust the Treasure
Staying with a memory
No One Blames the Baby
The importance of becoming
The Spellwork of Others
The practice of daily reading
Writers' Eyes
Seeing as reception
The Muse is a Myth
The labor of craft
Fullness--Antar-kumbhaka
Fullness
Breath practice: retention at the top of the inhalation
Dander and Fluff
Start small
Everyone Gets Naked in a Scene
Writing scenes
Designate a Driver
Writing summary
There is no Beethoven
The musing voice
Breathing with Caesar
Breath practice: keeping the breath sacred
Enter the Snake
Significant detail
No Dead Grandmothers
Creating characters
Whose Line is It?
Creating dialogue
What to Bring to Show and Tell
The power of both showing and telling
What Piano?
Pursuing organic metaphors
The Body is Your Swing
Breath practice: somatic movement
Creating Our Own Obstacles
The myth of writer's block
Research and Laundry
Archival and living research
Two Towers
Crafting voice
It's Not about Cake
Finding deeper subject
Drop the Knife
Breath practice: loving kindness
No One Stands Outside
Writing and trauma
Finding Form
Linear and non-linear structure
Distillation--Rechaka
Winnowing
Breath practice: exhalation
See the Wolf
Understanding fundamental attributes
Collecting Language
Precise diction
Choose Your Wand
Verbs as energetic channels
Heart Holding
Breath practice: holding your own heart
Word by Word by Word
Focusing on syntax
Taking Refuge
Forming a writing group
The Public in Publication
Alternative Types of Publication
Rejection as Protection
How to keep going
Void-Bahyu-kumhbaka
Entering the Void
Breath practice: retention at the bottom
The Alchemy of Writing
Connections between yoga, alchemy and writing
Surrender Ritual
Epilogue
Index
Product details
| Published | 22 Feb 2024 |
|---|---|
| Format | Paperback |
| Edition | 1st |
| Extent | 216 |
| ISBN | 9781350371965 |
| Imprint | Bloomsbury Academic |
| Dimensions | 234 x 156 mm |
| Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing |
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