This is a method for developing and transforming ideas for stories and characters, recommended in the book Becoming a Writer by Dorothea Brande.
The method is to enter into a relaxed, still state of mind and then hold the idea in the centre of your attention.
Brande suggests the following steps:
- Think of an idea for a story and put together a rough draft.
- Go for a walk and think about the story. Try to avoid becoming distracted by other thoughts.
- Take a bath and keep thinking about the story.
- Lie down in a dim room and try to keep your mind quiet.
- When you feel a surge of energy, get up and start writing freely.
Please note: the process of holding an idea in the centre of attention while trying to keep the rest of the mind still sounds somewhat similar to mindfulness meditation. I have no idea whether anyone has ever experienced adverse affects from Brande’s technique. But perhaps anyone with mental health conditions for which meditation is not recommended should also approach this method with caution.
I’ve written up some notes from my first experiment with this practice here: Testing the “Story Idea as Object” practice. However, I don’t think one attempt is enough to assess this – I’d like to run a few more tests before drawing any conclusions.
Related
This practice is a form of “creative incubation”. For more about this concept, see: On “Incubation in Problem Solving and Creativity”