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Cultivating Silence, For Better Writing

January 17, 2012 •

“Silence is golden.” Or so we’ve heard for cen­turies; a prover­bial say­ing that’s con­sis­tent across cul­tures.

The ques­tion is, in an amped-up, caf­feine-fueled, texting/tweeting world of con­stant dis­trac­tions, is there a place for silence in busi­ness? That is, can a more beau­ti­fully silent space lead to bet­ter writ­ing?

Or is this a ques­tion whose answer varies by age, with time for silence or con­tem­pla­tion a con­cept that appeals more pow­er­fully to peo­ple over 40?

Do peo­ple write bet­ter, think more clearly, if they have the lux­ury of doing so in an envi­ron­ment that screens out noise and dis­trac­tions? Does focus lead to bet­ter writ­ing, con­tent that’s more likely to res­onate with oth­ers? Can a blank can­vas invoke more cre­ativ­ity?

It’s an inter­est­ing ques­tion, one that I think is best answered on an indi­vid­ual basis. It’s also pos­si­ble that indi­vid­ual pref­er­ences are more sit­u­a­tional, linked to time and place, or what you’re think­ing or writ­ing about. Or: who’s pay­ing for your time and why…

A writer’s haven

If you’d like to expe­ri­ence the impact of dis­trac­tion-free silence while writ­ing, there’s a min­i­mal­ist tool for Mac, PC and iPad users called “OmmWriter Dana.” It’s kind of a zen-like, Steve Jobs-inspired approach to the act of writ­ing. Its Barcelona-based cre­ators call it “a writer’s haven.”

OmmWriter Dana

The min­i­mal­ist ver­sion can be down­loaded for free to your Mac; a paid-ver­sion offers a broader selec­tion of color schemes and audio themes designed to cul­ti­vate focus, con­tem­pla­tion and enhance cre­ativ­ity.

I’m using the basic ver­sion of OmmWriter to draft this blog post. OmmWriter enables me write the basic post, hid­ing the rest of my Mac­in­tosh envi­ron­ment (includ­ing turn­ing off my sec­ondary dis­play where I nor­mally scan incom­ing emails, tweets, etc.)

To turn this draft into a blog, I copy my draft, and then paste it into Word­Press where I’ll add the appro­pri­ate HTML tags, cat­e­gory tags and so on. This sep­a­rates the writ­ing process from the markup process.

Whether this two-step approach enhances cre­ativ­ity is too soon to say defin­i­tively. What I do know is that the actual expe­ri­ence of writ­ing with OmmWriter is more delight­ful than when writ­ing a blog inside Word­Press, LiveWriter, NotePad or any of the usual word pro­cess­ing tools.

Try it your­self, and see how it helps your writ­ing.

About This Blog

Reflec­tions on life, travel, books, and yoga. Think­ing out loud about the pur­suit of mind­ful­ness and well-being.

Learn­ing how to recover from the loss of a beloved spouse, and then to find a trans­for­ma­tive path for­ward.

About Me

Semi-retired marketing exec, transitioning from a career in high tech. Now "managed" by two Tonkinese cats. Missing travel and friends on the West Coast. Avid reader and foodie. Staying active with long walks, biking, kayaking and yoga.

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