The Challenge Of Writing A Novel About Meditation

My work in progress novel, Love and Distraction, is a romance which takes place over series of meditation classes. There are heaps of non-fiction books written about meditation, and a decent amount of poetry with a strong mindfulness theme, but there isn’t much fiction on the meditative arts. It’s a puzzle.

I’ve sat on my meditation cushion, lit a candle, burned some incense, and had a good long think about why that might be, and which other fiction has a strong meditative theme. There isn’t a lot. I can only come up with three:

If I stretch the definition of meditation to breaking point, then I can come up with a couple more, but fiction books about meditation are rare. They’re rare in the same way that three wheeled cars are rare. They’re rare in the same way that pet tigers are rare. They’re rare in the same way that package holidays to prison camps are rare. Books about meditation are rare because it just isn’t a very good idea to write one.

Meditation is slow. Meditation is still. Meditation takes place on a cushion surround by other people who are not doing very much either. Meditation lacks the fundamental narrative drive required to turn it into a good story. Nevertheless that what I’m doing, writing a novel about meditation, and these are the inevitable difficulties I’m experiencing while doing it.

Slow pacing

There is a popular misconception that meditation is all about sitting very still and thinking about nothing. While that’s not true, it’s an unavoidable fact that watching people meditate isn’t very interesting. They are typically sat down, they are typically not moving too much, and they typically stay that way for much of the time. It’s not an action packed fun fest and narrative drive becomes difficult and pacing grinds to a halt. 

Personally, I can read about someone meditating for hundreds of pages, but that’s a minority interest. Most people want something to actually happen, and happen within the first few paragraphs. Otherwise it’s book down, and back to rereading the Twilight Saga.

Therefore, I’ve injected (some very moderate) action into my novel by adding a few more dynamic meditation practices:

  • The characters move during walking meditation, albeit very very slowly
  • The class tries Sufi Whirling. It’s good fun and technically meditation and get’s everyone up, and spinning, then falling over again.
  • They all try Quaker style sitting. The characters still silently until something moves them and then they can speak. Admittedly it’s not action packed, but when they do say something, it opens up the possibility for them to embarrass themselves and generally put their foot in it. Which they do.

But in its heart, Love and Distraction is a hymn to meditation, and consequently the characters spend a decent chunk of time sitting still – which I still like to read about.

Claustrophobic 

Meditation typically occurs in one location, and that location is a room where not much is happening. Readers don’t like that. They find it claustrophobic and report relief when the characters finally leave the room. 

I’m not writing a thriller where someone is trapped in a coffin, so I don’t want the dominant emotion evoked by my novel to be enclosed panic. To avoid this I’ve used a number of strategies:

  • The characters are perpetually late for classes, so rushing which adds motion
  • The walking meditation and Sufi whirling happen outside
  • Characters often wander off during tea breaks
  • There is a short residential retreat so the characters get to spend time at a different location
  • There are scenes built in between classes. These were originally a minor part of the story, but as redrafts go on, they are becoming more dominant.

Too thinky

This is an interesting balance. My novel does need to be thinky but in the right way. In the initial drafts, there was page after page of characters engaging in interior monologues while meditating. It was too much, and even I was bored. However now the characters lack a certain quality. They aren’t quite two dimensional, but their lives are mostly external.

The challenge is to add back in some interiority, but interleaf it with dialog or narrative so it adds to the story and makes the reader connect with the characters, rather than the reader dropping the novel in the bin out of boredom or irritation. The work is ongoing.

Preachy

If I give myself free rein, my authorial voice becomes really preachy. When I write book reviews it tends to come out, and it vomits forth in wave after nauseating wave in Love and Distraction. It’s my least appealing quality as a writer (although I’ve many more unappealing qualities as a human being). 

I really like meditating. I’m a true believer and an enthusiastic advocate of its beneficial and life-changing effects. But a novel with page after page of pro-meditation polemic is obnoxious. It all has been removed – but it keeps sneaking back in, because I really believe in meditation. Because I think everyone should do it. Because it is hugely beneficial. And because I’ve got a tendency to monologue about my special interests.

If I wanted to write a book extolling the virtues of meditation, I should have written non-fiction. I haven’t. It’s fiction, so the meditation propaganda needs to stay in my head and off the page. It’s a romance, not the Varieties of Religious Experience.

Not for everyone

The fundamental issue is that a novel about meditation won’t be for everyone, and if I try to make it generally appealing then it loses its uniqueness. I’ve gone through several rounds of stripping out the meditation stuff and getting the characters off their cushions, and each time I do it I like the book less and less.

At bottom, I’m writing the book that I want to write, the book that pleases me, the book that I would want to read. I’m undecided whether this is the book I’ll try to get published, or if I’ll ever try to get any book published. Until I make that decision, then Love and Distraction remains a personal project and it can stay slow, claustrophobic, a bit preachy and not to everyone’s taste. I think I’m OK with that, for now.

Photo by Priscilla Du Preez 🇨🇦 on Unsplash

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