- If you want to write about spirituality, then prepare always to practice double disciplines. One discipline is the craft of writing; the other discipline is the intentional practice of spirituality. You are embarking upon two simultaneous formations, one of art and the other of spirit. Both formations are crucially necessary. And each can be practiced without the other, but both must be present when the other, but both must be present when the subject of your art is spirituality. You can be a writer of great skill who does not deal directly with spiritual themes, and that’s fine. You can be a spiritually well-formed and thriving person who does not write about the life you experience, and that’s fine. However, if you write about the life of the spirit, then tend your own spirit well and develop your skill as a writer.
Spiritual formation and creative formation have a lot in common. I deal with this topic at length in The Soul Tells a Story, but here is a concise version that’s a good start.
Both formation – of the spirit and of the art – involve some version of the following:
- attentiveness and awareness
- honest self-reflection
- consistent work
- help from others
- ample practices of engagement
from “The Art of Spiritual Writing” by Vinita Hampton Wright
