This is a really helpful way to train and be intentional with your mind to make space for the practice of writing. I will keep this on my writing tools "shelf" as I often suffer from distractions and the advice in this book sounds helpful and good.

A wonderful book on using mindfulness to strengthen one's writing practice. So excited to apply these strategies to my own writing life!

I like books about creative processes in general. This book has many useful ideas for creative writing, which the author based on different kinds of meditations. Therefore, I think it's a book to slow down and take time for yourself so you can go back to writing again or connect with the work you're already doing. Beautiful cover! I would have loved illustrations inside!

Thanks to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for this ARC of Sit Write Here by April Dávila, to be published on July 7th, 2026.

This is a very nice book on the spiritual aspects of writing. The author helps writers slow down and meditate as part of their writing practice. This is excellent advice, and the book is well written.

As a writer myself, I find myself sitting in silence, looking a trees for a good long time before I begin writing for the day. I had never considered this "meditation," but this book helped me appreciate the importance of this practice in my writing life.

As a writer, I’m always on the lookout for new craft books, but this one is a little different, in a very good way. Sit Write Here explores six key practices of mindfulness and meditation with a specific aim to incorporate mindfulness into one’s writing practice. I’m not big on meditation, but I know it offers so many benefits, especially as our society moves further away from quiet and stillness and it becomes harder to escape the noise of life.

I really enjoyed reading about these concepts such as embracing discomfort in order to be more equipped to portray conflict in writing, learning to dive deeper into your emotions in order to more effectively portray emotions of characters on the page, and learning to persevere through the many obstacles that can get in the way of your writing. The author offers practical and written exercises to help the reader implement these concepts. The section on dealing with feedback and rejection was particularly meaningful, as every writer I know struggles with how to keep going when it feels as though they’ve failed. This book offers clear ways to train your brain to be kinder to yourself and to find more joy in the process of creation. I am already enthusiastically recommending this handy mindfulness guide to every writer I know!

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC of this book.

Talk about divine timing. This book is exactly what I needed in this moment.

The author does a wonderful job of providing practical advice and strategies in such a kind and wise way. If you already have a mindfulness practice, her techniques are incredibly accessible and easy to stack. I think a lot of these tips are great even if you don't have a mindfulness practice.

You can just tell a lot of care went into the writing of this book. The humble and grounded way she speaks on this topic shows that her knowledge was hard won. I feel like a lot of books in this category can tend to feel preachy, or written with an air of authority, but this author feels like an actual mentor who has an earnest inclination to see you reach your own success.

I have signed up for her website and mailing list and will be purchasing a physical copy to refer back to. I will definitely be recommending this book to friends and customers as well. Thank you for the opportunity.

my two favorite topics mingling in the same book?! yes please.
thank you netgalley for providing me with an ARC. i loved this book!!

“mindfulness at its heart is about learning to see things as they truly are.”

“Social media is the antithesis of mindfulness. Instead of making space for ideas…social media is designed to keep you endlessly engaged while hardly even noticing what’s in front of your face.”

“The word “enthusiasm” comes from the Greek word that means “to be inspired or possessed by a god,” so you can think of enthusiasm as divine direction, a nudge from the Almighty, or the universe”

“Buddhists sometimes use the metaphor of the first and second arrow. You can think of the thing that causes the initial sadness or discomfort as an arrow landing somewhere in your body. This first arrow is the unavoidable pain of life. You get sick. You get your heart broken. A story you wrote gets rejected. The second arrow is the one you shoot at yourself. It’s the mental and emotional reaction to the initial pain. You might catch yourself thinking, Why can’t I do anything right? or I’m such an idiot, or Who do I think I am trying to be a writer? The second arrow is the anger, doubt, and shame one tends to bring to already painful situations.”

“Lovingkindness….difficulties of life being like salt, and how if you mix a tablespoon of salt into a cup of water and drink it, it’s going to taste gross. But if you drop that same amount of salt into a much larger body of water, like a bathtub or swimming pool or a lake, it will be diluted to such a point that it’s indiscernible. The salt remains the same, but the spaciousness of the container makes all the difference.

The salt in this metaphor represents all life’s difficulties. As Salzberg points out, you have very little control over how much trouble you will face in your lifetime. What you can do is make your “container” more spacious so you can dilute any amount of salt that comes your way.”