In this new immersive two-day workshop, you’ll blend meditation, psychological exercises, and writing. You’ll explore how tapping into our inner worlds can reveal richer themes, more layered characters, and more meaningful storytelling.

This workshop is especially tailored for writers who are ready to explore a more reflective approach, to push their fiction further, and deliver stories with more substance.

On the first day, you’ll explore your themes through practical exercises that will help you discover what you are truly interested in writing about. What are the topics that drive you? What moves you? You may be unaware of this, or semi-aware, but by the end of the day you’ll look at your creative landscape with far greater clarity.

On day two you’ll focus on character development, which is as important as theme in determining the story you want to tell. We’ll use psychological exercises to look inward and help you gain a much deeper understanding of both yourself and your characters. We’ll use this to create complex, interesting characters that go beyond stereotypes.

The purpose of this workshop is for participants to learn to channel emotions and experiences into their writing, to sharpen storytelling through self reflection, and explore new methods for generating raw and authentic material.

1. Know Yourself, Know Your Characters – Dig deep. Get to know your fears, desires, and what drives you—so your characters are reflections of real emotions.

2. Tap Into Your Creative Subconscious – It’s not just about writing better sentences—it’s about sifting through thoughts, uncovering hidden themes, and structuring material in new ways.

3. Give Your Stories Meaning and Depth – When you understand yourself, your stories get sharper.

4. Challenge Yourself – Push past your comfort zone and find a new level of reflection in your writing.

Both days will include opportunities to work with your body and mind through morning meditations, relaxation, and check-ins, before diving into writing. You will walk away with new tools, and maybe even a stronger connection between your mind, body, and creative process.

RAJEEV BALASUBRAMANYAN was born in Lancashire in 1974 and went on to study Politics, Philosophy and Economics at Oxford, Development Studies at Cambridge, and a PhD in English and Creative Writing from Lancaster University. He has taught creative writing for twenty-five years with the British Council, Arvon Foundation, and on the University of Hong Kong MFA programme. In 2014 he was made a fellow of the Hemera Foundation, for writers with a meditation practice, and has been Artist-in-Residence at the Zen Center of New York City. You can read more on his approach to meditation on his featured article in Penguin UK

 Rajeev is the prize-winning author of IN BEAUTIFUL DISGUISES (Bloomsbury 2000) and PROFESSOR CHANDRA FOLLOWS HIS BLISS (Chatto & Windus 2019/Random House USA 2019). His journalism and short fiction have appeared in the Washington Post, the Economist, New Statesman, London Review of Books, The Paris Review, McSweeney’s and others. He lives and works in Berlin.

Have a look here to learn more about PROFESSOR CHANDRA FOLLOWS HIS BLISS, and Rajeev’s approach to writing with meditation.