Creativity

Your Unique Writing Gift

Published on by Kristi Holl

If you lack confidence in your writing ability… If you doubt that you have anything unique to say to a reader… If you think it doesn’t matter if you share your writing with the world, you’ll want to read this.

Your Writing is Unique

Last week when in Waco, TX, I visited the beautiful Homestead Heritage craft-based community. I found a book there called Write Words: the Grace of Writing by Blair Adams.

If you doubt that you have anything unique to share with the world through your writing, this quote might well change your mind.

You speak with a unique voice that comes from a unique perspective. Just as each person possesses a one-of-a-kind speaking voice, so each possesses just such a writing “voice.” … “if a reader says, ‘That sounds just likeyou,’ take it as a first-rate compliment. No one else experiences the world from precisely the same intersection of relationships and events, from the same angle of vision. No one else has journeyed through the same life. That life has shaped your focus on the world to give you special insights and perspectives, a special mix of knowledge and experience, information and relationships, victories and defeats, joys and sorrows, hopes and dreams. All these enable you to view and understand the world in a particular way. This unique way of seeing and saying means that from experiences re-created in written words, you can uncover and disclose insights and perspectives that will otherwise be lost to the world forever.”

Lost to the world forever: that’s what will happen if you give up on your writing projects. Don’t quit! Don’t let your work be lost to the world forever.

You would be missed.

Books for Discouraged or Overwhelmed Writers

Published on by Kristi Holl
Young overwhelmed woman.

During the summer, when trying to stay above the health issues and do things with my grandkids and keep up with a few strict publishing deadlines, I read two books that were especially helpful.

I found I was fighting on a regular basis two discouraging ideas.

One: what had happened to my “dream” novel, the novel of my heart, while dealing with all these other urgent things? It had floundered.

Two: how could I get a handle on everything that had piled up and still get back to my dream novel? [I had a conference coming up where I had signed up to pitch my novel to an editor and agent. If “life” hadn’t interfered for months, I could have easily had it finished.]

As so often happens with me, my prayers for help led me to a book. Or, in this case, two books. One fed my soul with encouragement. The other gave me the practical help and coaching that I needed to get perspective. I don’t believe in re-inventing the wheel if someone else has already solved a problem and written about it. Maybe one or both of these books will help you too.

The Dream Giver

This book inspired me at a time I needed to know that my dream of the last five years wasn’t dead or dying, but meant to be. The Dream Giver: Following Your God-Given Destiny by Bruce Wilkinson has been a bestseller for many years. Here’s the back blurb (and yes, it’s a Christian book.)

“Are you living your dream? Or just living your life? Welcome to a little story about a very big idea. This compelling modern-day parable tells the story of Ordinary, who dares to leave the Land of Familiar to pursue his Big Dream. [Note: it follows the ups and downs of achieving his dream. I could identify with all the stages!] You, too, have been give a Big Dream. One that can change your life. One that the Dream Giver wants you to achieve. Does your Big Dream seem hopelessly out of reach? Are you waiting for something or someone to make your dream happen? Then you’re ready for The Dream Giver.”

Growing Gills

This book was recommended to me by a blog reader who gave such a rave review of this book that I had to check it out. I’m so glad I did! Growing Gills: How to Find Creative Focus When You’re Drowning in Your Daily Life by Jessica Abel is so very good. Don’t you love that title? Jessica also has a great blog. ( Click and scroll down.) Growing Gills comes with a free workbook you can download and print out, which I did, and then work through the exercises to do what her title promises. Here’s part of  the blurb:

“Go from overwhelmed, anxious, and stuck, to consistent, clear, and in control of your creative life. If you feel like you’re floundering in the deep end (Not waving, drowning!), and anxiety over the complexity and enormousness of your creative projects overwhelms you, stop scrambling to fit everything in and feeling stretched thin.

Dive Deep and Swim

  • Sustain the energy you feel when thinking of how awesome your projects could be.
  • Value your own creative work as highly as work you do for other people.
  • Build a reusable structure and process that will consistently get you to the finish line.
  • Blast through your stuck-ness.
  • Finish. Move on to the next project.

You’re a creative person. Even if you have a hard time calling yourself a “writer” or an “artist” in public, making your creative work is core to who you are and how you see the world. You may be harboring a big, ambitious idea for a project. Possibly a lot of them. And it’s killing you.

You lie awake thinking about it…and hating yourself for not doing more to make it real. And then in the morning you’re exhausted, and you can’t believe you “wasted” more time on this stupid idea. Whoever told you that you were creative anyway? You try to shove your idea away, to forget it. But your creative work is what keeps you sane. You can’t not do this. So you live with guilt and anxiety all the time.” [If you follow the workbook as you read her book, this can be a thing of the past.]

 

Research Across the Ocean: Heading Back to England!

Published on by Kristi Holl

Image result for flying to englandI thought this week would never get here, and yet the summer flew by, and now I don’t feel ready! I’m taking lots of deep (excited) breaths this week, getting ready to go to England for a month.

I was in England two years ago, visiting the homes of Jane Austen, Charlotte Brontë, and Beatrix Potter, in order to write historical mysteries I had contracted for. I made a mental note during that trip that someday I wanted to go back and explore the Yorkshire Dales. The Dales have the moors like the Brontë village of Haworth, but it’s greener and warmer. For a couple of years, I’ve nursed an idea for a series set there.

Research in Person: Nothing Quite Like It

So it’s time to go back! Only this time I plan to do what I’ve heard other writers talk about for years: stay longer and write there. My husband is coming for ten days, then flying home to go back to work. I will stay the remainder of the month (in a cute little apartment we rented in the small village of Settle.) I plan to write and write and write.

This is definitely one of the perks of being a writer who’s been around a while. I document everything for the IRS, probably giving them more paperwork than they like to read. But I honestly can’t afford this kind of travel unless it gives me a huge tax break. I was able to write off most of my trip last time by proving that I had contracts for the Brontë and Austen books (and I wasn’t just going on a vacation.) Of course, on this trip, I can’t write off my husband’s plane ticket, but the apartment costs the same whether one person is staying there or four people. And renting a car or a driver is the same whether it’s just for me or for us both.

My Plan for the Month

We arrive in England on Saturday morning after the all-night flight. I’ll post some pictures next week while we’re out hiking and visiting museums and riding the trains and exploring the rocky hills (with their grazing sheep and waterfalls and caves).

However, after my husband flies home, I plan to dig in for some undistracted writing. Instead of posting immediately to Facebook and Instagram and Pinterest, I will save those new photos to post when I get home. I only plan to keep up with my husband, children and grandchildren while I’m writing. (That’s the hard part about choosing to be gone this long—all their lives I’ve seen the grandkids nearly every week.)

Deep Work in a Distracted World

If you’re at all introverted, you know the joy I anticipate at being able to write for three weeks without distraction. Oh, I will take plenty of breaks. The apartment is in the heart of the oldest part of the village. The pub and bakeries are only half a block away. A museum housed in a building built in 1670 is right across the street. And just a few blocks away are the woods and the open moors, perfect for walking and ruminating. But mostly, I’ll be reading and writing. (I’ve done months of book research already.)

Last year, when I ran into a number of health issues, I realized I was having difficulty focusing when I got back to work. Some, I learned, was due to illness, but a LOT of it came down to my lifestyle, including too much smartphone use. I went on a reading spree, studying how the brain works. I also read three books that convinced me to unplug from all devices for periods of time, and work (like I used to do on that Iowa farm when I started writing). Your writer’s brain needs chunks of time without the constant influx of information from multiple sources.

We’re All in This Together

It isn’t only me. It isn’t just kids who spend too much time playing video games on their phones. This applies to all of us, and ESPECIALLY to people like us who depend on being able to think deeply and use our God-given brains and imaginations to their utmost.

So, while I’m secluded in that English village after my husband goes home, maybe you’d like to read one (or all three) of these books. (You can get them used, if you want to.) I’m sure I’ll be blogging about them more in the future.

 

 

And now, I’m off to watch a YouTube video one more time about how to pack my Weekender Laptop Backpack. (See below.) It must have thirty hidden pockets. My inner organizer can’t wait! eBags Professional Weekender

 

 

 

Inner Critics: Valuable Editor or Time Waster?

Published on by Kristi Holl

Writers are opinionated people.

Our brains never seem to stop. We criticize because we “know” how things and people should be. This “critical editor component” of our personality is absolutely invaluable to the editing and revision process. If you can’t spot what’s wrong with a manuscript, you can’t fix it.

However, this same critical ability can cause writers to actually lose focus, allowing their writing hours to slip away with little or no work done.

Think About It

Many of us go through our daily lives with our internal critic or editor in charge. We don’t see the person right in front of us as he or she is (which may be perfectly fine.) Instead, that person reminds us of a demanding boss or an ex-spouse, and we “see” characteristics that aren’t there. Or they remind us of a forgiven (but not forgotten yet) event. Stress!

Conversely, we think the person in front of us is “supposed” to be kind and supportive (or whatever our inner definition of the perfect parent/spouse/child/sibling). And yet many such relationships are anything but, leaving us hurt and upset because they should be supportive. More stress! Life rarely satisfies a person who lets the “shoulds” run his life.

Do we spend our time “shoulding”? We don’t see a child who is happily singing at the top of her voice. (That child should be quieter in the store!) We don’t see an interesting shade of purple hair. (That teenager should resemble a middle-aged adult instead.) We don’t see the predator or user sometimes either–because trusted family members shouldn’t be such things. Our “shoulds” and “shouldn’ts” color everything we observe.

Change Your Perspective

Our inner editor sometimes keeps us from seeing what’s in front of us. We are constantly “revising” the facts. So what’s the problem with that? You can’t accept–and get peace about–what you can’t honestly see or face. You stay stirred up–a condition rarely suited to being creative. Sometimes the simplest solutions evade us because we’re all riled up inside.

It reminds me of a story (you may also be familiar with) about “The River and the Lion:

After the great rains, the lion was faced with crossing the river that had encircled him. Swimming was not in his nature, but it was either cross or die. The lion roared and charged at the river, almost drowning before he retreated. Many more times he attacked the water, and each time he failed to cross. Exhausted, the lion lay down, and in his quietness, he heard the river say, “Never fight what isn’t here.”

Cautiously, the lion looked up and asked, “What isn’t here?”

“Your enemy isn’t here,” answered the river. “Just as you are a lion, I am merely a river.”

Now the lion sat very still and studied the ways of the river. After a while, he walked to where a certain current brushed against the shore and stepping in, floated to the other side.

Control What You Can: Yourself

We also can’t gain peace of mind and the ability to focus unless we’re willing to give up trying to control everyone and everything in our environment. We spend entire days fuming and fretting over situations or people we can’t change or control, wasting precious writing and study time.

We need to save our judging skills for revision time and critiquing. We need to save our control freak behaviors for finagling with our characters’ actions. And you may as well give up having to convince people you’re right, while you’re at it. Letting go of those three things (judging, controlling, being right) will give you more inner peace faster than hours of yoga and meditation and mind-altering substances.

Start Right Here, Right Now

Think about something that is currently keeping your mind in knots to the point that you can barely write. Chances are that you are judging someone’s behavior, or trying to figure out how to control a situation, or having mental conversations in which you prove to that stubborn person how right you are. (I know this from personal experience in case you think I’ve been reading your mail.)

Letting go of criticism and control is freedom. For the writer, it means hours and hours are freed up for reading and writing. Just for today, let grown people and situations be what they are. Let them work on solutions for their own problems–or not. Turn all that “should” energy on your own work. [Often the Boundaries for Writers that we need to enforce are those we set on ourselves!]

At the end of the day, you’ll have something great to show for it!

Conversations Crucial for Creative Success

Published on by Kristi Holl

conversationsResearch indicates that the average person has about 50,000 conversations with himself a day. (I bet writers do it even more!) Most of that ruminating is about yourself, and according to the psychological researchers, the inner self-talk is 80% negative.

While much of the negativity comes from criticizing ourselves (I don’t like my new jeans… They don’t like me… I can’t ever seem to get organized…), a lot of the negativity we sensitive creatives feel is picked up from other people. We tend to take on the emotional states of other people–and if they’re negative, it impacts us.

Kinds of Conversations

I found three great articles on the types of conversations we have and the impact on us as creative people.

  • “Are Invisible Conversations Preventing Your Success?” tells us about the invisible conversations we’re often in without knowing it, especially the kind where we’ve picked up on someone else’s bad mood. This type of invisible conversation is called “emotional contagion.” It can be especially detrimental to creative people. This includes the YouTube videos watched, the online news, and the ranting political diatribes on websites (including Facebook). Pay serious attention to the general emotional states of the people you surround yourself with because they foster invisible conversations. These things can play a major role in helping create or (destroying) the mindset needed to do your writing.
  • “You Become the Network You Hang With“ had this to say in the second half of the article: “When my first book was published they told me they [my friends] could also publish a book if they had time. When I suggested they would have time if they quit going to the pub and watching so much TV, it was made clear they did not tolerate such talk…I started to see real progress when I made a new network. When I sought out people who were a positive, nurturing influence. People who would help me up rather than finding ways to knock me down.” [This is called a “crab bucket mentality.”]  “Rather than hold me back my new network expanded my horizons, expanded my opportunities, and expanded my reach.”
  • “The Introvert’s Guide to Making Great Connections“ had this to say before giving his “guide” recommendations: “People will tell you that meeting and mixing with others – networking, hanging out, socializing, tribe-building, whatever you want to call it – is a vital part of the path to… something. Greatness, maybe, or creativity. Perhaps just contentedness…Honestly, I haven’t found that to be so. In fact, I find most of the connect-y, conference-circuity, business-socializing stuff to be vacuous, painfully false and a waste of time.” He goes on to say what kind of conversations work for introverts–and what happens between conversations.

Your creativity is impacted (positively or negatively) by the kinds of people in your life and the conversations you hear. This is of vital importance to writers and other creatives.

If you have another tip for dealing with it, share that too! I personally find that prayer and devotional reading can get my mind back on track fairly quickly. What things work for you?

Unhappiness: a Positive Sign for Writers

Published on by Kristi Holl

unhappinessHave you ever considered the fact that unhappiness is the first step along the writer’s path?

“Toddlers are bursting with the anxiety and helplessness of having feelings that they can’t get anybody around them to understand. They don’t even have the right words in their heads yet—it’s all emotion and frustration. That’s also an accurate description of writers in step one.” This is how Nancy Pickard and Lynn Lott describe the first of their Seven Steps on the Writer’s Path: the Journey from Frustration to Fulfillment. [I highly recommend this book, by the way.]

This unhappiness may feel like an itchy feeling under your skin. It may feel like an urge to change something. Call it restlessness or discontent or creative tension. “Unhappiness,” say the authors, “to one degree or another, is where all creativity begins.”

Message in the Misery

If you’re starting to feel that itch to change something in your life, you’re moving into Step One. Maybe you don’t feel unhappy exactly. Maybe you’re just restless. But if this tension is trying to tell you that you’re a writer who should be writing, it can very quickly turn into discomfort and then misery if you don’t pay attention to it.

Even published writers in a long-time career can feel this unhappiness or tension when it’s time to make a change. “Every important turn on my writer’s path has been preceded by unhappiness,” Nancy Pickard admits. “The more major the turn, the worse the misery.” (I can certainly identify with that! I get bored first, after writing in the same genre or on the same subjects for years. I itch to try something new or more challenging, something fresh that will stretch me again.)

Brands of Writer Unhappiness

If you’ve been writing for a long time, this unhappy first step on the writer’s path may have more specific origins. It might be the misery of being in a day job you’d give anything to quit so you could write full-time. Or it’s the misery of a writer’s block that just won’t budge—perhaps for months. It might be the misery of when your proposal has been rejected by a dozen editors or agents—and your spouse has told you to get “a real job.”

What About You?

There are many signs, according to these authors, that you are in the first step along the writer’s path (the first of seven very identifiable steps, in which the authors offer practical solutions). I had always assumed that the beginning stages (for other writers) was a time of great excitement, a happy eager time. I was glad to find that I wasn’t the only one who was boosted into action for the opposite reason!

How about YOU? How do YOU know when it’s time to get creative?

Creative Composting for Writers

Published on by Kristi Holl

When I started writing, I lived on an Iowa farm, in a county known nationwide as the “black dirt capital of the world.” Record crops were grown there, in the most nutrient-dense soil in the country.

Then I moved to Texas twelve years ago. I tried for years to grow something–anything–in my front yard. I watered faithfully, but after a few weeks, the bushes curled up and died, the flowers shriveled, and the firm succulents went squishy.

What passes for “dirt” here is a bit of leached-out clay embedded with rocks and gravel. There is almost no top soil at all, and certainly none of it is black. Not even brown. Just sort of dingy gray. One weekend, I asked the advice of the older man across the street, a retired wheat farmer from Nebraska whose vegetable gardens were green and lush.

“Compost your yard,” he said. “Pile up all kinds of vegetable peelings and leaves and grass clippings, let it get warm and decompose, then use the rich formula to give your plants something to grow on.”

Something to Grow On

When he said that, I realized he was talking about more than my dried-up yard, although he didn’t know it…  I was twenty-seven years old when I took a writing course for children. At that time, I’d stored up twenty-seven years of experiences, plus twenty-seven years’ worth of books read and absorbed. I also had three small children, so ideas were unfolding before my very eyes on a daily basis. I had more ideas than I had time to write down, much less develop.

Fast forward thirty-three years to arid Texas. I’ve had nearly 50 books published, plus scores of articles and some short stories. Even so, sometimes my inner reservoir of ideas feels a lot like my gray hard rocky soil out front. Some days I feel like I’m about as successful growing stories as I am at growing flowers.

We all get there, if we write long enough. For me, it means that my writing life needs composting.

Artist Dates

One of the things Julia Cameron advises in The Artist’s Way is to take a weekly “artist date.” It’s for feeding your mind with images and experiences you need as a writer. Weekly nurturing experiences restock the pond that perhaps you’ve fished from for years. An over-fished pond leaves us with diminished resources. Our work dries up. The pond needs to be restocked. You do that with artist dates.

“An artist date is a block of time, perhaps two hours weekly, especially set aside and committed to nurturing your creative consciousness, your inner artist. In its most primary form, the artist date is an excursion, a play date that you pre-plan and defend against all interlopers.”

You go alone–no spouses, friends, children, or grandchildren.

Cameron suggests things like a visit to a great junk store, a solo trip to the beach, an old movie seen alone, a visit to an aquarium or art gallery. A long walk, sitting to watching a sunrise or sunset, going bowling, a free concert in the park: all such experiences qualify.

Crop Analysis

Are you expecting a bumper crop of writing to come from soil that was depleted some time ago? Is the fruit of your writing labor smaller than it used to be? It could be that it’s time to do some composting.

What are some of your favorite ways to feed and nurture your creative side? What do you do to fit creative composting into your writing life?

Germination Phase

Published on by Kristi Holl

[Read about the first phase here: preparing to write.]

The second stage, called the germination stage by Louise De Salvo Ph.D. in Writing as a Way of Healing, is a time “during which we gather and work on fragments of ideas, images, phrases, scenes, moments, lines, possibilities for plots, characters, settings. Sometimes we don’t quite know what we’re doing or where all this is leading. Sometimes we feel like we’re working haphazardly. Sometimes, though, we have a clearer conception.”

Know Your Own Personality

During the germination stage, my Type A personality wants to organize, and yet so much of what occurs to us during this time isn’t “organizable” yet. I used to follow advice I’d read to write down ideas on scraps of paper and stick them in a folder, but I soon found that my own personality hated that. I would open the file folder, see all those scribbled scraps on paper napkins and file cards and the backs of receipts—and it looked like chaos.

Chaos of any kind has never been conducive to writing for me. And yet, if you push yourself to organize during the germination phase, you are almost sure to derail any creative impulses trying to emerge.

Tips for a Successful Germination Phase

So is there a solution to getting through this phase and gleaning from it everything you need to start working on your novel or project? I suspect this is an individual matter, but for me, this is what works to keep me from derailing during this phrase:

1. Follow your urges to read. They will come at such odd moments. You’ll be sorting through junk mail or paying bills, and suddenly you see a flyer on how to save on your water bill. Although ninety-nine percent of the time you pitch this junk unread, today you feel the nudge to read it. Pay attention to your urges to read. I have thus found careers for certain characters, plot twists and whole subplots, and clues for mysteries. The germination stage is a wonderful time to browse in museums, art galleries, antique shops, flea markets, and other places where you can let your mind and eyes roam. Watch what snags your attention and make note of it.

2. If you feel you must organize (like I do), get a three-ring notebook and those colored divider tabs. (This method has served me well through forty-seven books.) Make sections for book and chapter titles, character, plot ideas, setting, dialogue, and whatever else you’re collecting. Continue to write things on scraps of paper as they come to you, but after you have several scraps, sit down with your notebook and add the information behind the correct colored tab. (Scotch taping the scrap to a page is quick and easy.) Is it a snippet of dialogue you overheard on the bus that is just perfect? Transfer it to the dialogue section. Did you find an odd fact about 1940s mail carriers? Put it in the character section. Is it a bizarre thing that someone did that you saw in the newspaper? Add it to the plot section. None of this is written down in any order, but as your sections fatten with ideas, your mind will (quite unconsciously) start to sort it out and make connections. In a later stage, when you go through the various sections of notes, you’ll be amazed at the ideas that will have begun to gel. (That’s in the working stage, which we’ll talk about next.)

The germination stage can be such an exciting, fun time, but it comes with some frustrations. Look at the purpose of this stage, then balance it against your own personality and way of working. After some time–and it’s different for every person and every project–you’ll be ready to move on to the next stage.

[By the way, I’m skimming the surface of the material in De Salvo’s book. If this rings true for you, I’d encourage you to get her book.]

Key #3: Loosen Up

Published on by Kristi Holl

This Key-3 step is designed to help you get fully involved with your writing. [See the previous three blog posts for the introduction to flow and the first two keys.]

Writing in Flow author Susan Perry says, “To allow your creativity, your insights, your inner stories, to spill over onto the page, you’ll need to work out—consciously or not—some way to loosen yourself up so it can happen.”

If you already have a looser, laid-back, easygoing personality, you may find it easier to get into the flow state for writing. However, if you’re more like me, don’t despair! Even control freaks can loosen up.

I will give you some ideas below, and hopefully one or two of them will work for you. Not all of them work for me, but we all have different personalities. What doesn’t work for me may be exactly the idea that will help you.

Ways to Loosen Up

ONE: Most writers develop certain individualized routines and rituals that seem to ease their entry into “flow,” that timeless state where writing is a pleasure. By using specific daily rituals or routines to ease into the writing, it helps you make the shift into another state of consciousness, something like when you fall asleep. My daughters both created multi-ritual night time routines, each step done in the same order, to help their babies transition from playtime to bedtime. Some babies need longer rituals than others to make the transition, and some writers need more time and more rituals to make the transition into flow writing. Experiment until you find the routines that work for you.

TWO: Some writers suggest that it’s helpful to bring a sense of play into your work. Ask yourself, “How can I make today’s writing fun?” Try whatever comes to mind. Yes, trying new ways of writing may feel risky. Just remember that early on in the process, there is really no risk. It’s an illusion. There’s no need to censor yourself yet. No one needs to see your writing until much later—if ever! “If you procrastinate over your writing,” Perry says, “it may be because you believe on some level that your first drafts have to be excellent, perhaps even perfect.” Instead, tell yourself (out loud, if necessary), “It doesn’t matter!” Or as Anne Lamott says in Bird by Bird, allow yourself to write “%&#$@*^ Rough Drafts.”

THREE: To get into flow, some writers try nothing at all…they say they simply stop trying and wait for words to bubble up, knowing this is what it takes for their own minds to loosen up and get into the flow.

FOUR: I wouldn’t have believed this next tip would work—except that I found out it did by accident. Doing your e-mail works to loosen up some writers and helps them slide smoothly into their “real” writing. I found e-mail to be helpful in a different way. I was babysitting at my daughter’s one day, and the baby took an unusually long nap, but I hadn’t brought my writing with me. So I got on my daughter’s computer and wrote an email to myself! There is something about writing e-mail that lets you go with the flow. With e-mail, you don’t worry about word choice or impressing someone usually. You just write off the top of your head. The day that I decided to do my writing at her house, but email it to myself, produced some of the easiest writing I’ve done in years. Other writers say that e-mail gets them to the computer, which is the biggest hurdle they have to overcome.

Experiment

Take time to experiment with these rituals and routines. See which ones work for you. “There’s something about rhythmic, habitual, routine physical activity,” says Perry, “that relaxes and loosens both the body and the mind, thus preparing it be creative.”

FIVE: One last tip: “trivialize the task.” Very few writing sessions are that critical all by themselves. Each day’s writing is only one part of the whole. Each part you write is small and just not that important in the larger scheme of things. Knowing that no one piece of writing is that critical may help you gain perspective and loosen up.

Do you have a favorite ritual or practice or routine that you follow that helps you loosen up and get to your writing? If you do, please share!

Writing in Flow to Make Writing Fun

Published on by Kristi Holl

One of my writing goals for 2015 is learning how to recapture the “fun” of writing. I love having a writing career and being published, but sometimes I long for the days when it was more enjoyable to write.

I remember the days of getting into my fiction simply because I loved the character and I wanted to tell her story. No deadline. No contract. Just a story to tell. I’d get immersed in my fictional world, lose all track of time. Then I’d hear a baby wake up crying, and be shocked that ninety minutes had passed!

Getting into the Flow

In order to recapture this “timeless state of writing,” I’ve read books  that make many references to “flow” and the “flow experience.” It reminded me of a book I read years ago called Writing in Flow by Susan K. Perry, Ph.D. I think the topic is so important that I’ve decided to do a blog series on it.

We all want to be more productive as writers and make the best use of the little writing time we have. And many of us want to ENJOY it more. We want to relax and lose ourselves in our writing. This is true if you’re a student working on your first lesson or a much published writer in an established career.

Defining Flow

What is writing in flow? According to Perry in Writing in Flow,

“You know you’ve been in flow when time seems to have disappeared. When you’re in flow, you become so deeply immersed in your writing…that you forget yourself and your surroundings. You delight in continuing to write even if you get no reward for doing it…”

Apparently we writers have a lot more control over getting into this “flow state” than I used to believe. There are habits and rituals that can help you get into flow. We don’t have to wait for the muse to appear. I’ve been trying the author’s advice this month on how to write in flow more often, and it works for me. There are things to watch out for and avoid, too, so that you’re not jerked out of flow once you enter it.

One condition to be aware of resonated with me. Apparently I’m not alone in needing to get through an entire draft or two before showing a manuscript to anyone.

“The optimal conditions for creativity (and thus for flow entry) include a condition of psychological safety from external evaluation,” Perry says. “Tell yourself that no one has to see this, that you can decide afterwards whether to show it to anyone. Make a habit of putting your finished work away for a while before looking at it again.”

Is It Important?

Another condition for getting into flow has to do with value. “One of the most powerful combinations of motivators [for getting into flow] is the sheer love of writing and the belief that it matters.” I know that most writers–including me–struggle with this at times. We ask ourselves, “Does what I want to write really matter?”

The answer to that is a personal one. It will be based on your belief system (what you believe is important in life), and only you can answer that. Some examples…

  • If your belief system says that writing for children is important and they need good role models for solving problems in our complex world, then you’ll have trouble feeling like your writing matters if you take an assignment that violates that belief.
  • If you believe that kids really need to stretch their minds, your nonfiction pieces that do that will reassure you that your writing matters.
  • If you believe the world is crying out for humor and good entertainment, then writing this type of story or book will be something that matters to you.

What Motivates You?

Do you write because something inside you drives you to write? Or is your writing these days motivated by external rewards only (money, a prize, fame)? More from Susan Perry:

“Researchers have found again and again that work feels like play when you’re motivated intrinsically, that an intense involvement in an activity for its own sake, with little or no thought of future rewards, leads to positive feelings, persistence, creativity and flow. It’s also been found, however, that when extrinsic rewards or motivators, such as competition or the pressure of being evaluated, are thrown into the mix, the desire to do the thing for its own sake may be undermined.”

What does this have to do with flow? When you are writing ONLY as a means to an end (to pay the rent, to meet a deadline obligation, to please someone else) you’re typically less intensely absorbed by and engaged in the task itself. This reduces the likelihood of being able to write in the enjoyable flow state.

Steps to Finding Flow

In Writing in Flow, Perry talks about the “five master keys to flow entry in writing,” and I’d like to talk about these five keys in the next five blog posts. They will be overviews only and won’t come close to replacing reading her excellent book. However, I hope to share with you how you can have considerably more control over your writing frame of mind than you may now believe.

I’m always looking for ways to be more productive, but also to ENJOY the writing more. These keys to writing in flow have helped me, and I hope they will also help you.

The five master keys to writing in flow that we’ll discuss are:

  1. Have a reason to write.
  2. Think like a writer.
  3. Loosen up.
  4. Focus in.
  5. Balance Among Opposites

Her book also includes a lengthy section on “making flow happen,” which includes specific techniques (many of them!) for “luring” flow into your writing life. There is also a section on how to “flow past blocks.” I will highlight a couple of her ideas, but I don’t want to plagiarize her excellent book. The upcoming blog posts will give you enough information to know if you want to buy the book yourself.