I did more writing than walking today.
However, even on short walks, there are things to see!
(Delicate purple flowers growing out of the drystone wall)
Yum! If I were home, I’d make a little pie.
White lilac (more a tree than a bush), but oh! the scent!
a toy store decked out for last week’s coronation, complete with a photo op golden carriage at the bottom and the royal family at the upper window
I will never, ever, ever get tired of this view!
Lately, I’ve been short on energy, even when I had enough time to write.
Like most “modern” writers, I take short (unproductive, but frequent) breaks to check email or social media posts.
In a word, I multitask.
Multitasking: the Energy Drain
Yes, I’d heard that multitasking was bad, but I figured I must be the exception to that rule. (I mean, really, haven’t all working moms had to multitask with expertise just to survive?)
Then I saw these statistics in a Flourish Writers presentation! Take a look…
Focusing on one thing at a time = 100% of your productive time and energy.
Juggling two tasks at a time = 40% of your productive time and energy to each task. 20% is lost in task switching.
Juggling three tasks at a time = only 20% of your productive time and energy goes to each task, while 40% is lost in task switching.
I routinely lose 40 PERCENT of my available writing energy every time I sit down to write! It was a no-brainer as to why I was behind on my goals. A 40% increase in time and energy during every writing session would move me AHEAD of my goals (like in the “good old days” before the Internet when I had my first books published.)
Time to take action! I deleted social media apps on the phone, powered up my Pomodoro app for focused writing periods, turned on my white noise machine, and got in the writing zone—and STAYED there!
Are you as productive as you’d like to be?
Earlier this week, we looked at the differences between being busy and being productive. Our time and energy are precious to us. When we spend both, we want results. Spinning our wheels uses time and energy too, but that depletes us, whereas being productive with our time and energy leaves us energized
So, how can we redeem our time, making sure that our time is invested and not wasted?
First, think about what you’re thinking about. Your thoughts about your writing create your feelings about it, and how you feel determines the actions you take. And, of course, your actions will determine the results you have at the end of your writing time.
For me, many times when I sit down to write a scene or chapter, I suddenly think it’s a boring or dumb idea and no one will like it. If I don’t interrupt my thinking right there and contradict that “stinking thinking,” my emotional reaction is to continue to feel that way until I want to procrastinate with “networking” Facebook or “researching” YouTube videos, or watching a show on Britbox or AcornTV. My thoughts tell me that I don’t have to write yet. It offers me a way to avoid dealing with my fear that my book idea is only interesting to me. This happens more times than I can count, and especially if I’m at a challenging point, or doing a rough draft, which is the scariest for me. I can so easily slip from my productive writing plans into busy work and distraction.
Most days I plan on having to do a “thought detox” when I get started. I know it’s probably coming. Each person must deal with their negative thoughts in their own way. For me, it works best if I pray, reaffirm that God is helping me create, and trusting Him with the outcome. Then I get to work. The sooner in the day you do the mental detox, the sooner you will be productive. You’ll also sidestep the anxiety and procrastination and addictive eating or Netflix bingeing. Too many days I’ve wasted most of the day planning to write but indulging anxious feelings first, then being disgusted with myself, then finally working on my stinking thinking, and getting down to writing about 4:00 in the afternoon. I’ll write 1-2,000 words and kick myself for not beginning much earlier and writing three times as much. What a waste of a writing day!
This trick pertains to those writing under contract as much as those writing on spec or who are self-publishing. It’s basic human nature. If you give yourself two years to write a book, it will take you two years. If you give yourself four months to write a book and that’s all you can give, it will take you four months. (Get used to deadlines. You won’t say to an editor, “Let’s leave the deadline in the contract blank, because I don’t know how long this will take.”)
You might think setting deadlines like that won’t work, but it’s just like when you were in school. You had two weeks to get a paper done, or you had two weeks to get the book read. How did you know how long it would take you to get that paper written? When was it due? That’s how long it took you. You have to treat self-created deadlines the same way.
Studies have repeatedly shown that when you give yourself a shorter amount of time to produce a result, it’s much more energizing and enjoyable. Bear that in mind when creating your deadlines. Giving myself two hours to write 2,000 words is much more energizing than giving myself all day to do it. It will take all day then, interspersed with lots of procrastinating which makes me even more tired in the end. With a shorter time deadline, there’s no time for stressing and confusion and procrastination, then making yourself get back to work. You just get to the writing and whiz along usually.
To improve productivity, set tighter production deadlines every day. Example: “I’ll write this blog post in two hours.” (Or “I’ll proofread three chapters” or “write 2,000 words” in two hours.) Then close out all your apps, set a timer, and go! It’s a mindset, a thought choice. You already have the skill of creating non-negotiable deals and deadlines with yourself. At one point, many of us made a non-negotiable deal with ourselves that said, “If my baby is hungry or has a messy diaper, I will always feed her and change her as soon as possible.” We didn’t have to keep negotiating with ourselves every few days when we didn’t want to get out of bed in the middle of the night.
We’ve made similar non-negotiable deals with ourselves about all kinds of things, from being faithful to a spouse, to paying rent on time (whether we felt like it at the moment or not, whether or not we were tired, and whether or not we just wanted to do something else.) Making non-negotiable deals with yourself and keeping your word to yourself is a skill you already have. Think about how you use that skill in other areas of your life. Then apply that skill to your writing.
To be more productive, don’t create a to-do list that has you spend time doing something, like “spend two hours on marketing.” That’s an invitation to busy work, not useful for productivity. You don’t want to just spend activity time—you want to produce a result. Instead of “spend two hours on marketing,” your to-do list item for those two hours might read, “write a blog post, find two more agents to query, and announce my new blog post on Facebook.” If you focus on results, you will be more efficient with your time and not get sidetracked on Facebook reading everyone else’s posts. Always focus on results, not time spent. (Your result might be words written or revised, pages of research for your novel, lessons done from a book you’re studying on craft, etc.) Save your browsing of social media for after your work is done.
I used to have on my calendar things like “study character book two hours.” It’s interesting and helpful to learn new information, but unless I actually do the exercises at the end of each chapter and apply what I learn to my WIP, I find the time hasn’t been very productive. (Remember, we’re talking here about producing results.) Taking in information, via books or podcasts or blogs, certainly can have value, depending on what you’re reading. But it’s so easy for those of us who love books and information to fool ourselves into thinking we’ve had a productive day because we read James Scott Bell’s most recent plotting book. It might have been good, it might potentially help us write better, but we haven’t actually produced anything simply by reading. I AM VERY GUILTY OF THIS. I would so much rather read about writing than write! It makes me FEEL productive without actually having to produce anything. I LOVE books about writing—I have so many that I could open a store all by myself. But I learned that I had to leave them as a treat or reward AFTER the daily writing got done if I’m only going to read them.
Productive writers allow themselves very little or no time to indulge in stress or confusion. They don’t check Facebook, or turn on the TV. You give yourself one hour to revise four pages of your novel, you sit down and you get it done. And you’re very focused because there’s that timer going. See also I’m Losing My Mind and Your Phone Habit OR Your Writing Life: It’s Your Choice for dealing with smartphone distractions. I use Internet blocking apps too, like Freedom software and Anti-Social software (both free).
Oddly enough, I find that my 2,000 words written in two hours is just as good as the same amount produced over an entire day or week. When you give yourself a time frame, your alertness goes up, your focus intensifies, your productivity increases. You feel efficient. So, try it out. Race the clock. Set a timer and give yourself half an hour to flesh out a character for your book. Will it be complete in half an hour? No. You’ll add to it later, but you’ll have something solid to work with.
6. Plan. Plan. Plan Some More.
To be productive, plan before you take action. Starting faster doesn’t get it done faster if you don’t have a plan. This isn’t an “outlining vs. writing by the seat of your pants” issue. Pantsers have to make plans, or they would miss deadlines right and left too. No matter what your writing style is, no one meets deadlines without specific plans of what they intend to accomplish on any given writing day. If there’s something you don’t know how to do, then your plan includes researching how to do it, and the timeframe for accomplishing that. You don’t want to write from a pressured last-minute state—it’s like writing with a gun to your head—but from a planned and energized state. You’ll enjoy the writing more and be doubly productive.
7. Work Hard. Play Hard.
Studies show that the most productive people—not just writers—alternate working hard with playing hard. The most productive writers I know alternate short work periods (30-60 minutes) with decent rest or play periods (30 minutes). The rest or play can be anything rejuvenating that you look forward to: half an hour of a favorite show, a walk outside, relaxing with a fiction book of someone else’s, etc. (You don’t count things like folding laundry or loading the dishwasher as a break. It might be a break from sitting and writing, and you might untangle a plot problem that way, but it won’t rejuvenate you or energize you. It’s just a different kind of work.) Work hard. Rest or play hard. Work creates results. Rest creates energy. Rinse and repeat.
Most of us—me included—can do twice as much writing as we’re already doing. We’re all working on lots of things besides writing. We all have challenges in our lives that make the writing harder at times. I wouldn’t say that without the experience to back it up. Big challenges come in our personal lives, our work lives, and our health. If you continue to write long enough, you will probably deal with them all. But learning some productivity habits—knowing how to get results from the time and energy you invest—will keep you in the writing game.
I used to have frustrated students tell me, “I should have more stories and articles accepted by now; I work ten hours per week on my writing.” That fact alone was meaningless. I didn’t know how many hours were productive hours: how much was written, how many submissions were made, etc. You want to be highly productive. You don’t want to put in a lot of time or effort with little to show for it. Productivity means having something to show for the time you invest.
So, it’s important to determine if you’re being productive with your writing hours or just being busy. And it can be surprisingly difficult to tell sometimes. It’s a bigger issue than learning how to focus, although that is critical too.
Busyness is about how hard you try, how many hours you work, how stressed you are, how much you multitask, and about putting in your time. If you’re just being busy, that’s how you often describe your days when someone asks about your writing.
Productivity doesn’t care about any of that. Productivity is only measured by what you produce.
What is your concrete, measurable end result when the work day is over? Productivity is about producing something, whether it’s a stack of new rough draft pages or several files of research material. Somehow, we writers lose sight of that fact, and we tell each other how many hours we worked, or how stressful the writing was, or how long it took to work through our writer’s block, etc. None of that has anything to do with being productive.
That might sound cold-hearted, but the unknown editor you contact won’t care about any of that. It’s like when you go to the store and buy something off the shelf. You don’t care how long it took the manufacturer to produce the thing. It doesn’t matter how hard they worked on it, and you don’t care how much stress was involved; you only want to know does the product work, and if you should you buy it. All you care about is that end product. And that’s what those unknown editors, agents, and readers really care about too.
So, what concrete evidence of writing do you have at the end of the day? If you’ve had a productive writing day, you have produced something concrete.
There’s one other factor that distinguishes a productive writing day from a busy one. We often overlook this sign. How do you feel at the end of your writing period?
When you are stacking up pages and producing results, that’s motivating and creates momentum. It’s energizing. However, if you’re just “busy,” the same number of hours of expended effort will wear you down and make you tired instead. You will have that lethargic “why bother?” feeling. There will be nagging worries: I’m spending lots of time reading agent blogs, and networking on Facebook, and posting on Instagram, and reading books on craft, but where’s it getting me?
For the next couple of days, observe yourself and make notes about your writing time. Are you busy or productive, or a combination of both? What do you have to show for your time? How energized do you feel at the end of the day?
If you determine that too much of your time is just spent “busy,” come back on Friday for ideas to help you swap being busy for being productive.
“How’s your focus?” It’s a question I’ve been wrestling with lately.
Last year my calendar was so full of very good things, but I was frequently exhausted and vaguely dissatisfied. (Well, not vaguely actually. It was a very pointed dissatisfaction with the amount of writing I finished on any given day.)
My children were grown and on their own. I had long ago given up time wasters (TV viewing, hanging on the telephone) and most hobbies (quilting, gardening), and yet…the struggle to write for quality periods of time persisted.
A recent sermon gave me a lot to think about. “Beware of living your life without focus,” he said. He talked about how often we substitute being busy for being focused. He finished by challenging us to really give this prayerful thought.
I wrote down his questions and applied them to my writing life:
You may need to get an overview of how you spend your time before you can answer those questions. It can be an eye-opening exercise to keep track of your activities, hour by hour, for a week or two. For example, you might truly believe that you spend two hours writing every day, plus one hour marketing, and a fourth hour studying. [That’s what I thought I was doing.]
After keeping track, you might find you actually write twenty minutes, but stop frequently to check email. Your marketing hour might actually be spent reading about marketing methods, but not truly doing any marketing of your own projects. Your hour of studying the magazine article on character development might actually boil down to twenty minutes of study and forty minutes of reading ads or following related links.
You may dream of writing novels, but your time tracker might reveal that your writing time is eaten up by writing free newsletters for two organizations you belong to. Or, if you’re well published, you can’t say no when asked to write an endorsement or review of someone’s new book. (That may not sound like much, but reading the book takes several hours, and a well crafted review takes another hour.) Maybe you haven’t had time to work on your own novel for three days because you’ve been critiquing for other writers or writing guest blogs.
All these things make you feel like you’re furthering your writing career as a novelist–but are you? Or are you busy qualifying yourself for something other than your dream? You’re actually gaining experience as a reviewer, a critiquer, a blogger, and a newsletter writer. (Those are fine jobs, if that’s truly what you want to be doing in the long run.) But if you stay on this road–if you continue to spend a large chunk of your writing time this way–do you like where it will inevitably lead you?
Beware the fuzzies! Know what your dreams and goals are. We all have our own criteria for choosing goals–and different methods to determine what we’re supposed to do with our writing gifts. (Prayer and journaling work best for me.)
Once you’ve decided, don’t be vague about how you intend to get where you want to go. And stop being an automatic “yes” to each request, no matter how flattering. You must live on a higher plane–above the constant demands for your time–and say “no” to things that don’t further those goals.
It isn’t my birthday or Christmas or Mother’s Day, but it feels like it today. Why? Because I’ve decided to give myself a wonderful gift now.
The gift of time.
I’ve been writing and publishing since my kids were babies. They’re in their thirties now, with their own children ranging from toddlers to teenagers. During many of my children’s growing-up years, I was either single parenting or the family relied heavily on my income. Slowing down to study my craft was a dream I put on my yearly goals list, but it was rarely an option. The 50+ hours of work per week needed to generate income: writing books, teaching writing, speaking, writing test questions, and doing private critiques.
Whenever I thought about studying more, reading more, taking more time to grow as a writer (versus making every hour a billable hour), I would promise myself, Later, when things slow down and the cash flow eases up.
Even when that day came where I could cut back, I found that the very idea panicked me. I had drummed into my head for so many years that freelancer warning, “If you don’t work, you don’t eat.” You learn to go without paid sick days or paid vacations–let alone time to study one’s craft.
For several years, I’ve been having a discussion with a dear writing friend about slowing down and spending time to improve our writing. I took motivational workshops, learned how to “work smarter, not harder,” streamlined my work habits, and multi-tasked until I met myself coming and going. And what did I do with the time freed up by all this smarter working? Took on more projects, learned how to blog, Facebook and Twitter…but rarely studied. Oh, I bought craft books, but the books that got my full attention seemed to focus on time management.
And my friend? Except for having grandchildren, she was as busy as I was. Yet she got her MFA in children’s writing (traveling half-way around the world to do it), and is now working on her Ph.D. While I don’t have the money for either of those things, I could certainly be studying more. And that’s where I decided to apply my gift of time.
Starting today, I am giving myself the gift of time to study. I think if I do four or five hours of writing (the moneymaking activities) in the morning, then I could surely study for an hour every afternoon. To survive in the changing publishing times, we will all need to become better writers. And if not now, when? (By the way, it isn’t something I feel I should do. It’s something I want to do. I honestly do love to study.)
Maybe you can’t afford to work part-time yet. (I’m not positive that I can either. I’ll find out!) I know that situation is a reality for many of us. But if you can squeeze out even a daily hour to read current books in your field and study a writing craft book, I encourage you to do it. I’ve signed up for a writing course online which takes an hour per day, and I can’t wait to be a student again! It’s my gift to me.
What fuel are you running on?
Many writers these days are frantically running from place to place, working too many hours, volunteering for too many projects, working nights and weekends hoping for approval.
On top of that, in order to write, they are fueled by sugar, caffeine, cigarettes and adrenaline to keep going.
I don’t need to tell you that we live “on alert” these days. We are bombarded from so many information sources. We allow ourselves to be at the beck and call of anyone who calls or texts our cell phone or shoots us an email.
Adrenaline rushes work in the short term. Used like a drug, it pushes tired bodies to work faster and harder. The end result, though, is a crash-and-burn depletion of your reserves.
Do you want to have a long-term writing life? Then while you still have time–while you still have your health–I urge you to develop a counter-cultural lifestyle. Look at your life now. Make a list of the things that have stressed you out this past week.
(No groceries in the cupboard because a meeting ran late and you couldn’t stop at the store? Phone call from a teacher saying little Johnny forgot his required permission slip for the day’s field trip? News of a violent crime in a part of your city you considered safe? A bounced check? Having to work late at night while everyone else is sleeping, just to keep life from derailing?) All of these things make us run on adrenaline that wears down our bodies. And nearly all of these things are preventable.
Habits that cause you to run on adrenaline are habits that need to be replaced. I can’t tell you which habits you need to exchange, but I can share some of mine.
Mostly, I had to convince myself that it wasn’t selfish to slow down and live at a sane pace, to build in a buffer zone or margin around activities so I could make a smooth (not frantic, hurried) transition from one thing to another. What’s that old saying? “We’re supposed to be human beings, not human doings.”
No one can make changes for you. And frankly, many people in your life who like all the work you accomplish won’t help you make changes. But make them you must. If you want to have a decent quality of writing life, you’ll have to step outside this current “hurry frantically” electronic culture of ours, and figure out what works for YOU to have a saner, happier life.
Running on premium fuel instead of adrenaline will make you more productive, less stressed, and be better for your health. Saner writers are happier, more productive writers. And doesn’t that sound appealing?
I started writing when I had an infant, a two-year-old, and a preschooler. I wrote throughout their school years, their teen years, their college/adult years, and now full circle when I am babysitting grandkids.
The (survival) skills you need to both write and parent change with each stage of your children’s lives. (Sometimes your biggest need is time or energy. Other times your biggest need is keeping your sanity!)
So between now and Mother’s Day, I want to blog about practical ways to combine writing and parenting throughout these stages. Just as beneficial, I hope I can show you some ways that your kids can be your best source of material. (Let’s start at the very beginning…)
When raising babies and small children, FINDING TIME to write is the toughest ask. Try these ideas:
*Jot down story and article ideas when you’re forced to sit– waiting rooms, nursing the baby, etc.
*Prewrite. Think through your plot lines, article openings, and titles while doing non-think activities like cooking supper and vacuuming. You don’t have time to waste at the keyboard. You may only have ten minutes.
*Outline. When you sit down to write, you’ll know exactly where you are; you won’t waste time getting started.
*Keep writing supplies organized, in one spot, out of little ones’ reach. (For years I wrote in a small closet painted orange with a door on it for this reason.)
*Hire a sitter or barter with a friend to trade babysitting. I never did this, but I know others have. Use these uninterrupted blocks of time for serious writing. Save those other miscellaneous writing chores for those tiny segments of free time.
One such experience of mine with small children became an article for Farm Woman (later called Country Woman) entitled “Treasure This Day,” which was reprinted in Catholic Digest. It was a simple article about the joys and frustrations of gardening with a baby, a toddler and preschooler in tow.
Another book, For Every Joy That Passes, has a mother in it who runs a daycare in her home; many of my baby and toddler experiences went in there.
My published stories, articles and books based almost directly on my kids would take pages to list. Just be aware that your children–especially when you write for the juvenile market–are one of your best research sources.
(If you have a tip for busy moms of very young children, do share it below or on Facebook. Don’t assume that it’s too simple, or everyone already does it.)
[First read Part 1 of the series called “Writing in Flow to Make Writing Fun.”]
The first key that Susan K. Perry mentions in Writing in Flow is this: have a reason to write. I’m going to break this into two parts.
For me, the reason to write “in flow” is that I enjoy the writing so much more! I can force myself to write, but it’s not much fun. A majority of the writers interviewed by this author had learned how to control their flow experience. They had learned what they needed to do in order to slip into this “timeless” flow state where the writing is so pleasurable.
If you can figure out how to enter the flow state more predictably, you’ll enjoy your writing much more. Thus you’re more likely to write more and produce more.
The “flow theory” states that you enter a flow state when the following requirements are in place:
Doesn’t that kind of absorbed, trance-like writing sound like fun? That’s an experience I’d want to repeat on a daily basis!
In Part 1, I talked about a few reasons for writing, and why writing only for money or fame or to impress someone won’t help you get into flow. “A point often missed by novice writers,” says Perry, “is that by zeroing in on one or more of the right reasons–for you–you’re more likely to find the one that will help you enter flow and keep writing in spite of frustration and rejection. You must feel strongly motivated to get fully absorbed in the writing, if flow is to follow.”
Remember, your reasons for writing are your own! Jot the following question in your journal: “So why do I write?” Then take plenty of time to answer it.
Write down all the TRUE reasons you write. No one ever needs to see this. You might write because you have an insatiable curiosity about the world or the private lives of people. You might have had a disturbing childhood that left you with many questions, and you write for the answers. Maybe you write because you need someone to listen. Maybe you believe you have the answers to XXXX and you need to share your wisdom with the world.
This doesn’t mean find a critique group. To write in flow, you need to train yourself to listen to yourself. Popular novelist Elmore Leonard said, “I say my sentences inside my head until they chime with some kind of turning fork.” Other writers read their work aloud to find the rough spots. [I’d be rich today if I had a nickle for every student who told me that they knew something was wrong with the ending–or plot twist, or motive–but they were hoping I wouldn’t think so. I thought so.] Pay attention to that inner writer, especially during revisions, that gives you the feedback that “something is off here.”
Please note, however, that paying attention to your inner feedback does NOT mean encouraging those critical inner voices that tend to harshly judge your writing. Nor do you want to entertain thoughts at this time of what some editor will think of your idea. This kind of feedback will keep you from finding that relaxed flow state.
In order to make flow possible, you have to find a way to feel both competent (not overly anxious) and keep your interest high (not bored). Many writers don’t outline because they don’t want to write a story they already know. It’s boring to them, and they lose interest. On the other hand, some writers (like me) like outlines because without them, the anxiety level rises to the point that they’re blocked. Everyone is different. There is no right or wrong here, but you must find for yourself the right combination of subject matter and planning for your stage of career.
When I started writing thirty years ago, I couldn’t feel that my writing skill “was fairly well suited to the challenge” unless plots were outlined, character sketches were detailed, and I knew the ending clearly. I needed that much planning for the anxiety level to come down far enough that the writing was fun. It was many years before I was comfortable enough to write without a greatly detailed outline. However, other writers are bored with “cranking out stories” where they won’t be surprised along the way.
I’ve had to plan rewards plenty of times for getting through a piece of writing. It was either writing I didn’t want to do, but it would pay some bills, or writing that felt too far “above me” in difficulty. But if you want to write “in flow,” in that timeless sense of joy, you will need to find reward in the writing itself.
If it’s boring, work to make the plot more interesting, more surprising, deeper. Make something happen in the story that fulfills a wish of your own! If your story is causing you so much anxiety, stop and figure out why. If you haven’t done enough planning or research to feel comfortable, do that first. (You can do that part in flow too!)
Some practical ways to find your reason to write include:
Next time we’ll address Key #2: thinking like a writer. Keep the long-term goal in mind: writing more and enjoying it!
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!
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.
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.”
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…
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.
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:
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.