Getting into the Flow

Have you ever sat down to write for an hour and looked at the clock to find that, somehow, four hours have passed? Have you felt the thrill of ending a chapter on an incredible hook, or of somehow capturing on the page an emotion you weren't sure you could?

That's flow. And it's what we writers crave.

According to Wikipedia, flow is "the mental state of operation in which the person is fully immersed in what he or she is doing by a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and success in the process of the activity." The idea was proposed by Mihály Csíkszentmihályi, a Hungarian psychology professor. He identified nine factors which you may experience during flow.

1. Clear goals


2. Concentrating and focusing


3. A loss of the feeling of self-consciousness


4. Distorted sense of time


5. Direct and immediate feedback


6. Balance between ability level and challenge


7. A sense of personal control


8. The activity is intrinsically rewarding


9. People become absorbed in their activity

When I'm working on a draft, I really want to get into a flow. (With edits and revisions, it's not so important.) I find that the more I write, the easier it is for me to slip into that state--it becomes almost a habit.

To get started, I try to think in very simple terms. How will I get my characters from point A to point B? (That's my goal--#1 from the list above.) For example, my heroine is going to a dinner party hosted by the earl she hopes to marry, but the hero distracts her. I have to physically get her to the party and also show how the hero is able to fluster her and make her forget all about the old earl.

Next, I make sure that neither I nor the minivan is needed for a minimum of one hour and that no one in the household is on the brink of starvation. (#2 from our list.)

Finally, I give myself permission to write crap. (That's #3 on the list.) Because masterful writing on the first pass (or the second or third) is really too much pressure.

And usually . . . it works. I'm in a flow until real life intervenes once more.

What tricks do you have for getting into a writing flow? Or any other type of flow, for that matter?

Kick-off of the Writing Season

It's not pool openings or backyard barbeques that mark the beginning of summer for me. It's something more sinister: bad hair days.

A mere week ago I was content, if not enamored with, my hair; now it's a source of embarrassment. Flat irons, straightening products, and extra-hold hairspray are no match for 92% humidity. Like a wild animal, my hair cannot be controlled, only contained. That means I'm reduced to wearing a ponytail or even (oh, the shame!) a baseball cap.

But I digress. There's another reason I know it's summer. There's absolutely nothing on TV. How did we go straight from the gluttony of 2-hour season finales on all 3 major networks to . . . nothing? (OK, I do enjoy The Bachelorette, but one show a week is hardly enough to sustain me.)

The lack of fresh programming is a grim and alarming reality, but there is a silver lining. My TV intake has (albeit involuntarily) dropped from 10.5 hours a week to 1 hour, and that means I suddenly have 9.5 hours of "free time."

I could squander it on exercise, household chores, or yardwork, but I think we all know how unlikely that is. Did I mention the 92% humidity?

So I'm going to spend 8.5 hours of my newly-found free time in the non-pollen ridden, air-conditioned, UVB ray free confines of my office. Writing. *Sigh.* It sounds heavenly. Almost as perfect as a DVR full of never-watched episodes of 30 Rock.

In case you're wondering about the other hour . . . I'm wisely setting that aside. For hair-related emergencies.