To discover a story, writers use a different kind of cognitive activity and enter a different state of consciousness. Whether we call it the writer’s trance, creative flow, flow writing, freewriting, dreamstorming or the awakened dream, it’s where most writers find creative bliss. The writer’s trance is notoriously illusive, but you can enhance your ability […]
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“Meditating” Your Way into Writing
In the previous post, I said that drafting and revising rely on divergent thinking and editing relies on convergent thinking. It’s a weeny bit more complex. In Off the Page (2008 edited by Carole Burns), Richard Bausch says this about beginning a book: “I start writing with an image or a voice, but I don’t […]
Are You an Over-Convenienced Writer?
The last time we made lamb kabobs, I slow cooked what was left on the chops, then spent a half hour or so trimming the meat from all the fiddly little bones as a treat for the dogs. While my hands and my surface mind were occupied, my deeper mind was free to ponder a […]
Who Gets More Creative Flow? Pantsers or Plotters?
In a world of limited either-or, the creative flow is delightfully and powerfully both-and.
Goldilocks Your Way through Resistance to Write Your Novel or Memoir
Too much structure or structure applied too soon in the writing process can weaken a novel or memoir by making it all head and no heart, all lines and logic with no curves and imagination. Resistance sets in because it was your imagination and heart that called you to write in the first place. If […]
Going “Outline Commando” to Avoid Writer’s Block
“Excellent!” was my first thought when I read the title of Brian Klems article Six Secrets of Writing a Novel Without an Outline. I had found another writer willing to go “outline commando.” (Why I think outlines don’t work) “Absolutely!” I thought when I read Secret #3 Follow Rabbit Trails: “It’s inherent to the creative […]
Are You Lost in Creativity or Lost in Cyberspace?
Is there a difference between a creative flow state (while writing or engaged in any other creative activity) and being lost in a digital trance (which could include being absorbed by TV, emails, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, shopping, etc.)? Both getting lost in the creative flow and letting digital media hypnotize you are engrossing trance states. Both totally absorb […]
New Book Update: Action Cures Uncertainty
“Action is a great restorer and builder of confidence. Inaction is not only the result, but the cause, of fear. “Perhaps the action you take will be successful; perhaps different action or adjustments will have to follow. But any action is better than no action at all.” – Norman Vincent Peale In my last New […]
How to Capture Creative Flow When You Have No Time
Rachel Vilsack requested a post on how to capitalize on creative flow at those times when “I come up with new, great idea that is exactly what I’ve been looking for, but it happens when I don’t have time to write, like when I’m at work. I get jazzed to work on the idea just […]
Does Your Writer’s Block Rely on a Digital Trance?
Is there a real difference between a creative flow state (while writing or engaged in any other creative activity) and being lost in a digital trance (which could include being absorbed by TV, emails, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, shopping, etc.)? For most of us, the digital trance is so close to what we’re really looking for in the flow state, we keep going there, hoping that this time it’ll be all we need without enduring the risk and fear that come with surrendering to the flow. What happens in the brain with addiction and resistance are very different processes. But the search for something that’s almost what you need is remarkably similar.
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Bane of Your Resistance 