Flow

Edward G · Feb 3, 2007

I've heard of flow in writing, and I know that some writers don't believe in it. For me, it's not a question of believing. When I write, I end up in a wierd mental state that persists for hours afterwards. I've missed turn offs on the freeway after a writing session. I called a person I know by one of my characters names once. I completely zone out. I was laying here in bed thinking how reality and story feel the same to me. I decided to post this to try to snap out of it. When I write I lose myself, and I actually find it a little scary. I've been into other art forms in my life (photography, painting, music) none of them ever had that impact on me.

And what's sick is I kind of like it.

So, what do you all think of flow?

Cath · Feb 3, 2007

I agree, Gordon, I can zone into a story. I suspect it's something like the experience an actor has when they step into the shoes of their character.

Takes a while to wear off, doesn't it?

Edward G · Feb 3, 2007

Cath said:
I agree, Gordon, I can zone into a story. I suspect it's something like the experience an actor has when they step into the shoes of their character.

Takes a while to wear off, doesn't it?

Yes, maybe like a method actor. And, yes, it does take a while to wear off. I think it's actually changing me--liberating me, perhaps. I was walking the other day, and thinking that I had to write a scene that kind of goes against my morals. Instantly, I thought, I don't give a damn. And a voice said to me, "So you're going to sell your soul to be a writer?" And the only reply I could think of was: "What the hell else am I going to do with my soul?"

I think God's on my side in this, so it's all good. :snoopy:

aruna · Feb 3, 2007

I also go into a kind of zone when I am writing. I can forget everything about the real world. I am not hungry or thirsty.
When my kids were young I had to train myself to come out of it completely once they came hone from school. Usually I had not cooked or anything. We had to eat pizza or something else formthe freezer.
Finally, I trained myself to stick to certain hours for writing, and coming out of it completely at other times. Otherwise I'd mne like lost in a dream world.
I htink this is the reason why artists ingeneral and writers in particular are seen to be unrealistic, head inthe clouds, dysfunctional.

Mud Dauber · Feb 3, 2007

I think it can be a blessing or a curse, depending on what you've got going on for the rest of the day after you write. If, like you, you start missing expressway exits and calling people (hope it wasn't a girlfriend

)by your character names, well then you've over-extended your stay in the flow zone and it can feel like a curse. But if you can break away once your scene and writing time are done and return to real life, then it's a blessing, because being in the zone is the natural high that most writers crave, and it's probably when you produce your best work. It's drug-like and it feels amazing, and it's one of the biggest satisfactions (for me anyway) of writing.

I wonder how long JK Rowling stayed in the zone after writing some of her scenes. :tongue

triceretops · Feb 3, 2007

I can watch TV or a movie now with my roomates and can't keep my mouth shut.

"Oh, they so ripped my damn scene off."

"No conflict there! Pick it up, pick it up!"

"My scene is better than that--they don't know what they're talking about."

"That was my idea!"

My roomates look at me and give me a collective shiver with sad head nods. Wha the fugg is up with Chris, any who?

Now I'm the master critic of the universe.

Tri

Manat · Feb 3, 2007

That's one of the things I love about writing. For me, reading a great story can swallow me whole. Time stops, noise recedes, and I'm sucked into another world. It's a bit like lucid dreaming. The first time that happened I was 9 and I found Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan in an old box. I've since found that writing does the same thing. Call it the flow, the writers high, the zone, the muse, but when you're there you've stepped into the story and it reveals itself to you, enveloping you and pulling you along, sweeping you away. I love it too. It's the closest I've come to living an alternate reality without drugs or dreaming and when it's happening the writing is easy, the trip is wonderful, and there's nothing on earth I'd rather be doing. I don't think it' sick. I think it's something most if not all writers experience and treasure at least some of the time. It's one of the great joys of the profession.

skelly · Feb 3, 2007

If the writing is going well I can get into that zone. It IS a little frightening, at times. I find myself getting disproportionately irritated and moody if anything distracts me from the movie in my head (the one I keep rewinding and reshooting from every conceivable angle and pov). You can try to tell people that you are just having an "artistic moment," but still they glare. I wonder if most writer's have few friends, or if I'm just particularly obnoxious in this area.

thethinker42 · Feb 3, 2007

GordonJerome said:
When I write I lose myself, and I actually find it a little scary.

I don't find it scary...I live for it.

I've been into other art forms in my life (photography, painting, music) none of them ever had that impact on me.

I don't zone out the same way when doing photography...not sure why. A lot of times it's a client job (I'm a professional photographer), so I have to interact with my client, etc. And once a shoot is done, I'm done. (Except that I'm so neurotically insecure about my work that I'm biting my nails until the film gets developed because I'm afraid I jacked it all up)

When I paint, though, I get WAY into a zone. But oddly enough, it's usually my writing zone. It's odd, I can actually concentrate on both at once. Since I'm painting sculptures, and super realistic detail is extremely important, I have to be thinking of what I'm doing. But at the same time, I'll be thinking about my book, my characters, trying to resolve problems in my plot, etc.

As far as missing exits and stuff, I've nearly done that a few times. As Terry Brooks said in "Sometimes the Magic Works", I pretty much spend half my life in my story: it's ALWAYS on my mind.

So yeah, I understand what you mean.

thethinker42 · Feb 3, 2007

triceretops said:
I can watch TV or a movie now with my roomates and can't keep my mouth shut.

OMG, I'm the same way.

My friend and I watched "The Night Listener" the other night, and I kept going off on little tirades about contrived scenes, etc. Fortunately, I'm not the ONLY one who screams at movies, I'm just the only one who does it "as a writer". When we get together, we have a tendency to heckle movies. Case in point: Whenever we saw Liv Tyler in LOTR, we were yelling out lines from Aerosmith songs...

We heckle movies anyway, so my writer's rants are tolerated. LOL

scarletpeaches · Feb 3, 2007

I've experienced it on a few occasions - not as often as I'd like though! I used to call it 'in the zone' but now it sounds too Britney, and the word 'flow' is becoming more popular, so...

For me, it's when everything, but especially writing, is easy. Effortless. And I surprise myself with the quality of my writing. I read it back and think, "Yes, this is actually good! The dialogue sparkles, the characters are funny, their situations realistic."

If there are such things as muses, those would be the times she's speaking to me. It's a feeling of connection. Everything slots into place and what you write feels right. It works.

Almost like you're in a trance, or filled with positive energy.

I love it when that happens. Not often enough. But you need to at least show up at the computer screen for the muse to strike!

Edward G · Feb 3, 2007

aruna said:
I also go into a kind of zone when I am writing. I can forget everything about the real world. I am not hungry or thirsty.
When my kids were young I had to train myself to come out of it completely once they came hone from school. Usually I had not cooked or anything. We had to eat pizza or something else formthe freezer.
Finally, I trained myself to stick to certain hours for writing, and coming out of it completely at other times. Otherwise I'd mne like lost in a dream world.
I htink this is the reason why artists ingeneral and writers in particular are seen to be unrealistic, head inthe clouds, dysfunctional.

Very interesting. That's just what it's like. At least I'm not alone, or going insane or something.

Edward G · Feb 3, 2007

Mud Dauber said:
It's drug-like and it feels amazing, and it's one of the biggest satisfactions (for me anyway) of writing.

Exactly

jonereb · Feb 3, 2007

Just yesterday, I worked on my WIP most of the day, then drove my son to his piano lessons. I missed the turn because I was thinking about the narrative. If you ever get a chance to see the play "Oh, Mr. Faulkner do you write?" you'll see that William Faulkner was also distracted.

Edward G · Feb 3, 2007

jonereb said:
Just yesterday, I worked on my WIP most of the day, then drove my son to his piano lessons. I missed the turn because I was thinking about the narrative. If you ever get a chance to see the play "Oh, Mr. Faulkner do you write?" you'll see that William Faulkner was also distracted.

Interesting. Very interesting.

Edward G · Feb 3, 2007

Well, thanks for the replies. It's nice to know I'm not alone, but it is a very new experience for me. I do like it, but in some ways it almost seems a little shameful. Like I just discovered how to...well, you get the point. It's the extreme Puritan in me that says if it feels good you'll go to hell for it.

But like I said, what good is a soul if you can't sell it for something.

Saundra Julian · Feb 3, 2007

I'm not hungry, don't want to take bathroom breaks, no showers and am amazed at the hours that pass while I'm zoning out. I love it too.

SarahinOhio · Feb 3, 2007

aruna said:
I also go into a kind of zone when I am writing. I can forget everything about the real world. I am not hungry or thirsty.
When my kids were young I had to train myself to come out of it completely once they came hone from school. Usually I had not cooked or anything. We had to eat pizza or something else formthe freezer.

I feel like an awful mother sometimes. It's hard to straddle the line between selfishness and selflessness.

Yet nothing is more relentlessly back-to-earth than your three-year-old asking, "Are we getting take-out again tonight?"

swvaughn · Feb 3, 2007

SarahinOhio said:
I feel like an awful mother sometimes. It's hard to straddle the line between selfishness and selflessness.

Yet nothing is more relentlessly back-to-earth than your three-year-old asking, "Are we getting take-out again tonight?"

LOL - my son loves being treated to McDonalds two or three times a week because I haven't had time to get dinner ready.

victoriastrauss · Feb 3, 2007

I rarely experience "flow" (if indeed I've ever experienced it at all, in the sense that all of you are talking about here). I'm saying this for the benefit of anyone reading the previous messages and feeling that they must not be "real" writers if they don't vanish into a mystical writing zone. For me, it's easier some days and harder others; some days I'm aware it's going right, and some days I feel like I'm repeatedly slamming into walls. But it's never anything less than hard work, and I am always conscious of that, even when it's going as well as it can go.

I do get a high from writing sometimes--when I suddenly get to the center of a story, or stumble (often quite by accident) on the exact sentence or image or idea that pulls everything together. This happens most often when I'm getting to the end of something, and have set up the beginning properly. And I do think about whatever current project I'm working on more or less all the time, and often have experiences like jonereb's, where I drive past my destination or don't hear what someone's saying to me because I'm so preoccupied. But all of that is peripheral. The writing itself, for me, is basically a slog.

- Victoria

janetbellinger · Feb 3, 2007

Last time I wrote in flow I ended up in a psych ward - just kidding. Not. Well, kind of.

inanna · Feb 3, 2007

SarahinOhio said:
I feel like an awful mother sometimes. It's hard to straddle the line between selfishness and selflessness.

Yet nothing is more relentlessly back-to-earth than your three-year-old asking, "Are we getting take-out again tonight?"

lol, yes. My poor kids have had many a night of SpaghettiOs because Mommy was writing all afternoon and forgot to thaw the chicken.

I love "the zone", and I relate to the Terry Brooks comment thethinker42 quoted. I really do spend half my conscious life daydreaming about my characters and story. When I'm really in the thick of things, I'm a ridiculous space cadet, and especially while driving. I keep a notepad and pen next to me in my car, because I get some of my best ideas there.

It's funny, because I rarely dream about my characters, but when I'm awake it's a totally different story. I'm usually only half "here".

jonereb · Feb 3, 2007

BTW, the title "Oh Mr. Faulkner, Do You Write?" comes from Faulkner's trip to Hollywood to write screenplays. Someone introduced him to Clark Gable. Gable said, "Oh Mr. Faulkner, do you write?" Faulkner replied, "Yeah. What do you do?" He was an ornery old cuss.

Cath · Feb 3, 2007

victoriastrauss said:
I rarely experience "flow" (if indeed I've ever experienced it at all, in the sense that all of you are talking about here). I'm saying this for the benefit of anyone reading the previous messages and feeling that they must not be "real" writers if they don't vanish into a mystical writing zone.

I agree completely, Victoria. I can write without finding the flow of a story - and there's little difference really between what I write when I am in the flow and what I write when I'm not. Except, I think, that I find it easier to write more emotional stuff when I'm flowing and more intellectual stuff when I'm not - but that's probably just me.

Azure Skye · Feb 3, 2007

I don't get in the zone much anymore. I kinda miss it because time just flies by when your fingers are busy.

Flow

Edward G

Cath

The mean one

Edward G

aruna

On a wing and a prayer

Mud Dauber

writing on the wall

triceretops

Manat

skelly

Kickin it old school, posers beware

thethinker42

Abnormal Romance Author

thethinker42

Abnormal Romance Author

scarletpeaches

Edward G

Edward G

jonereb

Edward G

Edward G

Saundra Julian

A work in progress

SarahinOhio

In My Blue Period

swvaughn

adrift

victoriastrauss

Writer Beware Goddess

janetbellinger

inanna

Queen of Typos

jonereb

Cath

The mean one

Azure Skye

Huh?