How To Create A Writing Flow

You may be familiar with the concept of "flow" as written about extensively by Professor Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (pronounced "chick-sent-me-high"). It's that state in which you are so involved with writing or whatever you are doing that you lose all track of time. Often it's an exhilarating experience in which it seems like we are just writing down the thoughts flowing through us.

The question is, how can we induce such a state rather than waiting and hoping for it to occur spontaneously? Here are three keys:

1: Pick a task that is at or just above your level of ability. If it's too hard or too easy, you won't enter flow. So if you want to write a novel, break it down into chunks you can handle. One might be writing a rough outline. Another might be doing a character biography for your protagonist.

2: Make sure that the task includes immediate feedback, so that you know as you go along whether or not you are doing well. For instance, you can start by setting yourself a goal of writing a certain number of words per half hour. Generally, you need to feel positive at the beginning stages, and eventually the task may so absorb you that you stop thinking about how you're doing it, or how well.

3: Create an atmosphere in which you have as few distractions as possible. Again, later in the process, you may be so involved that you don't even notice things like a phone ringing but it helps if you can start off in an environment that makes it easy to concentrate. This also includes setting aside a period of time when you won't feel you really should be doing something else.

ACTION: Schedule some time during which you want to tackle a project and create the conditions described above. Go into the process with the idea that if flow occurs, that will be great, and if it doesn't, you'll still get a lot done (that mentality makes it less likely that you'll distract yourself by asking 'am I in flow yet?’).