Entering the “Flow”
Yoda in the “Flow,” Image Source: Pinterest
Trying to find time to write (even these short blog entries) has been challenging this week. It has been difficult because of all the time constraints, myriad of school responsibilities and life events that have interfered with writing. But even more disruptive has been the loss of the “Flow,” that I found on Saturday, but haven’t seen again since.
Now, apparently there is a TED Talk describing the “Flow,” but full disclosure, I haven’t seen it. I just caught the last part of a NPR episode on it. In a nutshell, the “Flow” is humans operating at their Peak Performance for a time (usually short). In sports, it has long been known as the “Zone,” or “being in the Zone.” It is when we humans get so caught up in the activity that we are doing that we transcend ourselves and create something or do something that borders on the miraculous.
Saturday, I had the “Flow.” I wanted to completely rough draft out the rest of the basic story of Project Children so that I could work on a scene a week (really I wanted to do a scene a day, but with all of the work I have to do, a more realistic option would be a scene a week). I completely wrote out a strong draft on Saturday and it didn’t take me anytime.
Well, today was the first day I had time to try to write a scene and everything conspired to keep me out of the “Flow.” I couldn’t find my notebook where I’d written down the rough draft and I had to clean up to find it. When I finally found it, I had to stop and work on something else, and one thing led to another and here I am, still haven’t written another word on the story even though it is literally pencilled in my notebook. I can’t find the “Flow” all of a sudden. I really need to work on this if I want to write that novel. I have to find a way to find the “Flow’ daily, otherwise all the planning in the world isn’t going to help me get a novel written in this next year.
