Flow—the mental state of being completely present and fully immersed in a task—is a strong contributor to creativity. In addition to feeling good, tapping into your subconscious mind—dropping below what you know and surprising yourself with what you didn’t know you knew—makes for more interesting writing. Entering this state can feel almost magical, but there are ways to promote it.

Of course, writing doesn’t always go well. Writer’s block is literally a block to flow. Generally, blocks happen because of what we say to ourselves, “that’s a dumb idea,” “that’s really not interesting,” “you’re not writing nearly as well as (fill in the blank),” etc. etc. I have worked with writers of all ages on issues of process and craft, and everyone experiences this to some degree. For some people, that voice is so lethal, that they stop writing as a protective act.

There are ways to change how we talk to ourselves:

• Understand where (or from whom) you learned to internalize that voice
• Practice pushing the voice gently aside when writing
• Remind yourself to talk to yourself as you would a friend

We can also make flow more likely by:

• Taking the pressure off
• Having fun
• Learning about our artistic voice in other mediums, where we don’t feel as pressured about the end product

I recently read an article, Playing to Learn, about a panel discussion on games at Stanford. The participants focused on freedom and choice as crucial factors in explaining why and how people learn. One of the panelists highlighted research showing that some boys who read below grade level in school, read texts above their grade level online. His conclusion was that if the boys could choose what they read, as they did in online games, they pushed themselves harder.

An Edutopia interview with Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Motivating People to Learn, compared extrinsic motivation (because you have to) and intrinsic motivation (because you want to). According to Csikszentmihalyi, anything that actively involves us or the goal is to often to solve a problem, is more likely to produce flow than passive activities like sitting and listening. Finding the right balance between too challenging and too easy, too much support and not enough, is the key to maintaining flow. The author made the point that, in school, students mostly find flow in extracurricular activities like music, art and sports.

Putting these two concepts together, it seems like freedom of choice and active engagement promote flow.

Choosing a career (or two) that involves writing has given me a lot of opportunities to learn about flow; what promotes and hinders flow. It’s challenged me to put into practice what I have learned. For me, teaching and writing—at their best—engage my heart and mind together and that’s been pretty interesting.

Sources:

University, Stanford. “Using games as an educational tool provides opportunities for deeper learning, panelists at Stanford event say.” Stanford News. N.p., 01 Mar. 2013. Web. 18 July 2017. http://news.stanford.edu/2013/03/01/games-education-tool-030113/

“Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi: Motivating People to Learn.” Edutopia. N.p., 11 Apr. 2002. Web. 18 July 2017. https://www.edutopia.org/mihaly-csikszentmihalyi-motivating-people-learn