Writer's block, an owner's guide: Writer’s block and the Zone (part 4)

In Csikszentmihalyi’s books on flow, such as Flow, I haven’t found advice on how to get into flow. Mind you, I have not read all of them. Elsewhere, though, he gave these tips amongst others. We are miles from writer’s block now, but I have a feeling this will all somehow turn out to be part of our jigsaw:

1. Wake up in the morning with a specific goal to look forward to. How we gonna do that, you ask? Csikszentmihalyi doesn’t say. I suppose you have to plan for it at bedtime. Anyway, it sounds fun to me and I’d like to give it a try.

“Eventually most of the day should consist of tasks you look forward to, until you feel that getting up in the morning is a privilege, not a chore.” Sounds good, and we can maybe see how it would benefit the writer. Of course, you’ll have to get right off that romantic myth about having to be a hard-bitten drunk.

2. If you do anything well, it becomes enjoyable. As I was saying recently - maybe not in these words - I only like to do things I can do.

One of the qualities of a sympathetic movie protagonist is that he is good at something. I forget who said that - Seger? Hauge? - someone please let me know and I’ll acknowledge it. The same reason that you like the protagonist could be a reason to like yourself. Just decide to develop the same quality he did: be good at something, and do it.

Csikszentmihalyi’s statement is obviously relevant to the emotional ups and downs of writing. “If you do anything well, it becomes enjoyable.” So that’s yet another reason to do those darn futile morning pages, I suppose.

3. To keep enjoying something, you need to increase its complexity.

Well, now, we’re getting to the heart of our discussion of flow. “To keep enjoying something, you need to increase its complexity.” Flow, we saw last time, occurs where there is (a) full use of your skills on (b) a challenging task. Therefore, as you get better at using any of your talents, you need to tackle harder and harder projects. Isn’t this true? If you’re like me, you get excited about some new activity - you begin to do it - you learn the essential skills - you get bored.

Which is maybe why, as I also mentioned last time, the things we maintain interest in are the things we can never do perfectly, like making love and making novels. Random note: in Scotland, we used to call poets “makers.”

So what does this say about your writing life, about your future writing? What does this say about why your first novel-writing or scriptwriting project becomes boring as your skill grows with every page? How could you plan your life differently? “To keep enjoying something, you need to increase its complexity.”

4. Take charge of your schedule.

5. Make time for reflection and relaxation.

You really don’t need me to explain these; maybe I could make suggestions about how to do them, but I’m not the only one who could do that, and it’s not the point right now. (I’m expecting to include some of that in the workshop, though, if time allows)

To be continued…

Published on April 11, 2005 at 9:57 pm. Linking to this article? Thank you! The permanent address is http://www.todayiwrite.com/journal/writers-block-and-the-zone-part-4.html

Today I Write