There is a secret place that
some writers go, a place of wonder and of mystery. It is the place of
the Flow. As readers we have all experienced this magical place,
where we are unconscious of the words, or even turning the page, the
bed we lie on or the world around us. Instead, our minds see only
what is happening before them in the story.
Imagine if your writing could
be like that. Not focusing on which words to choose, or the key
strokes you must take. Instead, all you see is your story unfolding
before your mind's eye, and you race to record all that is happening.
You feel elated by the rush of inspiration flooding through you, and
are so close to your characters, desperately wondering what will
happen to them, how will they be saved.
This is the writer's paradise,
this is the Flow.
In order to be able to write
10,000 words a day, I will need to be able to enter the flow whenever
I sit down. It is the difference between writing 1,000 words an hour
and 3,000.
I
had experienced this type of writing before, but had never fully
identified what it was. Then just a few weeks ago I attended a
writers' workshop, and if I had learned nothing else but this secret,
it would have been worth it (though I ended up learning a lot of
other useful stuff, and meeting some really great people).
The theory
is Kate Forsyth's, so I give all credit to her (I feel it is only
fair that since I'm stealing her idea, I put in a plug for her work,
check out her website).
She's an Australian fantasy writer, and I have to admit to my shame I
have not read her work, but after hearing her speak I'm eager to
because she was amazing. If you ever get the chance to do a workshop
with Kate, do it. That's all I can say.
Kate has published around 25
books so far. She writes full time, and she credits a lot of her
success to being able to harness the Flow. In her workshop she very kindly
shared with us her fool-proof method of entering into the flow
(though, I am hoping not to turn out to be 'the better fool'.) I
record for you her words of wisdom.
How to Master the Flow:
Create the perfect workspace.
Do light exercise before you
start.
Eat something sensible before
you start (she has a banana).
Define a clear goal and make
it difficult (such as 'in this session I'm going to write 5,000
words').
Allocate a committed block of
time, preferable between 2-4 hours.
Unplug your phone, internet,
anything that will distract.
Some people play music with a
slow rhythm to encourage alpha waves (Kate has no music).
Approach the work with a sense
of anticipation.
And that's it. That is the
secret to the Flow.
So I have started to experiment
and test this theory.
Last week I finished work at 6pm, and
admittedly felt shocking (bad headache from stress and staring at a
screen too much). All the same, I came home and
immediately went out to the gym.
Having been a fitness bunny in
the past (though the last few months have not reflected that at all),
I have come to conclude that for my body, the best way for me to get
a runner's high, but not follow it by a crash or chance going to far
and exhausting myself, is to stick to cardio heart rate exercise. For
me, this means roughly keeping my heart rate between 145-160 bpm,
which is reasonably light exercise. I start to sweat and get a bit
breathless, but should never be sore or feel pushed. Note that I'm
working on heart rate, which might not always equal the same speed on
the treadmill if I'm sick or stressed etc.
30 minutes of this followed by
a really good stretching session got out all the kinks from the day
and made me feel great. I came back and had a simple
dinner and put some washing on, then jumped into a nice hot shower. By 8pm I was in bed with my laptop. (you will be able to tell that I live by myself, and understand that most people can't just jump into bed as soon as they get home. But hey, there has to be some advantage to being an old cat lady, minus the cats.)
I have a giant four poster bed,
with lanterns strung across it, which makes a really nice, calm
environment. I had a cup of tea, and plenty of chocolate, so was all ready to write. I had no idea what to write, so just started by
describing an image I'd had before drifting off to sleep about one of
my characters.
After half an hour I had to
take out the washing and hang it up, but then jumped back into bed
and continued. In just over an hour, I had written 3,000 words, and
it was an easy, joyful three thousand.
I was super impressed. So tried
to copy it a few nights later.
Did my exercise, didn't feel as
great but still not bad. Came back had a shower and then ate dinner
in bed before starting to write. I did get through 2,500 words, but
it wasn't quite the same. I kept stopping, having minor panic attacks
about what I was writing, and fighting the constant urge to get up
and watch TV.
Honestly, I'm not 100% sure
what the difference was. I think not having dinner in bed, and giving
it some time to digest while having a shower might have helped. Also,
I didn't really have a goal as Kate suggests. The other thing I
didn't really work on was building up anticipation. I wasn't looking
forward to my writing, I really just wanted to sleep and get the day
over and done with. Am going to cover this more when I look at
motivation, and will work on practices which help build the
anticipation throughout the day.
Having said all that, 2,500
words is still 2,500 words. I know that for a lot of writers if they
did that in a day they would be very happy. And I can't complain that
sometimes writing is going to feel like work. I'm accepting that this
is a job, a job I love, but still there are always going to be times
when I'll want to be doing something else.
I also want to test out the
music theory. I've downloaded an app for my phone which supposedly
has different settings to create different brainwave patterns through
using beats underlying music. I'm not totally convinced at the
moment, but am prepared to be scientific about it. Will report back.
As always, if anyone has any
suggestions on how to improve writing sessions, all advice gratefully
received!
As to my preparations for the challenge, spent Day 2 of Prep week getting a facial (very important), searching through an opp shop for any books that could be useful to me, or I just wanted (7 books for $25, bargain!), and typing up my routine and schedule. I've planned out the first 12 books which will take me to the week before Christmas.
I'm also currently editing my brother's book, which he's going to be self publishing as an e-book. If you like Matthew Reilly type books, where the action speaks louder than the language, I think you will like it. I'm doing my best to fix up the worst of the clichés, but since that never worried Matthew Reilly readers, probably won't worry Dave's readers either. When I get to the end of the book, will give it a better review. Though in general I'm promoting buying it, as it will keep my brother off the streets, and you never know, I might get a royalty for editing it. I'll let you know if/when he releases it.
That's all for today.
Buffy.
