Every writer I’ve ever talked to knows that the best writing is the easiest. You get in the flow and the words spill out. You can barely keep up, and it feels like transcription. It’s a great feeling, too, one of the best in the world.
This is why there were and are so many alcoholic and drug using writers. We all know that the best writing comes when you turn off the filters; when you don’t give a damn and just write. Any anxiety kills the flow and destroys one’s best writing. (Please don’t take this as a suggestion to down a fifth of gin before writing. It’ll destroy you in the not very long run.)
Over the years I’ve read dozens of books on writing. Almost all of them were about craft: how to outline, the elements of style, grammar, story structure, etc, etc… At one point I used to teach essay writing. Only two of those books were about the psychology of writing. The first, which I read years ago, was “The War of Art” by Pressfield. To oversimplify, his advice is to push thru the resistance. It’s a popular book and its helped a lot of people, I think, but it didn’t work for me. If I’m pushing thru resistance, I’m not writing well and I’m not enjoying myself. Defeats the whole damn point.
The second was “Fearless Writing” by William Kenower. Kenower’s take on writing is the same as mine: you want to be in the flow. His approach to resistance is that if you’re feeling it, you know something’s off and your job is to find the effortless flow.
Now if you’re a long time reader you may be thinking “wait, you’ve written thousand of articles. Sometimes multiple articles a day. You have trouble writing?”
Mostly, actually, I don’t have trouble: not in writing writing essays. I know that even my bad essays are “OK”, I don’t fear the audience reaction and I know what I’m trying to communicate (“we don’t have to live in Hell. There are other options.”) But when I write fiction or longer non fiction, oh yes, resistance is there, so much so that I often don’t write.
This mostly comes down to fear of some sort. Kenower has 6 rules for getting into the flow in writing (they’re also, with slight alteration, great for things other than writing.)
- I must have a willingness to be surprised.
- I must trust where the flow takes me.
- I cannot worry about the past or the future.
- I must exert no effort, the correct path is always the effortless path.
- There is no right or wrong in the flow. There is only what belongs in the story and what doesn’t.
- I must not care what anyone else thinks about what I’ve written.
The moment you start wondering what other people will think of what you’re writing, while you’re writing, you will drop out of the flow.
The moment you start wondering “is this good?” you will drop out of the flow.
The moment you wonder “will an agent be interested” you’re out of the flow.
The moment you start second guessing what you’re transcribing while in the flow, you’re sunk. (You do pay attention to resistance. If a word feels wrong, it is wrong. But if your thought is “this is bad” which quickly cascades into “I am bad”, you’re toast.)
The secret of writing that all writers know (and I bet it’s the same for artists and whatever art they practice) is that when you’re in the groove nothing feels better. It’s amazing. This is what drives writers back to the desk, even writers who find nine out of ten sessions miserable: the memories of that one great session.
I think of all the rules the most important is to not care what other people think. It’s OK to think of who you’re writing for, and what you’re giving to them with your story, but not to wonder if they’ll like it or think it’s good. The truth, in my experience, and I have ludicrous amounts of experience with feedback, is that some people will love it and some people will hate it. You may write what you believe is the best piece in your entire career and someone will comment “I don’t get it” and another person will write, essentially, “this is bullshit, and you’re stupid.”
You can’t let that influence you while you’re writing or get to you after you’ve written. If you do, it will destroy your ability to get in the flow, to actually write well, and to enjoy writing, which, after all, is why you write. (Even writers who brag they write just for money are usually full of it. Heinlein said anyone who wrote for any reason but for money was a fool, but he once wrote an entire novel in under a month because he was so inspired. Bullshit that he wrote just for the money.)
If you enjoy writing (sometimes), and you’re having trouble because it often seems so hard to write, you might want to read Kenower’s book. I can’t guarantee it will help, but it’s certainly the book on the psychology of writing which was most helpful to me.
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Sean Paul Kelley
Several years ago when I was having trouble finishing my first book and was extremly frustrated–not blocked, just angry and irritable at the whole enterprise of writing–my father asked me, “why do you write then if it so disturbing? All your serenity and peace fly out the window when you write and you start cursing like a drunk sailor.”
I looked at my Dad for about 30 seconds. “I hate writing.” He shook his head. Then I smiled, and said, “but I absolutely love having written. Nothing beats it.”
He didn’t get it, which is cool. My old man is an accountant, not a terribly creative type, but a good father. It’s that one session out of ten when the whole arc comes together that makes the war against the WSOD worth it.
spud
try it if you are dyslexic. no matter how many times i reread, it never looks right. then when i think i got it. i go back later and groan over the many mistakes.
mago
In another lifetime I led creative writing workshops for adult learners, but abandoned it for diverse reasons.
I continued teaching language arts to talented and gifted youth and derived great satisfaction from doing so. I also taught essay writing.
As an MFA graduate I endured many a writing workshop, which I found as worthless as the degree. If you want to be a writer, just write.
Having said that, I haven’t written a piece of fiction in forever, lots of poetry though, just for the fun of it and to keep my hand in the game.
But so what to all of that. What I wanted to mention is I was interviewed online recently and was given a list of questions to contemplate and answer. I fiddled around at the task and finally the interviewer shot me a note and said get drunk and finish the damn thing.
I finished it without the alcohol. I find that substance hinders rather helps the creative process. I don’t drink when cooking either. Julia Child was not my inspiration in that regard.
elkern
Thx, Ian. Only writing I’ve done in the last several decades has been online Comments (like her, or FB, etc), but I’ve recently been working on my first Fiction project: Star Trek FanFic (yeah, LOL), essentially, Picard Season 1.5. It started as a way think myself to sleep; sadly, now that I’m actually trying to write it down, the soporific effect is diminished.
And yeah, alcohol does make that [feeling of] Flow easier, but even bigger Yeah, it’s not worth the organ damage.
Davianne M Savory
I am impressed by all of this. It sounds like a spiritual experience and getting to know your inner being. Bravo!
somecomputerguy
“In communicating an idea in writing, the difference between the almost-right word, and right word, is the difference between a lightning-bug and lightning.”
-William Clinton, Intro to Latin American Politics.
Susa
I once read that “writing is easy; thinking is hard” and it helped me immensely with my writing. When the writing feels hard, there’s now an invitation to curiosity about my subject, a sense of i just need to think a little to figure this out and then the writing will be easy!
marku
Funny about “the flow”. Back in my misspent youth I played lead guitar in a rock band. We’d get stoned out of our minds and play our asses off. My solos might begin with a re statement of the melody, but then I’d take off and my fingers would just fly, and the notes come pouring out.
Without thought.
It was super fun. Never had anything else like it. Once in a while, sketching, my fingers will start making marks all by them selves. But that’s as close as it gets.