How to: Find Your Writing Flow
Writing is hard, standing up to refill my tea and grab a piece of halloween candy for the third time is easy. If you're feeling stuck but have some writing you need (or want) to finish, follow these steps to find your flow.
1. Choose your space. Find a quiet place with minimal interruptions, ideally away from other people, out of sight of dishes in your sink, etc. Grab your laptop or a favorite notebook and pen, whatever tea, water, snack combination you need, and get comfortable.
2. Set a timer for a realistic period of time. I recommend starting with 9 minutes and building up from there. Stop when the buzzer dings, stand up and walk away. Reset and repeat for as many timed chunks as your brain can handle (try 4 to start).
3. Commit to a single prompt or question. You can browse a whole list of prompts here, or keep it simple and use the words: “If I could…”
4. Don’t edit. Don’t delete or cross out words, and don’t read back over what you wrote. Just keep moving forward. This is only a draft.
5. Celebrate progress. Reward yourself a the end of your session, step outside, eat something delicious, or pat your dog. Then give your writing some space. Return a few hours (or a day) later and you'll be amazed at what you wrote.
Repeat daily if you can!
When I teach workshops, I often remind people that the writing “flow” is not a myth. We’ve just spent years in school conditioned to write perfectly, to spell every word correctly, and to never miss a comma. We’re so tripped up in the mechanics and we forget the main point: to clarify our thoughts by getting them out of our heads and onto the page.
I also remind my students that writing is a muscle that needs to be worked, just like running or biking. If it’s been a while you may feel a bit creaky and that’s ok. The more you return to your writing, the easier it will become. At some point you may find yourself writing as a way to procrastinate something else in your life!
Interested in my workshops or 1:1 writing coaching? Learn more here!
