How to Boost Your Creative Flow
8 Simple Steps
Do you remember your first-ever creative writing flow state? Mine was in 2013. I didn’t start with a beat sheet, or an outline, or even a protagonist; just a class exercise involving two characters.
I sat in a chair, and I started writing, and I didn’t stop for three months, except to go to work and talk to my boyfriend occasionally.
I didn’t pause for breath; I didn’t jump on Twitter to see who else was writing; I didn’t log words. It was true flow.
Four years later, I took the play to a small stage in London. It was a milestone for sure, but four years is a long lead time for a single story. Isn’t it?
Since then, I’ve invested more in learning about structure and plotting and, critically about the art of planning the beats of your story, so it doesn’t take four years to write. But flow writing is by a long way my most favourite part of the process.
You’ve heard the quote from Thomas Edison about genius being 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration, haven’t you? The same goes for creative writing.
I keep coming back to bicycle analogies but being in a flow state is similar to downhill mountain biking; flying down the mountain at top speed with no fear.
