Finding Flow: Ideas for Peak Creative Performance

🌼 Understanding the Writer’s Flow State

Do you think consciously about getting into a flow state, or does it just happen for you?

I talk to a lot of writers about their process and many of them claim not to know what their process is. They talk about being in flow as a sort of mystical experience that sometimes happens and sometimes doesn’t.

Experienced writers can access the flow state intentionally and with purpose. So I thought it would be useful to set out how it’s done.

It’s not a superpower, it’s a process, and let’s be honest, it doesn’t always work, but having a process is probably more effective than pretending you don’t have one.

And by the way, you’d be amazed at how many writers who claim not to know their process actually do.

So here’s some ideas on things to look at to find your creative process and get you into a creative flow state. You might have others to add to the list?

🔥 Burn a clean flame

Your writing space matters more than you think! My desk is a mess most of the time, but not when I’m writing. Before I start I clean my desk.

Sometimes the right music is important for me, I don’t always need music, but when I do, it has to be the right soundtrack. Some stories need a busy café or pub, some need silence and my office. I’m tuned in to what I need for the story I’m writing. Your brain responds to these cues. The right clarity and purity of environment to get you in your zone.

Burning a clean flame is a great metaphor. Buring clean oil in your lamp gives a pure flame, burning dirty oil, giving a mucky flame.

Make your environment right. Take pleasure in designing it and curating it.

I know writers who always light a candle, some put on speech radio too low to actually distinguish words, some need classical music, some go for white noise, one even has a special writing hat. Whatever it is, go with it.

Do you have any quirky thing you HAVE to do before you begin?

🔁 The Pre-Flow Ritual: Repetitive Triggers for Your Creative Mind.

Athletes don’t just warm up physically with stretches and muscle loading they warm up emotionally with routines, processes and rituals.  

Rafa Nadal’s rituals are like a dance, shirt tugs, face wipes and what looks like a series of ticks and twitches. Great video on that here https://youtu.be/z9ozShqtfKg?feature=shared

A lot of athletes have the same pre match play list, including Harry Kane who apparently has a finger tap routine and always puts his left boot on first. Dina Asher Smith talked a lot about ‘feeling good before stepping on the track’ warming up both mindset and muscle.

I used to do the high-jump at school, a friend pointed out that I always tapped by chest with my right thumb before jumping. I never realised I did that, but I couldn’t jump without it. Maybe I should try it before writing!

Find your rituals that work and use them consistently.

Like Pavlov’s dogs, you are training and familiarising your brain with what’s to come. Getting it into a creative place.

It doesn’t matter what your rituals are, just know them. I have clients who always tidy the kitchen, walk the dog, stand in the garden, make coffee, meditate, play a particular song. A plethora of different tricks and moments, all designed to land the writing plane and get started in the right mindset.

What are your rituals? There might be things you do every time that you didn’t realise you did. If you don’t have a beginning ritual, try inventing one! See if it helps.

⚡️ Starting up and keeping going – Sustaining Energy and Focus.

A lot of writers struggle with starting up and keeping going.

Starting –

Here’s a good exercise to help you understand your starting process. Write for half an hour. Make notes on a separate piece of paper on what’s happening, what’s going on for you? Are you finding the process easy or hard, are you champing to get stuck in or fiddling around at the edges?

What most writers find, is that the first ten or fifteen minutes is quite hard, then it gets easier. By tracking this, you will know when to expect the flow state to begin to kick in. I see this in action if I’m teaching a class and they are doing a writing exercise. The first ten minutes there’s a lot of gazing out of windows and looking at the ceiling, a bit of chat and fiddling around, a few jokes. Twenty minutes in and there’s silence with everyone is writing intently. The creative brain has warmed up.

Keeping going –

There is always a moment when a particular tricky section is complete or a thought process is concluded when your brain says ‘right, done that, let’s stand up and walk away.’ Now at this point you need to really know yourself and this comes with experience. Ask yourself –

·      Am I ready for a rest? Do I feel physically or mentally tired and if I do, what do I need to recover?

·      Is this just a tricky piece I’m approaching and I actually need to force myself to stay seated and push through it.

·      If I do need a break, what kind of break? Do I look out of the window and take some deep breaths or make a cup of coffee or take the dog for a walk?

Some writers stand up and shake out, some have a regular short walk they do every time, some play a piece of music that refocuses them. I have one client who keeps dumbbells beside her desk and does a quick dozen presses then gets back to it.

Whatever it takes, do it, but just don’t stop too early. Experiment with a comfortable time to write for you, know what works and what doesn’t. Don’t push yourself into an uncomfortable writing place, keep it happy and enjoyable. Know your creative brain and it’s battery level.

Getting it back –

If you take a rest, short or long, how do you get back to it? Also life happens – phones ring, kids burst in, and emails demand attention. In my case right now, my bread dough is ready and needs baking! Treat these moments with respect. Reconvene. Collect your thoughts. Breath. Focus. Find bits of your original routine that will help calm the critical brain and return to a creative state.

Also, behave as though you are coming back. Just now, as I got up to tend to my dough, I picked up my phone to take downstairs with me! The evil empire bit of my brain that wants me to do anything but write, was trying to hijack my return by checking emails etc while I wait for the oven to warm! Leave the phone behind!

🧠 Use the right bit of your brain

Sometimes writers complain that they ‘write’ for ages, but nothing creative happens. When quizzed on what they’re writing they are often noodling around with structure and plot points, trying out dialogue here and there, mapping out structure. This is important stuff to do, but won’t help hit creative flow.

It’s using your critical brain, your prefrontal cortex, good at time tracking and judgement, but bad at creativity. If you do get creative, your critical brain will instantly judge what you’ve written...and won’t like what it sees.

Stay in the difficult creative zone, persevere, you’ll get there.

🔬 What is the Science?

Hungarian-American Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi who researched and coined the phrase ‘flow,’ said flow is a neurological shift. Here's what goes on:

1. Transient Hypofrontality

The prefrontal cortex quiets down, freeing you from overthinking and lets intuition lead, it allows you to be creative.

2. Neurochemicals get released

• Dopamine (motivation, focus)

• Norepinephrine (arousal, alertness)

• Endorphins (pain suppression, euphoria)

• Anandamide (bliss molecule, promotes lateral thinking)

• Serotonin (post-flow afterglow)

So it’s not just a state of hyper concentration and focus, it actually FEELS GOOD.

3. Gamma Wave Bursts

These are high-frequency brainwaves associated with insight, peak attention, and synthesis. Your brain is integrating information faster and more creatively. You can make leaps of thinking, join things up, find and utilise metaphor, ‘see and feel’ story in a different way.

We want to target a flow state because in it, we are better more creative writers. Our own experience and the science proves this.

To conclude

Some kind of flow state is crucial to creative writing. It’s not magic or accidental. We can do a lot of things to help our minds and bodies be creative and get into a flow state. Burn a clean flame, create the right environment, warm up properly, physically and mentally, know your process. Know your body, know your mind and know the science.

And if you’re still struggling with a thousand thoughts crashing around in your head, all stopping you finding space to write, here’s an exercise –

Close your eyes, take some deep breaths, when you’re ready, ask yourself this repeatedly – ‘I wonder what thought will arrive next.’ You will be amazed at what happens to your thinking process.

What helps you find your flow? Share your rituals and experiences in the comments—I'd love to learn from your process!

If you’d like to find out more about what I do or chat about coaching, click here.