Finding the flow

Writing inspiration in the dog days of summer

How do you find inspiration? How do you deal with writer’s block?

These common questions hint at a truth that’s hard to admit: a lot of writers feel stuck. They have been trying for years to write a book or just write at all, and it’s hard.

How is your summer writing going? Are things flowing, or do you feel mired in the dog days of summer? Are you struggling to make time to write? We all do. But are you telling yourself that you’ll write when you feel inspired?

I have sad news: you likely won’t feel inspired until you actually sit down and start working.

But I also have good news: I know where your inspiration is hiding, and how you can lure it out.

When writers come to me for coaching, they often do so because they feel stuck. That’s because when they sit down to write, it looks something like this:

Sit down at your desk. Organize it. Line up pencils and a pad of paper, perfectly parallel, even though you will be writing on a computer. Get yourself a glass of water. Then go searching for a coaster because the glass is sweating.

Finally log on, but then check social media for inspiration. Finally realize you’ve been scrolling for half an hour. Feel shame and discouragement. Wallow for a bit. Finally open up Microsoft Word or Scribner or whatever.

Write a few words. Agonize that they are not right. Delete words, start again. Repeat several times.

Eventually eke out a paragraph or even two. Stop, read through the sentences, realizing they are all absolute crap. Try to revise them, tweak them. Give up.

There is another way, and in that way, you will find the inspiration and energy you’re looking for.

Photo by https://kaboompics.com/: https://www.pexels.com/

When writers come to me for coaching, we have an agreement. They have to write at least 5000 words per month and turn them in to me for review. I read, offer feedback, meet with them to discuss strategy and what’s next. But they have to get those 5000 words written. How can they get there?

Here’s what I recommend to them:

Preferably at the same time each day, show up at the page. Ignore email and socials, just write. Every day, five days a week. Take the weekends off.

Set a goal for each day: 250 words, 500 words, 1000 words. Start small if you need to—consistency is more important than volume.

Just write. Do not use your delete key. Write and just keep going. Don’t reread what you’ve written. Just write. Hit “Save” frequently, but don’t do any self-editing. Pour it out onto the page, even if sometimes you write yourself a notes like [add detail about this character] or [look up stats on this assertion]. But just write without revising. When you get halfway to your word goal, hit save, take a ten minute break. Then come back, but don’t read what you’ve already written. Write more. Don’t stop until you hit your word count goal. Continually give yourself permission to write mediocre content, which you will be allowed to revise—but later. Much later.

Save what you’ve written and the next day do it again. Do not revise, do not self-edit. Yet.

Do this every day for five days, or until you’ve got at least 2500 words. Save, close the file. Close the computer and go for a walk. The next day, you can read and revise. But only for an hour or so. Then start the next part of your rough draft. Write without revising. Repeat.

This is what Anne Lamott famously called a shitty first draft. It is a surefire way to get a your work in progress to actually, well, make progress.

My coaching clients are at first skeptical of this method, but since their way wasn’t working, they’re willing to give it a try. It often takes a month or two, but they are quickly surprised at how much they can get written—once they give themselves permission to write a shitty first draft.

But here’s the thing that surprises and delights them. They are not just getting more done, but they’re finding it easier.

One of my clients told me about this experience this week. She’s been working with me a month or two. When she sits down to write, and does so every day, at first it’s hard—like the first few steps of going for a run. But then, after several days of this practice, something happens. She writes, slow at first, but as she continues, she comes to this place where the words just seem to flow. As if God or the Spirit or some force is cooperating with her, giving her the words, blowing the wind of inspiration and innovation into her mind and right out her typing fingertips. Like her characters are coming to life and taking over the storytelling.

This is what I like to call flow. It’s what writers want, dream of. But you can’t get there by rewriting the same sentence ten times. The delete key won’t beckon flow in your direction. You definitely can’t get there by shaming yourself for your lack of talent or telling yourself that no one will want to read what you write.

Flow comes when you’re willing to write imperfect, very rough, shitty even, first drafts. To write like a child drawing with crayons. Flow happens when you put your butt in the chair and show up and just write, and trust the process. You can’t make inspiration show up, but when you make yourself show up, flow eventually trickles in, then builds. When you kick your inner critic out of the room and just start writing, doing it as a gift to yourself, a habit, a discipline, you’ll eventually find flow joins you in the effort. Like a stream, it brings refreshment and abundance.

Writers who sit and wait for inspiration, wait for the flow to just, well, flow in and over them? They’ll be still waiting while the writers who sit down each day and just write, 500 or 1000 words of rough draft at a time, actually complete their work in progress, with the help of the flow that only shows up when you show up first.

When writers come to me for coaching, I give them advice gleaned from my decades in the publishing industry. I offer feedback on grammar, sentence structure, plotting. But the main thing they receive is accountability and encouragement. They have a deadline, a goal, and me cheering them on along the way—and accountability forces them to just show up. And when they put in the time to just write, and they let the first draft be just that—a very rough first draft—they are surprised to find that inspiration finds them along the way.

You may or may not be ready to work with a coach. But any writer can decide to set a goal and write each day. Anyone can show up at the page and just get words down, knowing they are imperfect but can be revised later. And when you do that, you may just find yourself experiencing the flow that all of us want to find.

So how is your summer writing going? Labor Day is a month away. It’s not too late to decide to just show up at the page and write each day, giving yourself permission to write a really rough draft, and see if you don’t just happen to step into the flow along the way.

Tell us about your summer writing goals and how they are going!