OMG! I Focused!
I could think today. I could even write in complete sentences, instead of words spotted here and there through a fuzzy daze, with a sentence happening only now and then under great duress. Days like this are always such a huge relief.
I had meat for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. (I’d made pot roast for the crock pot.) And a mid-day caffeine nap (scientifically proven, I swear!). And I lit my St. Martin Caballero candle.
I think this is how writing rituals get started, and how writers get addicted to certain things as a crutch.
When you have a “flow” day, when the writing comes relatively easily, one wants to repeat everything about it, so one can have the same success again and again and again. When I performed often, I could snap into the zone easy-peasy. Not so much now, not with writing, but I’m always on a quest to control it.
And I’m wondering: how do you get into the zone? What things do you do to arrange your life for optimum writing? Food? Candles? Tea? A certain location?
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Natasha Fondren is a writer traveling the U.S. in a camper with her four cats. She is currently enjoying the lizards and desert heat in Arizona.
What I need (in addition to coffee) is to be away from my legal writing for a day or so. Seems to clear my mind. I begin to have some creative thoughts. If I worry about getting into the zone…well, that makes it impossible. So I really need to just do nothing for a while, which is hard to do because it seems like wasting time.
Ooh, I love the idea of a caffeine nap! Brilliant!
Ah, the zone. We performers speak of it often, don’t we? When I’m in The Zone at work, during a concert or a performance, I am simultaneously relaxed and energized; both focused and blissed out, doing yet not doing. It is such a wonderful merging of the conscious and subconscious creative self, of the left and right brains.
But how to get there…ah, that is the million dollar question! In order to get into a zone in a performance, I have to be extremely well-prepared, and also having a great time. But you’re right – accessing the zone doesn’t always happen, and I’ve had performances where I was frustrated that I couldn’t get into the zone, and they were long and arduous. You just have to accept that you’re not an automaton that is perfect every single time (thank god!).
As far as rituals, I like to put on makeup before concerts, and I never eat dessert or heavy loads of carbs or fatty foods before playing. I wait until after the concert for those.
Haha! Happy Zoning, Natasha! 
XO
It depends. When I’m not sure where I’m going, I kind of tiptoe into writing instead of diving into the deep end. I’ll write, then check email or Google Reader. Play Hangman. Then back to writing. I do that until I’m in the zone. Some days I never get there, but the writing usually gets done.
I drink tea. It does have caffeine, though. I usually nap, but today i didn’t need one.
For me the zone comes from within, so it doesn’t matter what kind of rituals I may perform. If I don’t “have it,” I’d best just not bother painting.
For me it is more of a mind set. And it helps if I get right to it shortly after I wake up. If I can get an hour in before having some tea and a bite to eat then the rest of my writing day seems more in the zone. I’m glad you were in the zone today!
The zone. First, I need to know I will not be interrupted every five or ten minutes. Often this means the middle of the night. Second, the Muses have to be visiting. We get to talking, the way friends do, and then I’m off. It could last an hour or ten. Average is probably three or four. Then I break an hour or two and return for session two.
But right now my mind is too filled with other things to write more than a few minutes. And I’m not much company for the Muses, either.
I did the candle thing for a while. I realized I was trying to establish a ritual but for me it was more about distracting myself than focusing. I still have to make myself focus typically by brute force.
Let’s see. I check e-mail and blogs; do my daily trivia, puzzle and logic problem; stare morosely at the piles of clutter waiting to be dealt with; then plunge in to the writing. But only if I have a few hours freed up.
I’m pretty much a combination of Charles and Sarah. They pretty well summed up my “ritual.”
Zone? What the &%*@# is a Zone? I wish I could find one. I generally get writing in through plain dumb luck. Get up early in the morning, make sure my eyes are going to stay open, infuse some caffeine and crack the computer. That’s the only routine I’ve established … so far. Perhaps I should consider something a bit more ritualistic.
I’m getting really stuck on my 9-2 schedule, which is what fits with my kids’ school hours. I have a tough time now at night. I’m trying hard to do emails and stuff at night and focus on writing during the day, as I’m on deadline, but it’s tough. Today…nada.
Removing myself from temptation (distractions like the internet, tv, other people) is what I need to do to get into the zone.
I have no system, which explains why I haven’t been writing.
Hahaha! I’m with Kath. But if I do have a system it’s couch, laptop, tea, and cheez its.