Do you flow? Do your words flow?
I’m talking about “flow” as it is used by psychology professor Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, who wrote Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. In an interview in 1996, he defined flow as “Being completely involved in an activity for its own sake. The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous one, like playing jazz. Your whole being is involved, and you’re using your skills to the utmost.”
Sounds like writing, doesn’t it?
(I just heard a voice in the peanut gallery shout, “It sounds like writing sometimes!”)
Agreed. If we were all guaranteed that every writing experience would flow, we would do little else besides write.
I’ve found that when I am writing every day (even if it’s only for an hour or so) the number of days in which I experience flow increases substantially. When I pick at the writing less often, I have more frustrating experiences.
Professor Csikszentmihalyi also said this: “Repression is not the way to virtue. When people restrain themselves out of fear, their lives are by necessity diminished. Only through freely chosen discipline can life be enjoyed and still kept within the bounds of reason. “
What do you think?
Ready….
“Poetry is the art of saying what you mean but disguising it.” Diane Wakoski
Set… Find your quiet place, lock the door. The world can wait.
Today’s prompt: You are going to mash-up a poem with a weather proverb and see what happens.
2. Take a few words from “Dublinesque” by Philip Larkin and insert them into the proverb. Make up a character who says that proverb and explain why he or she says it. Have fun!
Scribble…Scribble…Scribble!!!