Six Phases of Your Creative Writing Adventure
January 16, 2023
As I have mentioned before in my last post, writers can write about many things- so varied that the only thing they may have in common is the ability to use letters and sometimes numbers or graphs in what they create. But as in any kind of craft- physical or literary-, there can be two strange and important phenomena. One is called FLOW and the other may be called REVELATION. In this discussion, in the six phases I will present, we will mainly focus on applying these phases to creative writing- including fiction and songwriting.
PHASE 1 THE INTENTION
In this phase, INTENTION is created to write a work of fiction or a song with a specific story or theme in mind. This may come at a computer or in the middle of the night or while you are watching a soccer game. Writers often write in their mind way before anything goes down on their keyboard (or paper).
PHASE 2 THE STRUCTURE
STRUCTURE may sometimes be in the mind in a general way at least- but it is often eventually written down in outline form or the components of or even IN a complete rough draft. It basically conforms to the original intention.
PHASE 3 INSPIRATION
Here we are not getting into anything unusual (no Muses in this phase). We mean that the writer is inspired to write something after seeing a movie, reading a book, witnessing some kind of event or incident, a story based on family history or a romantic encounter. This means that the inspiration is known and in the real world (whatever that is),
PHASE 4 FLOW
In this phase, we get somewhat into the area of strangeness. It is indeed a tricky business, but the next area, revelation- is much trickier and more difficult to explain.
The term “flow,: was created by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, a psychologist who created flow psychology and positive psychology. He defines flow as “ in a state of mind when a person becomes fully immersed in their work.”
I think truly creative fiction writers experience “flow” quite often, as do visual artists and, most conspicuously, jazz musicians. Before of course, there is no doubt that other types of writers, inventors, engineers, architects, lawyers and all other kinds of professionals can potentially experience the flow state. But as a writer of screenplays and books, songs and a former visual artist, I know the miraculous things that can occur in a flow state. Why is it miraculous? Because extremely high-quality work can come out of it, often unplanned or relatively unplanned- and the flow experience can often flow into Phase 6.
Here is Stuart Haden’s concise narrative of how to use the acronym STER to identify “flow” when it seizes your consciousness.
The Four Characteristics that define a flow state Besides how it work- there is also- how can you do it? Here’s a proposed solution by Joshua Liseo. I cannot vouch for it, but if it intrigues you- why don’t you try it. Besides, how does it work- there is also- how can you do it? Here’s a proposed solution by Joshua Liseo. I cannot vouch for it, but if it intrigues you- why don’t you try it.
Besides, how does it work- there is also- how can you do it? Here’s a proposed solution by Joshua Liseo. I cannot vouch for it, but if it intrigues you- why don’t you try it.
How to Get into Flow State in 27 Seconds/How to Induce Flow State for Writing to End Writers Block
Please take a look at how Jeff Walker describes the majesty and almost miraculous collaboration in a jazz ensemble. How is an improvisation by multiple musicians- and even singers- possible? I present this to you, if you are a writer, to show how incredible the FLOW state is- Bourbon Street in New Orleans was pumping out FLOW state jazz for decades. How can so many people fit into and coordinate something that is basically improvised note by note?
Get in the Flow State: What Jazz Can Teach You About Collaboration | Big Think
In my case, I have had multiple experiences in the flow state- but they often flow (not a pun) into the fifth phase, Revelation. So let us go there.
PHASE 5 REVELATION
I first consciously experienced the flow state when I began to write poetry. I related some of this in my last blog- as I rapidly morphed from a very amateurish 8th-grade beat poet into a 9th and 10th-grade poet who could write sonnets and eventually neo-classic poetry, which combined multiple classical verse patterns with free verse. As I moved into neo-classical verse, I had this experience of writing something that exceeded any conscious capacity of mind. It was as though I was seized by a part of my mind that was, artistically, vastly superior to anything I thought I could do.
During this time, I had a summer excursion to the Banff School of Fine Arts, where for the first time, I met people who actually appreciated fellow students in the art. In fact, between the jocks, hoods and high-performance students, the students interested in the arts were very low on the totem pole of worthy human beings. But in Banff it was different.
At this time, I was interested in continuing to write, even though I had come to Banff to study painting. But then, in this summer camp type of atmosphere, I bunked underneath a playwright whose career choice made me think and although I had just finished a short story, I became obsessed with plays and started to read dozens of them literally in the school library- and then started to write on- called, “Hal- the Study of the Earth Cycle.”
What came out on paper was so far above my known capacity to write that I was shocked. The play was written in neo-classical verse with songs. Whereas I understood what I was writing and could somehow frame and polish it slightly, it clearly was coming from some part of me that was very aware of the capacities of neo-classical verse.
How did I get to this place- and how can you? And what does it mean? Where is it coming from? In my case, I would say that it involved a kind of openness to what I was going to write. I guess you could call it an openness to inspiration. Did it come from the superconscious, from some other entity? Did it come from a Divine Source? I have never come to a final conclusion.
Perhaps one of the clearest expressions of this dilemma about creative writing was expressed in
Leonard Cohen’s famous Prince of Asturias Speech. Apart from his methodology of songwriting, Leonard Cohen is one of my top favorite songwriters. I wish he was still with us. His creativity never stopped.
Leonard Cohen’s Prince of Asturias Speech
PHASE 6 MANIFESTATION
Manifestation is the final phase of this process. It is where you want the process of writing to end and it can end with an article in a newspaper, a published book or an album of songs- or a few pages of a short story that you show to your wife or send to a few friends. Manifestation is what you want as a final product. It also can be entirely private.
I have just recently created my writers’ coaching program. I call it Writers Rescue. My goal as a Coach is to help you fulfill your goals as a writer- whether a novel, non-fiction book, screenplay, web content, advertising, etc. Here’s the link: https://writersrescue.newgalaxybusiness.com/
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