sunriseI love the exquisite peace and focus that come of writing in the Zone. The words well up quickly, effortlessly, from a place deep within. Time and space disappear. I feel energized, clear, creative, and completely unselfconscious.

But then, suddenly, the Zone disappears!

WHERE DOES IT GO?
I’ve come to believe that the Zone, like the sun, is always there—but that sometimes my brain gets cloudy. Clouds in the brain don’t always pass as quickly as deadlines approach. I can’t always count on the Zone to break through those clouds without my help.

Writing is magic, but it can take some work. That has been my motto over forty years of making a living as a freelance writer. More often than not, the work consists of cloud-busting. Or as I call it, busting the Zone-blockers.

ZONE-BLOCKER #1: THE BIG MIASMA
We all have our own shapes and colors of clouds, our own unique set of Zone-blocking dynamics. In Creativity on Demand, I talk about my most virulent Zone-blockers and how to bust them. First among them is The Big Miasma. (Coming soon, Zone-blockers #2 and #3, The Grey Fuzz and Dark Fears.)

The Big Miasma starts when we realize that we have a book, or any piece of writing, inside us—but that we don’t quite have time to start it today. Or tomorrow. But if and when we do start it, it will be the making of us. We may get fame and fortune. We will certainly get a huge infusion of self-esteem, and we’ll know that we are doing what we’re here on Earth to do.

But week after week, we don’t start it–and we begin to feel guilty. Before long, we start to arrange everything in life around that book. Friends, other projects, vacations, even children sometimes take a back seat. We don’t go places or do things because we’re going to work on the book, but then we don’t actually work on it. All our thoughts and feelings about not doing the project–none of them too pretty–swirl around and around, and eventually devolve into a mystifying, impenetrable Big Miasma.

This is no way to live, and no way to work—especially when the Zone that makes everything easier, faster, and more fun is right at our fingertips.

BUSTING THE BIG MIASMA  
There is a terrible simplicity to busting this particular Zone-blocker. Nike said it first: Just do it.

I know! That’s awful! Especially for my transformational friends who want to investigate the underbelly of it. But it’s the only way I know to beat The Big Miasma.

Schedule writing time every day that is inviolable, even if it’s only ten minutes. Write something, even if it’s terrible. Keep writing, even if it gets worse.  This is the time to remember Anne Lamott’s advice in Bird by Bird: Write “shitty first drafts.” It doesn’t matter where you start. Write something. You’ll have something to edit, and what you write will get better.

I feel so much better about myself when I actually start working on the project that I almost don’t care how it turns out! I had been thinking about Chasing Grace: A Novel of Odd Redemption for twenty years before I actually started it. Just creating a file for my “shitty first draft” was worth tens of thousands of dollars in therapy.

What is your #1 Zone-blocker and what do you do about it?

Busting the Zone-Blockers

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