Can we really just sit down and call up creativity whenever we want it? I believe we can.
Maybe “call up” isn’t the best phrase. Maybe “relax into” is better. When we learn to relax into the Zone—that magical place where we write without striving or self-consciousness, where the words seem to pour out of us on their own, where we feel completely focused and absorbed, spontaneous, clear, energized, imaginative, joyful, out of time and space, and effortlessly productive—then we can be as creative as we like, whenever we like.
Easy to say, but what’s the trick? Actually, it’s all about tricks.
WRITING IS MAGIC, BUT IT TAKES SOME DISCIPLINE—AND SOME TRICKS
That has been my motto over forty years of making a living as a freelance writer. I love writing in the Zone, love feeling that wonderful peace and wellbeing spread through me, love writing quickly and well, from a place deep inside me. The Zone is why I write, but I learned early on that I couldn’t just sit back and wait for it to show up. It didn’t simply descend on its own with shiny little bells on its toes and pink sparklies cascading from its magic wand. I had to take charge.
For me, writing in the Zone has been largely a matter of developing, honing, and practicing some very good tricks—tricks that fool the linear left brain into reaching over and hugging the creative right brain so that they can work together in the service of whatever we’ve been given to say to the world.
The Zone may be magical and even mystical, but the times and places that I needed it most were usually very gritty and down to earth—places like newspaper City Rooms or smoke-filled rooms at Chicago City Hall—and so the tricks and techniques I developed to call up the Zone had to be equally practical and gritty.
These tricks were developed specifically to let even a naturally lazy, anxious person like myself write in the Zone, on demand, even on a deadline. That skill—and it was a learned skill—changed everything. With it, I could make a good living as a writer. Even more importantly, I could feel that divine spark that we call creativity moving within me whenever I wished.
THE CREATIVE CLICK
All the tricks I learned are in my ebook, CREATIVITY ON DEMAND: Write in the Zone, available for less than the price of a Starbuck’s Latte on Amazon, Smashwords, and other retail platforms. This book is about how to live and work in the Zone, be creative on demand, and finish your artistic projects so that you can start new ones. It’s about developing and nurturing your own unique relationship with the Zone, and your particular way of using it.
I invite you to click through and check it out!