The Zone in which we all want to write may be magical and even mystical, but the times and places that I have needed it most were pretty gritty and down to earth—and so the tricks and techniques I use to call up the Zone are equally practical and “real world.”
The essence of Creativity on Demand is using practical, organized, left brain tricks to get your creative, artistic, imaginative right brain into gear so that you can use both right and left brain to get into the Zone and finish writing projects with clarity and joy.
INSIDE THE ZONE: DIVING BELL SOLUTION
I first discovered how to call up the Zone when I was working as a freelance investigative reporter in Chicago. I had turned in two drafts of a story for the Chicago Journalism Review, neither of which had been acceptable.
“If you don’t get it right in the next twenty minutes, and you’re off the piece. I’ll do it myself!” the editor spat. This was a plum assignment that could make or break my freelancing career, and I was about to blow it. The more scared I got, the more my mind froze up until I could barely remember my name, let alone write a vivid, punchy piece. I experienced the ultimate Brain Freeze Under Deadline, or BFUD. Befuddlement.
At that moment, I had a mother-pulling-the-car-off-her-child experience, and did something I’d never done before. I put my hands on the keyboard and started typing, but I imagined being inside one of those old-fashioned diving bells. As long as I was inside the imaginary diving bell, I had everything I needed to write that story in the best possible way.
Nothing outside the bell could distract or trouble me. I knew just what to say and how to say it so that the story would sing. I didn’t hesitate or second-guess myself. I was completely focused inside that bell and just let the story flow from that Zone-y state of mind, to my fingers, to the keys, to the page.
ZONE AWE
For those twenty minutes, I had the magic. The Zone. I pulled the paper out of my IBM Selectric typewriter and handed it to the editor. He perched on my desk, flipped his glasses out of his pocket, and scowled as he read. When he finished, he looked at me wryly, punched my shoulder lightly, and muttered, “That’s the ticket, kid.”
Knowing that I could call up the Zone at will, that I didn’t have to be in the Zone when I started writing, opened up a whole new world to me. The diving bell was a trick, but it worked. It was primitive, but I figured I could devise more sophisticated tricks as I went along.
Each of the different kinds of freelance writing I did over the next forty years required different sets of tricks—acquisitions and developmental editor, ghostwriter and book doctor, and finally, author of my own books: The Soul of Selling, Chasing Grace: A Novel of Odd Redemption, and Sell Yourself Without Feeling Pushy, Creepy, or WEIRD!
At each juncture, I collected new tricks and honed the old ones. Creativity on Demand summarizes everything I learned.
What tricks do you use to get into the Zone?