Recapturing the Flow

Saturday, June 27th, 2009 | Posted by: Andrew Kent

I’m currently staying up late nights, working on my third novel.

I hoped it would come, and it has.

The flow has returned.

Flow is the mental state of operation in which the person is fully immersed in what he or she is doing by a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and success in the process of the activity.

My novels so far have run 73,000 to 75,000 words in length, a good length for commercial fiction, about 250-260 pages. I had about 12,000 words of my third novel drafted, having roughed out the opening scenes and the exhilarating final scenes, all of which were very clear in my mind.

Then life interceded, and I lost any hope of turning that hot start into the flow I need to finish a novel.

But I’ve been down this cowpath before. There’s nothing to do but wait when you’re interrupted like this. Wait, and get the other stuff done.

So, I did what I had to do. I traveled, created talks, ran my professional blog, ran my part of the business, helped start initiatives, negotiated with vendors, analyzed data, and attended meetings.

Oh, the meetings I attended!

But soon, I had my eye on a spot where I’d seek flow again.

It would be on a long trip far from home — two six-hour flights, long days waiting for meetings to come and go, sleeplessness from jet lag.

It sounded perfect!

For eight weeks, I peered ahead and arranged the details. As the date drew near, I began to expend some mental bandwidth recreating the story in my mind, identifying the  sticking points, outlining ideas and character arcs.

And then the day came, the long flight took off, I plugged in after the pilot announced the all-clear, and I began to write — tentatively at first, then with confidence, and soon with brio.

In the last 48 hours, I’ve been able to take a sparse 12,000-word chapter set and flesh it out into a nearly 45,000-word rough draft — and I’ve attended the meetings I needed to, given my presentations, and dined out with colleagues on three occasions.

Ah, flow! You are wonderful when you are with me!

Oh, I don’t have everything figured out yet. There are things I know I’ll move, areas of the story that are paper-thin, dialog that’s rough, descriptions I’ll dispose of.

But it’s there.

Oh baby, it’s there.

Best of all, the flow hasn’t abated. And I have a day to myself and another long flight to go.