The Art Of Mind’s Blog

by Scott Benton, Screenwriter, Los Angeles, CA

It seems a lot of people try and reach a state they call “flow,” that seemingly limitless mind and spirit crossroads where creative work and play meld into one constant creative burst. If you asked a thousand people how to get there, you would get a thousand equally vivid roadmaps, and if you tried them, you might find they all work…or maybe none.

The truth is, as best as I can figure it, we’ve got to feel our way in, like pressing forward in a darkened tunnel until we can stand on our feet and walk confidently in the abyss without the fear of bumping into anything.

For me, I have found ritual to be the key, and the more I practice ritual, the easier I unlock that door. It doesn’t matter what ritual you choose. Most people naturally fall their way into a set of activities, mantras, invocations, talismans…you name it.

One friend of mine habitually pours himself a glass of wine and lights a single candle before sitting down at the laptop to bang out a story. My next-door neighbor takes out his favorite pen before scribbling out ideas—and Heaven help the man who takes that pen away. Another author I know of (Steven Pressfield) recites out loud the Invocation of the Muse, a translation he likes by T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia). Some writers won’t ever leave the house to write, others can’t be anywhere near it. There are those that only work creatively in the morning, and those that work when the clock strikes 10pm. Find your perfect environment, and you’ll be well on your way.

As for myself, I have tried many different ways in, but now when I sit down at a coffee house—any coffee house these days—I go straight into it. I’ve done this for years, and I guess it has something to do with the ritual of it all, or the repetition of the process. Doing the ritual over and over seems to have programmed my mind to switch into creative play the minute I smell a boiling pot of java, or see lemon bars and cinnamon rolls in a display case. It sets off a trigger, I guess, and suddenly I’m not even thinking about. I’m writing.

But the important part is that I found my way in. I’ve been able to quickly get myself into flow for a three or four hour block of writing at a time. But it wasn’t exactly easy to establish this process. I had to do a lot of experimentation until I knew what worked best for me, and what didn’t work at all.

So what is your ritual? What do you need to do before you sit down to write something, or paint something, or bring your creative burst to the tips of your fingers, or onto the edge of your voice?

Don’t be afraid to try it all. You’ll feel it in your gut when it’s right, and you’ll know when you’re in, and when you’re out again. You can get there quickly if you try. You can do it when you only have a limited amount of time, and when you get inside that state of flow, you’ll get some of the best possible work done that you may not have even realized you could have accomplished.

Try it for yourself, and see if it’s the same key for you as it’s been for me.