Five Steps To Activate The Flow State of Writing and Beat Writer’s Block

The flow state is the state in which we give our full attention to the action we are doing. In the flow state, we are spontaneous, relaxed, joyful, and free from distractions. I learned that the flow state also helps to overcome writer’s block.

Here are some steps I use to activate the flow state. These steps can be useful for anyone who wants to start writing articles and books.

Step One: Work On Your Attention

One of the master keys to activate the flow state is attention. Attention happens when we develop an interest or passion over something. To beat writer’s block, you can start writing down the ten things that interest you. This list of interesting or exciting things will be your prompts or contents.

After writing those ten things, reverse your thoughts and start writing down ten things that bore you. Now you have created a total of twenty contents to write about. Everyone has likes and dislikes and it’s pretty easy to figure out what excites us and what bores us, isn’t it?

Step Two: Research and Read

The next step is to start reading about the contents you have written. You can do your own reading and researching. Choose one content, read and research about it and write in your own words what you have learned. You can also share your research with your readers. When you share your research, you initiate the reader’s thoughts to reflect and explore for deeper answers.

Step Three: Remember That Your Experience is a Valuable Asset in Writing

Draw on your own experiences and incorporate them into your writing. To speak creatively and inspire readers, you need more of your own experiences and words.

Step Four: See The Readers as Important Guests and Take Them For A Walk Through Your House(Story)

Create a structure for your writing. Imagine that you are taking the reader by the hand and walking them through your house - the living room, kitchen and different rooms. Therefore, have an introduction, conclusion and ending that connects one another. You may keep these three basic guiding questions in mind when writing.

1.) Show the reader what you have found and experienced.

2.) Express why you want to tell this story.

3.) Share how your findings will benefit them.

Here is another example, for a topic on,“I like planks,” you may write on why you like plank workouts, what made you choose planks over other core exercises, where you usually do your planks, and how these plank movements benefit your health and fit your lifestyle? You may also share your research on the various plank movements, or any inspiring stories of regularly doing planks that might be useful to your readers.

Practice writing in a way to connect, inspire and support readers by transforming your thoughts and emotions into words.

These four steps stimulate creativity. When you are in a flow state, your muse provides what you need for your writing. Your flow and your muse make the creativity muscles work.

Step Five: Rest and Recover

Congratulations, your first draft can be done with those four steps! It is now time to rest and take a short break after your first draft. Rest and breaks help you to think clearly. Thinking clearly helps to strengthen the creativity and productivity muscles.

Bonus Point: Always Set A Time Frame To Write

I strongly believe that writing daily doesn’t only make great and clear thinkers but also creative and productive people. For example, I give myself about an hour to achieve a certain number of words or complete my first draft. In this hour, I remain in my flow state. I exercise my productivity muscles when I practice working within a time frame. Practicing to remain undistracted within a time frame will merge us into a flow state of writing. Being in a flow state even for ten minutes will still bring positive results.

See Editing As Mindful Meditation

Now comes the editing part. To motivate me, I think of editing as mindfulness meditation. In the word meditation, we can find the word edit. In mindfulness meditation, we edit our thoughts and clear our minds. In writing, we use the same method. If you do not have time for mindfulness meditation or a mindfulness class, do not worry. You just need to look attentively at your writing, and apply these five steps of mindful editing to enjoy a mindfulness session.

Step One: Mindfully look at every word. Check whether the words are well-chosen and they fit each sentence correctly.

Step Two: Mindfully look at every sentence. Check for wordy sentences that miss punctuations.

Step Three: Mindfully look at every paragraph. Check if each paragraph holds one idea or information that is expressed in a clean and concise manner. Too many ideas or complex information cluttered in one paragraph may confuse readers.

Step Four: Remove the unnecessary words that disrupt your flow, rhythm and alliteration in the story.

Step Five: Ask yourself if your story is expressed in a clear, simple and readable manner. The story must be comprehensible and relatable to a broad audience. You may use a good form of vocabulary but never overdress a story with jargon and many unfamiliar words.

When you look at words attentively or mindfully, you activate the flow state. The flow state helps you to be more accurate in spotting errors. Editing also becomes a smooth and enjoyable process if we are in a state of flow.

Final words

If we have to practice any action for more than an hour, we may tend to hesitate to start, but if we have to practice for only ten minutes, we can be driven to start the action. Likewise, if you are thinking about engaging in a lengthy process for writing or aiming to achieve perfect writing, you may procrastinate and end up in a block.

The rule is to keep it simple and short when you begin writing or working to beat the block, and then progressively move to long hours of writing and editing. With constant practice, the flow state can put us into enjoyable hours of reading, writing, and editing.

You can choose to write less or write more for the day, but always work on writing avidly and consistently. Learn from all writers, but never compare yourself to others. Your words will shine when your time comes. Stay in the flow of your writing and make this flow part of your daily activity.

Thank you for reading my insights.