Writing without a deadline

how to overcome resistance and get into the writing zone

Photo by Jan Brogan ..

The problem:

After so many years of being a daily journalist, I know I have it in me to clear my desk, withstand distractions, and get into that “zone,” where I do my best writing. But without an editor’s deadline, I am markedly less productive. I’ve also developed a bad habit of frittering away valuable morning when I could be working on my novel.

First strategies:

• Protect my most productive writing time: For me, that’s 3:30 to 6 p.m. when I tend to work on nonfiction– coincidentally, the same time of day I had to gear up for a daily newspaper deadline. That means scheduling exercise and meeting up with friends during my least productive times – early morning or after lunch, and limiting time on social media.

• I started meditating back in the early 2000s, thanks to the Bodi Path in West Tisbury, and found it useful in dealing with vagaries of publishing. I become even more disciplined in my sitting time.

I• I look for solutions by reading numerous books about the brain, as well as listening to podcasts about neuroscience and creativity.

• For accountability, my writing partner agrees to issue deadlines for fiction chapters.

Six months later:

• I get a decent amount of work done in those evening hours, but mornings remain an issue.

• I keep meditating, but there are no real benefits to my morning writing.

• Learning about the brain and neuroscience is fascinating, but provides no boost in my productivity.

• After a couple of weeks, I completely ignore my writing partner’s deadlines. She stops issuing them.

Second Attempt:

• From The Mindful News, a Substack about clarity and distraction, I get a tip that zeros in one of my morning habits. Sitting down with my first cup of coffee and scanning my inbox and media subscriptions for news, I consume a hefty diet of state, national and international news. This, I learn, overloads my brain and exhausts my prefrontal cortex’s ability to exert self-control, (when I need it most.) It impairs my strategic thinking – and this is the clincher –reduces my creativity. I immediately move my news consumption to after lunch and limit the number of my weekday news sources.

• As if Spotify is listening in, (you think?) a podcast I never heard of before, The Huberman Lab, pops into my feed. The episode is entitled, “Overcoming Inner Resistance,” and features Steven Pressfield, author of The War of Art, about his daily writing routine. A prolific writer and former marine, this guy has discipline beyond my reach. But then he says something that sounds wildly out of character for an ex-military guy: He begins each writing session by calling on “the Muse.” He is dead serious about appealing to this goddess of creativity to help him write. While I can’t see myself calling on the muse, I interpret what he’s doing as “letting go.” The muse is a means of clearing out the chatter and roadblocks in the brain. Much like I try to do when I meditate. I begin meditating directly before I start writing, from mat to desk, with no interruption.

One month later:

I am writing much more productively, two hours in the mornings But what is most interesting is that I enjoy it more. Often, I am writing in that lovely and often elusive “Zone,” where it stops feeling like a struggle. I immediately order Pressfield’s The War of Art book, to try some of his other disciplines.

Conclusion:

Writers are all different, and my solution won’t work for everyone. Not everyone wants to meditate. Elizabeth Gilbert famously couldn’t keep meditating after writing about how great it was in Eat, Pray, Love. (But she was meditating two hours a day. Fifteen minutes will suffice.) Bottom line: Don’t let the attention economy hijack your brain first thing in the morning and find if you can, find a way to clear you mind directly before writing, whether it’s invoking a muse, meditating, or just going for a good, long walk.

If you’ve got any helpful practices to overcoming resistance in creative projects, please share them in the comments!