The Flow

Writers love to be in "the flow".  It's a time when the writing is easy and GOOD at the same time--at least YOU believe it to be while your writing.  

The crux of this post came to me about a week and half ago when I was waking up.  It was a regular workday, nothing special.  It just came to me there's a lot of parallels between writer's writing and the flow of rivers and other bodies of waters.  

Still, being in "the flow" reminds me of days in my youth (mid-20s) when I lived in Boise, Idaho; and I would go tubing down the Boise River.  Yeah, just floating down river having fun.  Need to do more of that.  Would LOVE to do a vacation over in Eastern Washington and go down the river with a group of people and drink beer.  Sounds like Heaven, huh?  That's "the flow", bro.

All rivers flow into the ocean right?  So how does the ocean figure into "the flow"?  That's a writer's collective body of work. Their bragging rights.  For yours truly that's now 21 spec. scripts, one completed, novel manuscript--and another that's dangerously close to completion.  That's my ocean; my completed body of work.  And yeah I got some shit to brag about even though I'm undiscovered as all fuck.  

The rocks in the rivers are a writer's critics.  If you're floating down a river and hit a rock.  Guess what?  It may be painful for a second.  But critics really matter?  Only if you let them.  Opinions are like assholes--everyone's got one!  I don't get to bent out of shape when the rocks come.  It's all part of the journey, bro!

Drowning is bad.  Writer-wise I would say this is when a writer can't see the forest through the trees.  I've been there before.  The trick is to hold your breath until you get topside and can breathe air again.  If you play around in water, you better know how to swim.  Better know to cope when you're in over your head.  First rule of thumb when underwater: don't panic!  Man is meant to live under water.  

Standing under the waterfall is akin to the pressures of life.  They may beat on you, but they're part of the river too.  The annoying part.  You may need the falls to generate some moola, but it's no for writers to remain too long under the falls.

I would be remiss if I didn't include aquadic life in this analogy.  So where do sharks fit it?  Well, these are writer's derailers; the things that kill you writing life.  I think self-doubt is the biggest shark that a writer will ever face.  Self-doubt can take many forms.  Usually if it's a killer shark, that means it came from somewhere else and YOU built it into the monster that it is.  The cool think is, you control what your reaction is when you encounter self-doubt.  Get out of those waters, Homes.  Self-doubt accomplishes very little.  If someone says you fail.  Fuck 'em, what do they know?  In this politically correct culture, people are always imposing their views--as law--on you, when in all honesty their views are pretty fucked up and not in line with Jesus and good, sound teaching.  Hence, don't give sharks the power they think they have.  

Water is good, but you can't say in it forever or your skin will prune.  You gotta live life, and NOT just write 24-7.  I wish I was better at life, hopefully my 50s will be my golden era.  'Cuz trust me, my 20s sucked, my 30s sucked, and 9 nears into my 40s my 40s have sucked as well.  The one saving grace: writing!  I've written some good shit, Skippy.  Stuff that no one can take away from me.  The Lord is good.  Yeah, I may swear from time-to-time; but I always come back to God.  For God is the ultimate source of all things magic.  The Giver of water so there can be a flow in the first place.  

No matter where you roam, you can ALWAYS go back to the Lord.  Or better yet, begin the journey with Him when you first get in the boat!  

I wish I was a better Christian. But one thing I don't worry about any more is being good.  Good belongs to the Holy Father.  Good belongs to Jesus.  Study the word of God long enough, and get enough sermons in you; and you SHOULD come to the conclusion that Jesus bore our load for us.  To Him be the glory.  We are sons and daughters of God.  The pressure's off.  Jesus took it off.

I pity the FOOL who relies on his own goodness.  Sure, good works are great, but it's not the end-all.  Especially not when you consider who Jesus is.  Jesus is the Son of God who suffered on behalf to fulfill the law for us.  Yeah, that's how good God is, He fulfills His own requirements for us.  

So why bring "God" up when talking about writing and various aspects of "the flow"?  I'll tell you EXACTLY why--because God should be at the center of all we do, all we think, all we strive to be.  I'm all for innovation.  I love my shower as much as the next guy.  I just believe life means more that just what heights we achieve as a society.  I believe God should be at the center of it all.  Including "the flow" . and whatever other analogies we creatives chose to create.    

P.S. I'm coming down the homestretch of editing the 2nd novel in the "Legend of Thars" series, and it feels GREAT!  Hope to have the last 17 pages edited by next Sunday, August 26th.  Then from then until I go to the PNWA writers' conference I think I'm going re-read both manuscripts using Dragon Natural Speaking and start DRAWING preliminary chapter head lining drawings.  I've already drawn a couple.  But what I've got an eye for is making my "Thars" series look like C.S. Lewis' "Chronicles of Narnia".

P.S.S. I'm also going to do another video post.  Now that I've got a Webcam I can do that.  Need to get used to being in front of the camera.  I'm leaning on do a followup post to "Magic Point".  Sorry I haven't been posting more and staying "in the flow" of that.  Hopefully that will change.  'Cuz I like it here!