When you are not in the "zone"...

So, it's been a while since a published blog.  I have written a lot of stuff, but nothing quite seemed to 'zing'.  I have never really believed in writer's block, but I can say that recently, I haven't been in the zone. Things don't always flow. Sometimes I don't feel like I am in charge of the muse and I know many of you can relate!  

So here is my thing: what if you are not totally in charge, but that is what can actually help you? What if there is more of a concert, harmony or interplay between you and ... something else... that if you embraced it would get you in the zone with your writing, every time?

 I am going to share one trick with you right now, that helps me a lot.  It's called:  'Talk to your writing as an entity with it's own consciousness.'

Yep, you heard me.  Talk to your writing (whether it is a book, a brochure, email, article, blog, whatever) like it has a soul, energy and mind of it's own. Because, it does. How often when you go to create something does it work out exactly as you planned and expected, or does it seem to take you in directions you couldn't have predicted, almost as if there is a path of least resistance you can follow, or a line or energy that seems to guide what comes next? 

Especially when I am writing or editing articles for "big deal" publications, and I am just not sure which direction to take it... I talk to the article.  Well, I don't just talk to it.  I ask it questions: Okay, how would you like to grab people's attention? What do you want to say to the readers? How would you like to say it? Show me! 

Sometimes I have these conversations out loud.  Give me a crazy hair-do and I would probably seem like a nutty professor or eccentric artist - but it is interesting how the process of getting out of your head, putting something out in front of you and having a conversation with it can really change your perspective.

It's really not that weird when you think about it. It's a simple way of stepping back, taking the pressure off your mind and letting some inspiration in.  

When you create something, whether it's a piece of writing or something else entirely, you are navigating a whole lot of things... in my case it is often the client, the PR company, the media outlet and all the expectations from these different parties about the quality and content of the piece.  And then there's the voice of the piece itself. It is it's own beast, too, it is an entity of it's own, and somehow treating it as such gives another avenue of creativity, ideas, inspiration to work with, that takes you beyond the considerations and expectations of everybody else.  

When I trust the writing itself to know what it wants to be, and I ask it questions, it relaxes me and stops me worrying what everyone else is expecting from it.  Nothing stops the 'flow' or writing faster than judgment and worry. So, just for fun, ask your writing:

What do you want to be in the world? What do you want to say? What do people desire and required to hear from you?

And then... let it flow.  Before you know it, you are in the 'zone'!