In your writing practices, you may be chasing creative flow – that state where you get so immersed that time takes a pause while you hammer away at the keyboard.
(And then eventually you’re like “Why do my wrists hurt, and why are the cats screaming like no one has ever fed them in their entire lives? Oh, it’s because I sat down at five o’clock and now it’s nine.”)
But your flow state has a sneaky cousin: dogmatic trance.
Trance states (like meditation, contemplation, and yes, creative flow) are a lot more common than we think. And trance and dogma sometimes go hand in hand.
Dogmatic trance teaches us to think and believe harmful things on autopilot. It’s why maladaptive creative mindsets are so hard to shift – no matter how much we distance ourselves intellectually from those mindsets.
Tune in to discover how to spot dogma hiding within your creative flow (and how to kick it out!).
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This month’s episode isn’t all bad news! Once you spot dogmatic trance at work, you’re already halfway out from under its sneaky sway.
These prompts will help you uncover the creative dogma and authorities that are shaping your writing practices – and help you consciously choose some new, supportive creative authorities (so you can access generative, bullshit-free creative flow).
In the episode, I shared one of Ren Zatopek’s tricks for feeling out dogmatic beliefs in an approachable way. Instead of asking yourself what you believe about your creativity, start by just listing stuff you’ve heard about creativity and writing.
To help you dig into this from multiple angles, here are some suggested settings where you might have heard people say stuff about creativity:
For each setting (and any others you come up with), ask:
And when you’re ready, ask yourself:
If you hit on some dogma that’s particularly loaded or potent, remember that it’s okay to feel overwhelmed or dismayed or pissed off. It’s okay to grieve the role this dogma has played in your creative life, possibly for a very long time. That grief is where new possibilities begin.
For each bit of especially powerful dogma, consider any counter-authorities that have told or shown you something different about what it means to be a storyteller and a creative. This might be an author you admire, a supportive friend, a colleague, a character. Maybe it’s not a human person at all.
(Last month’s praxis tips on creative lineage would be a great place to look for these counter-authorities.)
Ask these new, consciously chosen creative authorities to help keep dogmatic trance out of your creative flow. Imagine them welcoming you up and out of the creative bunker, where your stories are waiting for you.
If you are a bit of a woo-inclined human and you were at all intrigued by my references to Ren Zatopek’s work in this episode, I highly recommend checking out her online community, Hedge+Riders.
Craft in the Real World, Matthew Salesses