Wednesday, May 6, 2020

May IWSG Post and Getting into the Zone


Right now in India we are in our third lockdown, in my city the lockdown was eased from 4th May. Schools, colleges, religious places, restaurants (only takeaways are open), gyms, salons, clubs are all closed. Masks are mandatory, social distancing a must, buses, metro and autos aren’t plying on the roads. IT professionals are working from home. This will continue till 17th May.

But luckily for me my time is occupied with my writing. And I’m more than ready for this IWSG post. IWSG (Insecure Writers Support Group) is an online group of writers, posting on the first Wednesday of every month. As we writers love to talk about our writing, our posts usually focus on our writing related issues, worries, fears and doubts. Do visit the IWSG website.

 IWSG was started by the brilliant Alex J Cavanaugh, the author of several amazon bestsellers: CassaStar, CassaStorm, CassaFire and Dragon of the Stars. Alex can’t your super powers find a Covid-19 Vaccine?

May 6th question - Do you have any rituals that you use when you need help getting into the ZONE? Care to share?

When I need help, I deliberately stop writing, allowing my actual writing to get done mentally, while I’m going around doing my chores. My subconscious mind starts to unravel the plot mess I’ve got myself into. Once the clarity happens, I then start writing. You can say I ZONE out to ZONE back in. The few times I’ve tried to write through it, hasn’t happened. So, getting away from it is the best thing for me.

I’m eager to read about how you all get into the zone?



16 comments:

  1. Love this so much! - "You can say I ZONE out to ZONE back in." :)

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  2. Zoning out to zone in - I could do that!
    Looks like our lockdown will start easing this Friday.

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  3. If I have a ritual for getting into the writing zone, it's cleaning up my writing area which easily gets cluttered with STUFF! Stay safe.

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  4. That's a great way to look at it Rachna. I do believe our sub-conscious likes to sort things out for us. In UK we are still in lockdown. We will hear at the weekend what the next phase will be but I suspect not much will change here for a while. Can't wait to be able to see my family again.

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  5. For me, most of the battle is forcing myself to sit down at my computer and picking the project of the day. Once there, I can hit the zone pretty fast.

    Things are very slowly and carefully opening up in Colorado U.S to see what will happen next.

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  6. Very smart! Yes, when writing isn't happening, the best thing to do is to step back and do something else for a little while.

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  7. We haven't opened up as much as India in Michigan. Glad you're staying busy with writing. I like your way of getting in the groove. I also find that stepping away from my writing sometimes can help.

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  8. Step back and give your brain a zone-out break.

    Things here start to reopen again this Friday. Next week, I plan to get out and visit something other than the grocery store.

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  9. I love this! I often refer to my brainstorming as zoning out. I love to think about my stories when I'm doing other things, then it makes it easier when I actually sit down to write.

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  10. Hi, Rachna. I'm with you ~ Do something else and let your mind work when you're occupied with mundane tasks. I'm glad that you are doing okay at this time. I still haven't gotten a mask; I have to go out with a dishtowel to cover my face. Please take care! I think this virus will be with us for quite a while.

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  11. Zoning out often works for me, too. Stay safe, Rachna :)

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  12. I also like to take a break and let my mind work on story problems. I'm never disappointed and I'm almost always surprised what its come up with. Brains are amazing. ;-)

    Anna from elements of emaginette

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  13. Yes, this is exactly what I do. STOP writing for awhile. It helps so much with the outline in my head that I soon figure things out.Glad to hear you are well!

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  14. Love your "Zone out to Zone back in." Yep that works. Stay safe.

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  15. HI Rachna,

    Sounds like your "zoning" in and out really works for you. Happy to hear you are safe and doing well... Take care of yourself.

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  16. So good to read this in these difficult times. Happy that all well at your end and the writing goes on unabated.

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