Words in Flow: Zen and the art of writing
Words in Flow: Zen and the art of writing
2023 Jack Ricchiuto | Nuance Works | Paperback, 132p (Zero AI)
Available May 2023
32-time author, Jack Ricchiuto, outlines how to make writing in any genre a flow experience. In the Zen of flow, we become completely immersed in the writing process. The writing is more enjoyable and productive when we write in the zone.
Drawing from brain research on flow and the inner game methodologies, Words in Flow takes readers through layers of ways to create flow in writing. In flow, we don't get or stay stuck. We are more inspired than perspired by the intrinsic uncertainties in the process.
The book features highlights from interviews on flow with seasoned writers across genders, geographies, and genres, including fiction, non-fiction, science fiction, novels, poetry, journalism, playwriting, sportswriting, and screenwriting.
Whether you're a seasoned or emerging writer, and whether or not you're motivated by publication, this book will bring more moments of joy in your writing.
This is important because we need more writers than ever. In an age of artificial intelligence that puts thinking at risk, and a world that becomes increasingly more complex and uncertain, we need more people doing more thinking. Writing is a gateway to more people doing more thinking.
Contents
Invitation
The Zen of flow
Simple, easy
The inner game of writing
What the research says
The power of questions
Creating the conditions for flow
An uncluttered mind
The wisdom of writers
Afterward
Jack Ricchiuto
Over the past 30 years, Jack Ricchiuto has published dozens of books, hundreds of articles, and thousands of blog posts. He continues to coach emerging, developing, and seasoned writers. He brings to his writing experience as a master storyteller and mentor in creativity and design thinking.
Invitation
When the idea for this book emerged, I had in mind people intrigued with the possibility that writing can be enjoyable and productive. I wanted to explore what's happening when it is and isn't. I also wanted to clear up confusion about these being the just desserts to those who have endured enough suffering to finally have something to put on a page that exceeds the value of a silent blankness.
One of my wishes is for a world where more people write more. Writing more means thinking more. We need a world where more people are thinking more. The countless wicked problems we have inherited, invented, and will pass on to the next generations can only be addressed by thinking beings. Thinking more is currently at risk with the proliferation of artificial intelligence. It's a world where we no longer need thinking to produce emails, academic papers, resumes, cover letters, professional reports, performance reviews, personal messages to friends and family, and even pre-nuptials, wedding vows, and eulogies.
We’re just in the infancy stages of this technology and its implications. The idea is simple: efficiently replace conscious human thinking with machine prompts. What’s not new is the phenomenon of human beings outsourcing their thinking to other “superior” thinking sources. Even as AI promises to be at least as disruptive as electricity and the internet, it is not a good reason to get twisted up in drama about it. It simply raises questions we’re not prepared for, questions we will only intelligently answer together.
Whatever happens to artificial intelligence, current and future generations will have problems requiring us to do our own thinking. Writing will continue to be a prime source of thinking. If we want to value thinking as a prime portal to connection, conscience, and creativity, we will need to write more. Writing more will allow us to think more. More people will write more if they find a way to make writing intrinsically enjoyable and productive. This is the promise of flow.
Flow and the Inner Game of Writing (4 min) - from the book