Notes:
The Verbivore read a quote at the beginning of the episode. Those words are from a co-founder of positive psychologist and the “Father of flow” Mihaly Csíkszentmihályi. Here are those words:
- Flow is being completely involved in an activity for its own sake. The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous one, like playing jazz. - Mihaly Csíkszentmihályi
The Verbivore references a post that Fable had on her Insta. That post is available here and features the quote:
- DON’T BORE THE READER… Remember, you can bore readers in a lot of different ways. It doesn’t necessarily take a dearth of action; too much action can get you the same result. Everything in writing, as in life, requires balance… A good rule of thumb is this one: If you bore yourself with your writing, you will probably bore your readers, as well. When you feel boredom start to set in, step back and reconsider what you are doing. - Terry Brooks Sometimes the Magic Works: Lessons from a Writing Life
We mention that we feel that this episode is a strangely appropriate one to share during NaNoWriMo as it could help with a Post Mortem review of what worked and what didn’t. If you’re unfamiliar with NaNoWriMo, here is some information: https://nanowrimo.org/about-nano#nanowrimo
Here are some questions we talked about for a Post Mortem review of an experience:
- What happened? / What worked? / What didn’t? / What depleted me? / What had a significant cost? / What filled or nourished me? / How can I bring more of that in? / How can I reduce the things that depleted me?
The Verbivore mentions re-framing fear as excitement. This is known in the scientific community as anxiety reappraisal, and studies have supported that individual performance in a task improves when we tell ourselves “I am excited” rather than “I am affraid”. The Ted Talk “You Are Contagious” by Vanessa Van Edwards discusses this study starting at timestamp 16:32.
Here are a few articles and videos we referenced for this conversation:
- Positive Psychology Article “8 Traits of Flow According to Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi”
- Zapier Article “Finding Flow: 5 Steps to Get in the Zone and Be More Productive”
- Raiza Sali Article “22 Flow Triggers: The Ultimate Peak Performance Toolkit For Hacking Flow”
- YouTube Video “Losing yourself in flow state | Diane Allen | TEDxNaperville”
- YouTube Video “How to open up the next level of human performance | Steven Kotler | TEDxABQ”
- YouTube Video “Fear or Flow: how to create an optimal experience | Cameron Norsworthy | TEDxUWA”
- YouTube Video “Beat anxiety with the most addictive experience on Earth | Steven Kotler | Big Think”
- YouTube Video “How to enter ‘flow state’ on command | Steven Kotler for Big Think”
- YouTube Video “How to use ‘flow state’ to do the impossible | Steven Kotler for Big Think”
- YouTube Video “Lessons from the Screenplay - The Soul of Good Character Design”
Books and Films Mentioned:
- Uprooted by Naomi Novik
- Angelika Frankenstein Makes Her Match: A Novel by Sally Thorne
- Ice Planet Barbarians by Ruby Dixon
Music from: https://filmmusic.io
‘Friendly day’ by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)
Licence: CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
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