I don’t know about you, but for me, the creative process requires a lengthy visit to “The Zone.” If you’re an artist of any kind, you probably know what I’m talking about, surely sense the obsessive urge, the quiver of excitement at the prospect of exploring undiscovered shores. My creative muse resides there, tantalizing and intoxicating, and she demands my undivided attention.
I love my forays into the Zone, despite its consumption of my life. It’s creative gluttony, stuffing my face with words, gobbling down characters, disgorging pathos. When I dive into the Zone, I’m not myself. I’m immersed in my craft, drowning in a taste of pure manna like an addict. The rest of the world fades into the hazy horizon as the Zone awakens that right brain craving.
As a writer, this is especially true during my first draft when a story’s taking shape. Within the Zone, unfamiliar scenes tap from my fingertips and uncooperative characters demand a voice. A fickle wind pushes my plot, requiring vigilance to stay on course. As an adventurer, I’m on my own, trying to make sense of an untold tale before I return to my ordinary life, take a long overdue shower…wash loads of stinky laundry…vacuum blankets of dog hair…make dinner for a gaunt spouse surviving on snack food.
Fortunately, my visits to the Zone are temporary, and I recognize the pattern well enough now that I can plan ahead. “Okay, everybody,” I announce to the family, “I’m going to the Zone for a month. See ya.” My eyes droop and I make a pouty face as if I’m going to miss them, but inside I’m giddy as a new mom with a night out. Party time for me and my laptop!
Here’s a typical conversation when I’ve entered the Zone:
Husband: “Blah blah…dinner…blah blah…oil change…blah blah blah?”—long pause—“I might as well live alone.”
Me: “Hmm, what?”
Sad, but true.
I’m starting to emerge from my most recent jaunt into the Zone. My latest creation, The Rose Shield, feels ready for a little breathing room. I timed my journey well this year, with summer blooming and the weeds in my garden whining for attention. The husband and house require a healthy dose of TLC too that I’ll sate over the next few months…but, oh yes, you guessed it…in preparation for another spree into the Zone come fall. I can’t wait!
Myths of the Mirror 
I love this topic because The Zone is one of my favorite places. I know that I am in The Zone when I feel fully immersed in my story world and am experiencing what I am creating with all my senses. It’s not always easy to reach that place, but when you get there, you know it.
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It’s a great spot, isn’t it? That sensory immersion is overpowering! I often have a hard time surfacing and it takes me a bit of time to reorient to the real world. Thanks for reading and commenting 🙂
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It’s Magic, no doubt about it. 🙂
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I wish I could escape to the zone sometimes 😌
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I wish you the same! 😀 If I can’t get there by writing, reading is second best. The zone is a great place to escape and recharge at the same time. Hope to see you there.
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Reblogged this on Dream Big, Dream Often and commented:
Ever visited the writer’s Zone? Read this…
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Thanks so much for the reblog. Hope your readers enjoy 🙂
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My pleasure my friend!
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This is an exceptional description of your “Zone,” but also an equally stellar testament to your husband, family and friends. It sounds like they are happily willing to allow you to pursue your passions, and that is a rare and wonderful thing.
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Absolutely. I can’t say enough about the husband – supportive AND makes me laugh 😀
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Bonus! Sounds like a great guy (and I love that he adorns the main image of your page here, which speaks volumes).
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Welcome back from your ‘Zone’. I thoroughly enjoyed reading about your time out writing, your joy in total writing immersion sounds a delight and love the ‘adventurer’ within as the story twists and turns its own way, guiding you. Have a good time back, dish out all that TLC before the next Zone announcement.
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Thanks. I always need to take a deep breath as I return to the real world. Our trees are already changing here so I have to make sure I get some summer in. 🙂
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oh to be immersed in the zone totally like that! i have to sneak visits during Mondays and Tuesdays – I can’t spend long there at all due to work and family commitments… I envy you (in a nice way!)
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I didn’t even start writing until later in life because of those commitments. I don’t know how you and others juggle everything. I’m so impressed. Give it time and your sneak visits to the zone will become extended stays 🙂
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…I’ll join you with a season ticket on these journeys into the Zone, m’Lady, Diana:)
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Ha ha. A season’s ticket? That would be writer’s heaven 🙂
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I understand this quIte well. Before becoming a mathematician, I was a professional magician. In magic, you have to be very creative in coming up with new concepts, plots, and presentation style. So, I would sometimes venture to “The Zone” when I was in a creative mood.
Even now as a mathematician, when I’m thinking about new theorems or research projects, it’s impossible for anyone to have a normal conversation with me…
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I can totally see the immersion in the zone in both cases. Magician to mathematician? It sound like an idea for a story! Mathemagical? Love it 😀
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Curious and intriguing mixture of left and right brain activity going on there. I always refer to myself as a “balance of extremes.” It sounds like you can identify.
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I’m a little “zoned” out most of the time, Erik, even when I come back. I try to mix it up – create my own reality 😀
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Those two fields are surely different from each other. Though if you think about it, there are also many similarities between them.
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Reminds me of the age-old writing prompt of taking two random items, say a shoe and a hornet, and writing about the similarities. But, yes, now that I think about it, you are right. They are both a kind of puzzle; and, when done well, they leave the viewer able to do mostly right-brain thinking, because you’ve done the harder left-brain work behind the scenes.
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True – math is as mysterious to me as magic 🙂
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As I read this post I literally began aching. I long to be a writer. I suppose anyone who writes is, but to understand your process and actively pursue a product is something I ache to do. Thank you for sharing this and inspiring the writer in me.
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You are so welcome! Thanks for visiting and commenting. And great luck with your writing…follow your passion.
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I ‘plan’ on it…
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My jaunts are often short as I write flash fiction. But they’re fun nevertheless. . With my memoir, I travel back to the past, sometimes remembering things I’d forgotten. 🙂
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I imagine memoir writing requires a visit to the zone, taking you back in time. That must be where those hidden memories reside. 🙂
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Love that feeling of remembering the detail to some “lost” moment.
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Oh, The Zone! My favourite. I admire your creativity. Sadly my forays into the zone are not always so wholesome. Writing has turned out to be a handy excuse for sometimes being a bad listener!
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I tend to announce my retreat, so there is almost no attempt to communicate with me. My poor husband is used to it. 🙂
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The zone? Where the creative muse resides? Yes, a big Yes!
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It’s one of my favorite places. I’m never bored there! Thanks for visiting 😉
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I love your writing style! I can completely identify with your trips to the zone. Lately, I can’t seem to get out of the zone, which is good for my writing and my sanity, but not so much for everyone else in my life. 🙂
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Thanks you, Jaime. Yes, living with a writer has its challenges. I suppose on the positive side we require little upkeep and attention 😀
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🙂 That is true! Tis always best to look at the bright side of things, I suppose.
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I think I’ve spent some time in the zone although it’s not as exciting and colorful a state for non-fiction writers. My most productive trips to the zone had been eons ago… and the results were two books for children, a stage play that features a dragon, and several stories about a kingdom called Elysian. I was much younger then, less serious with life and loved dragons, princesses and kings….oh my I’m starting to feel old.
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Hi Rosanna. I think many artists visit the zone when immersed in their craft. Loving what you do and feeling fulfilled by it is the most important part. Some days I feel old too, but rarely…and, as you know, I occasionally write about dragons and princesses 😀
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Maybe it’s time to return to some of that childlike wonder. I’m famous for saying, “Being childlike doesn’t mean being childish.” Return to Elysia sometimes, rather than simply reminiscing. You’ll find something “wonder-ful” return to your life.
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Oh my Erik, that’s wonderful advise – the best advice so far…:-) After I wrote the comment I dug up the script for the drama musical and remembered all the full capacity shows we had in different parts of our country, the wonderful comments from the parents…then I tucked everything back into the chest where I keep my writing memorabilia. I have considered it a thing of the past, but you’re right, Elysia may still hold something for me…thanks a bundle!
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If you can’t find the motivation to return to Elysian yourself, do it for the rest of us. We can never visit unless you choose to take us there. You are the only portal.
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Erik, I think somewhere along the way I dropped the key to the portal, you found it, and have handed it back to me. Thank you so much…I will open the portal, revisit Elysian, but this time I think I’ll wave hi to the King, prince and princess, and ride on the dragon’s back, trusting he will take me to more fascinating horizons. And for this I have you to thank!
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Great way of putting ‘the zone’; a wonderful place, but never long enough!
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Too true, Cat. It’s an all-consuming adventure. I have to set the timer on the microwave to remind myself to eat something. Thanks for reading. 🙂
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Oh sometimes eating just gets in the way
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I go into that zone daily, for a few hours at a time. It’s so damn comfy in there. Cooking usually brings me out for a while…I appreciate that, and we do eat well. ☺ Funny post, thanks D.
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Thanks, Van. My jaunts haven’t been quite as lengthy as they used to be. Too much blogging! But all great fun even for a few hours 😀
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I know from experience with several close friends who are cooks — good food is every bit the story as the written word (and usually results in the making of even more stories between real-life characters).
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For sure. ☺
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Loved this Diana! My “zone” sometimes feels like a bit of a crime scene at times! Inappropriate attendance to the “zone” can get me into trouble at times! 🙂
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Ha ha. Yes! There’s mayhem in the zone with a chance of mayhem back in the “real” world. I love it!
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I love the Zone… ❤
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Me too. It’s hard to come back to “reality” after an extended stay..
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I see you are a regular here, Nicholas. I’m curious what your own “Zone” feels like to you! Care to share?
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So kind of you, thank you 🙂
The first time I entered the zone, it was via programming, amazingly enough.
It’s easy enough to know when you’ve reached it: you glance at your watch, expecting a few seconds to have passed, and realize the family has starved to death a few months ago, waiting for you to prepare something.
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Too funny. Love the Dilbert cartoon. I haven’t let my family starve yet, but there have been nights where suddenly it’s 8:00 and nothing’s cooking yet.
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There’s still time, don’t worry 😀
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The zone! I know the feeling well!! Great post!
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It’s one of my favorite places. 🙂
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It’s refreshing to know that others experience this intensity and urgency to express the stories and ideas that need to flow. Writing is relatively new for me and I wasn’t prepared for the compulsion to write when the “spirit moves me” and to write until it releases its hold, sometimes hours later. You have expressed the feeling and its consequences beautifully here 🙂
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I love the way your describe it – intensity, urgency, and compulsion. That’s what it feels like, the stories roaring out until the sigh comes and an ability to walk away. Enjoy it – it’s passion. ❤
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Love this exchange between you and Carol: writers writing well about writing.
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I’m kind of learning about “the zone” for writing. I used to only have it when I was reading. I hope writing sticks and that it is not just a passing fad for me. I used to crochet, garden, etc., and gave those up after a while….
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I used to do lots of other stuff too, but writing was different and it stuck. Being able to enter the zone was key for me to get to that place of immersion. For as long as it lasts, enjoy it 🙂
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I think it’s perfectly fine to cycle through different “Zones.” Sometimes, the creative mind has a candy-store approach.
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You make it sound so cool instead of inconsistent or undisciplined. I like your take!
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Thank you!! I loved this post!
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Oh, thanks. I love hearing that 🙂 Keeps me smiling.
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that makes two of us then!
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Perfect. Welcome to the zone. 🙂
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Sounds like you’ve been there… (I’m about 1/2 way through your book) 🙂
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I’m acquainted with it. One of my favorite places, so have a great time. 🙂
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And I am about halfway through YOURS … ::wink:: Sharing the love all around.
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Funny thing is, where “Zones” are concerned, no one ever really gets to come to ours or we to theirs. They are private places. Unless … I suppose teams like Rogers and Hammerstein might have entered a sort of “Zone” together; but I think individual creativity always draws us to solitary places (how transcendental if we were to wind up meeting someone in the same Zone!
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Meeting someone in the same zone would be awesome. There’s a story in there somewhere…hmmm.
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I love how ideas lead to words, which lead to ideas, which lead to words …
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That’s interesting and you’re right. I think of the Zone as a place of perfect creativity and clarity, that place where vision coalesces into something deeply personal. I’m always thrilled when I hear someone has found their Zone. For an artist, it means they have found their place of pure imagination.
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Love this post Diana, so vivid and reads almost like a fairytale 🙂
Sometimes a writer’s life can seem like a fantasy!
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It does, Ann, doesn’t it! I can get really lost in the zone and feel disoriented when coming up for air. 🙂
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How blessed you are to be able to get in your zone for significant amounts of time.
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Oh, I know ‘the zone’ well. In fact, I was just in it earlier tonight when I had to stop and make dinner. Thoughts of take-out flooded my brain, but I pushed them aside, left the computer, and made my family a meal. But that doesn’t mean I was happy about it. 😉
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Ha ha. Good for you for making dinner! Too much zoning out takes a toll on the family. Gotta keep the support system fed 🙂
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That we do. 🙂
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