Creating in Flow

Insights and advice about all forms of creative expression.

by Susan K. Perry, Ph.D.

Time to Cover Your Clocks

Plain old linear time has its usefulness, but reinventing time can help you find the endless time of a flow state. Read More

How Mysteries Draw Readers into Their Fake World

Whether written in page-turner genre style or with more literary intentions, the best mysteries and thrillers replicate a world in which the psychology of the characters feels real. Read More

To Toss or Not to Toss (John Irving Across the Room)

I wanted to like Irving's new novel, In One Person, about a bi-sexual man and the consequences of "having crushes on the wrong people." Yet, and in spite of all the glowing blurbs it got, the book tried my patience. Read More

The "Sickening Joy" of Writing

I've followed Hilma Wolitzer's work since I interviewed her years ago and she told me that writing is a "sickening joy." An Available Man is her latest novel. Read More

The Dangers of Listening to Your Brain

How much can you blame your brain, or its wiring, for your mistakes? Can you change the way you think and feel? Read More

Memories Lodged in a Broken Brain

When Floyd Skloot, novelist, poet, and three-time Pushcart Prize winner, was struck by a crippling virus more than 20 years ago, he was all but silenced by neurological deficits. Read More

Did Anne Sexton's Therapist Help Her Poetry?

When the tapes of poet Anne Sexton's therapy were first released by her psychiatrist after Sexton's suicide, there was an uproar. Now there's a fascinating new book based on those tapes. Read More

Torture for Fun and Profit?

Can you really make a torturer the center of your novel? Can you even make him human? I believe Mark Allen Smith has done exactly that. Read More

Everything You Need to Know About Talent

Know any creative people who have talent to spare? Douglas Eby has probably interviewed them. And now he's come out with an excellent resource. Read More

Seeking Flow in an Empty Boat

Mark Salzman is a warm compassionate writer who struggled with writer's block and the meaning of life. We discussed his creative process a decade ago—and now. Read More

Is Reality Enough for You?

Richard Dawkins respects the religious myths of others, while in The Magic of Reality he sticks to what we really know. Read More

Must You Be a Cave-Dwelling Hermit to Write a Novel?

The laid-off (and laid-back) protagonist of this quirky novel gets an unbelievable offer: big bucks to be an ornamental cave-dwelling hermit. Read More

More Than 10 Tips Toward Fearless Speech-Making

Does it help to picture your audience naked? Or are there better ways to face the faceless crowds when speaking publicly? Read More

Gamble Your Way into Flow?

Forty million people spend billions on slot machines in the U.S. every year. Are they communing with the Infinite without realizing it? Read More

5 Fascinating Facts About Karl Marx's Wife

Karl Marx's loyal wife and needy family motivated him to complete his books. Often, though, his boisterous family contributed to his lengthy writing blocks. Read More

Don't Quit Your Day Job?

It can be tempting to capitalize on your newfound enthusiasm and motivation to be a writer by quitting your regular (paying) job. Don't. Read More

5 Tips for Postponing Procrastination

I hate it when I'm not doing what I know and feel I ought/want/need to be doing. ... Here, then, are a few ways to think about what might be holding YOU back. Read More

5 Ways to Tap into Your Intuition

Have some decisions to make? Want to access more of your creativity? Try inviting the less analytical parts of your mind to contribute. Read More

Darkly Funny Debut Novel Exposes Adjunct Abuse

A good book is one that makes you laugh and cry at the same time. Fight for Your Long Day is a funny novel that is also a cri de coeur on behalf of poorly paid adjunct instructors—and many others among the 99 per cent. Read More

7 Reasons Your Book Lives in a Drawer

Are your in-boxes and mailboxes flooded with form rejection letters? Here are some of the reasons, including a few you may be able to fix. Read More

Young Novelist "Confesses" (at 80!)

Umberto Eco (Name of the Rose) says he knows Leopold Bloom better than his own father. How he and others write novels that seem realer than real. Read More

Are You as Funny as You Think You Are?

Humor: what it is, what is it for, and how does it happen? Two books explore the subject. One is a practical, popular culture approach in which sitcom writers share their process; the other is a more nuanced and thorough take. Read More

Do You Have an Artist's Eye?

What do you get when you spend three years focusing on a single tree? If you're an artist, you might get more than you ever expected. Read More

Poets Prattle, Poets Tattle

Poets who revise can't always go back and trace their own steps. But early drafts can offer clues... Read More

Time Travel the Slow Stephen King Way

For me, time travel stories are even better than chocolate. Then again, there aren't that many really great ones being written. Stephen King's latest is clearly a must (for his fans). Read More

The Jew, The Jewstone, and the Continual Orgasm

Stephen Jay Gould's delightful essays remind us that science and the scientific method can be absorbing, arousing, and very human, even when we're reading about fossils or anti-semitism. Read More

Can You Interview the Dead?

"If you could meet one deceased literary figure, who would that be, what would you ask, what would you say. . . " That's the prompt for some imaginary time travel that was offered to 17 living writers. Read More

The Therapist Who Catches Bad Guys

For a change of pace, licensed psychotherapist Dennis Palumbo makes up stories about a therapist who solve murders in his spare time. He says he enjoys the "silent conversation" with himself that such creative work offers. Read More

Who's Worth Loving?

A sophisticated combination of detail and compassion, character and plot, make the novel GO LOVE a poignant pleasure. Read More

Would You (Should You) Change History?

Can you move your novel's plot along by means of time travel and not have it placed neatly into the science fiction category? The Revisionists by Thomas Mullen does that, while approaching history (and the future) with intelligence and sophistication. Read More

Susan K. Perry, Ph.D., is a social psychologist, writer, and writing consultant. Among her books are Writing in Flow: Keys to Enhanced Creativity.

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