Creating in Flow

Insights and advice about all forms of creative expression

by Susan K. Perry, Ph.D.

Don't Waste Your Creativity

A lot of grief could be avoided if small-press and self-publishing authors did more research before they spent a dollar or a zillion hours. Read More

Dream Your Stories Into Being

When a dream compels the dreamer to share, what does that mean about dreams, about life, and about the creative process? Read More

Waltzing Into a Refreshed Writing Life

Award-winning novelist Merrill Joan Gerber almost quit writing, what with the weirdness of the publishing world. Now her latest novel is out, along with ebook versions of the rest of her work. Read More

10 Books to Make You Sit Up & Take Notice

Only some of the many books I read make me sit up and take notes for future reviews. Here are a few recent ones I liked a lot, and why they're worth your time. Read More

Is Your Life Meaningful?

For our lives to have meaning, we have to find that meaning for ourselves What can you do that gives you a sense of being engaged in something larger than your smallish daily self? Read More

New Ways to Look at Positive Thinking & Acting

Though I'm skeptical of self-help books that claim to change my life, a recent one, The As If Principle, uses studies to prove that behavior creates thoughts and feelings. Read More

Blind Hero Brightens New Mystery Series

Unique blind psychiatrist protagonist lights up intelligent, risk-taking dark mystery, Dante's Wood, by ex-lawyer Lynne Raimondo. Read More

22 Funny Words

Are you addicted (if not clinically) to playing Scrabble and such word games? Games can get you into a flow state where time stops. Prepare by learning some fun words... Read More

Can Moms Make Art?

Lost in Living is a powerful documentary that delves into the emotions felt and the life choices made by mothers who are also writers or artists. Read More

6 Ways to Clean Up Your Space and Your Life

Try these six suggestions, some based on the latest findings of positive psychology, for your own personal jump start. Read More

Can Hope Be Bad?

Hope has been studied lately with more depth than I thought possible. Experts offer insights into good and bad kinds of hope. Read More

8 Strategies for Thinking More Like Sherlock Holmes

It's the 125th anniversary of the first Sherlock Holmes novel, and here are some insights (and 8 tips) about the brain machinations of the world's most popular fictional detective. Read More

The Truth about Mormons

Enlightening new novel called ELDERS satisfies curiosity about what Mormons do on those two-year proselytizing missions. Read More

Raise a Sensitive Child

The ability to put yourself in the place of another, feelings and all, evolves throughout childhood, and there are ways you can help consolidate the trait of empathy in your own child. Read More

When Obsessions Combine: Writer "Climbs" Everest

You don't have to be an adventure lover to feel the thrills. A superb novelist puts you at the peak of Everest with the earliest pioneers. Read More

Awesome Output, No Writer's Block: How?

Author David Madden's mind is lit by an awe-inspiring creative fire that, with his latest novel, shows no sign of dimming. Read More

Writing When You Don't Feel Like It

You don't have to be brilliant to make a life (or a sort-of living) as a nonfiction writer. This guide offers the basics you'll need. Read More

4 Good Ways to Get Great Ideas

To refresh your sense of novelty and come up with new ideas, try some of these tips on how to constrain your imagination in good ways. Read More

Writing a Life with MS

Laurie Clements Lambeth, a successful poet, first turned to writing when diagnosed with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis at 17. We can all learn from her resilience. Read More

Literary Author Self-Pubs Tale of Love & Death

The world of publishing is changing, so that an occasional literary writer decides to go it alone. Jon Clinch chose self-publishing for his Holocaust novel. Read why. Read More

11 Delicious New Novels

Some books seem to get most of the attention, but they're not the only ones worth reading, especially if your tastes run to dark, or quirky, or challenging. Read More

7 Tips: When Every Millisecond Matters

Reptiles freeze when threatened, while mammals run. As humans, there are times when both impulses war within our brains. Our choices are often made in tiny fractions of a second. Seven insights to consider. Read More

11 Tips for Writing Success

I have never taken a writing course. While this route to writing success might not work for others, it did for me. Here's how. Read More

Fight Like a Professional

Lots of advice for how to fight fair is pretty much useless during everyday marital combat. What I’ve found works is to play at being a “professional.” Here's how. Read More

Is Your Work "Good Enough"?

Creative people who are struggling sometimes send me questions. Here is one of those letters with my response. Read More

Did You Know These 7 Surprises about Slots?

Slot machine players self-medicate their anxieties by pushing buttons to enter a kind of flow state. But their "machine zone" is neither exciting, fun, productive, nor cost-effective... Read More

Can Computers Think? Can Men Feel?

A test was designed by computer scientist Alan Turing, back in 1950. Can a computer think? Can it feel? Scott Hutchins' A Working Theory of Love is a warmly funny debut novel about love, thinking, feeling, and regret. Here's our Q&A. Read More

Breaking the Sound Barrier with Your Body? Ho-Hum.

You know that fellow who jumped out of a capsule from a greater height than anyone before? A surprising number of other adventurous men and women have performed dangerous and amazing medical and scientific experiments using their own bodies... Read More

10 Brainy Tips for Hooking Your Reader

If you write in such a way as to intrigue a few brains, you'll hook and keep readers. Hook enough brains, and you might have a bestseller. Read More

Four Insights Toward Mastering Your Art

Taking the time to achieve mastery is rewarding. Read More

Susan K. Perry, Ph.D., is a social psychologist and author. Among her 7 books are Writing in Flow: Keys to Enhanced Creativity and her latest, the novel Kylie's Heel.

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