Tim Denning is Wrong About Writing in the Flow
Grinding it out every day and collecting compounding interest is the way to millions.
I woke up this morning wanting to binge Top Chef instead of writing, but then I remembered I needed to prove Tim Denning wrong. Again. (Tim, you know I love you.)
Some days you don’t want to write. Some days you want to get up, hung over a little from the night before, and binge trashy TV with the shades closed.
Hey, I’m a reality TV whore. I fucking love the train wreck of it all. It teaches life lessons such as going to the gym makes you an asshole and sleeping with people on the job is always a mistake. And never — NEVER — use a puff pastry in a cooking competition.
Let’s get back to Tim Denning. One day I hope we can be on a reality show together that’s about writing. He’ll write about productivity and success; I’ll write about sleeping in and eating McDonald’s. The judges will say, “Tim, you write with expertise and clarity, but Ryan, you write the way people actually think and live.” It’ll be a close call. Tim, I’ll split the winning prize with you.
Fuck Flow
I used to chase the idea of flow. I’d drive to work listening to Tony Robbins tapes and pump myself up to seize the day. I crammed in the 80–20 principle into my four quadrants, tracked my time, minimalized my distractions, and deleted all social media accounts. I was a machine, baby!
And then I died. That sucked.
It took about ten years to recover from that bump-in-the-road and discover the key to life: find harmony instead of balance. Balance implies scarcity. Balance implies that you have a limited amount of resources and need to organize and manage those resources. Harmony means everything is working together. Sometimes multiple things are going on at once, but sometimes nothing is going on. Harmony means being okay with either.
Tim Denning is all about flow. In writing about flow, Tim said that Albert Einstein was wrong about compound interest, and the flow was greater. I think that Einstein and Denning are both geniuses, but in this case, Einstein is correct.
In money, compound interest is king. That’s why Tim is wrong about Bitcoin, but that’s an article for another day. You can be in flow and stare at stock screeners all day long, but the longer you take to make a decision could mean missing millions. Again, that’s an article for another day.
In writing, compound interest is king. Tim says that you pay to see an artist in a flow state. Nope, often we pay to see an artist going through the motions. Ideally, the machine will work flawlessly, and the artist will be “in the moment”. But that’s not life. If there’s one thing we’ve learned from 2020, it’s that shit happens.
Being a Successful Artist is 99% Perspiration
So Tim didn’t like Einstein, so let’s talk about Thomas Edison, who said genius is 99% perspiration and 1% inspiration. You gotta show up every fucking day. That’s what Taylor Swift does — I know. I know. It is weird putting Taylor Swift in the same paragraph as Edison and Denning, but hear me out. Swift sweats her ass off. Every. Fucking. Day.
Since she was 12, Swift sat down to write music every day. (I was about to link to Teen Vogue, but I can’t. I just can’t.) She says that she sees a magical rainbow cloud every once in a while and reaches up and pulls out a glorious idea for a song that will sell gazillions of copies, like Lover. That song was inspired. It sold the whole album. But some songs are ‘meh’. Some songs suck (admit it, Swifties). Nonetheless, we want the entire album, not just one song. Hearing the bombs makes the magic more beautiful.
Consider another musical artist, Pink. We pay hundreds of dollars to see her belt out songs while spinning and twirling in the air. She has kids. Thus, her life is fucked up at times. If you have kids, you will regularly NOT be in a flow state. But you know what? We still pay hundreds of dollars for a ticket to see Pink fly around over us. Pink has kids. Pink shows up every day.
What About Writing, Ryan?
I’m getting to that, but first, let’s talk about strength training. Let’s talk about that mysterious yet glorious Russian, Pavel. His YouTube videos are machismo. He says things like, “comrade, quit being weak. You can be strong like me.” He has a Kettlebell program called Simple & Sinister. Tim Ferriss featured Pavel in his book and podcast.
Pavel proves that strength comes from “greasing the groove” (working the muscles every day) versus the traditional weight lifting concept of taking breaks and alternating muscle groups. One method builds strength; the other method builds bulk.
In writing, if you want bulk, wait until you are in the flow state and write then. If you want strength, write every day.
Here’s the critical difference for muscle training. In Pavel’s method, he doesn’t overwork the muscles but does work them every day. In traditional methods, you push the muscle to exhaustion with extended breaks.
That’s Tim’s style of writing: a couple of days a week, he writes almost all day long. He’s the Arnold Schwarzenegger of writing. He’s awesome.
Let’s talk about the Pavel of writing, Stephen King. In his book On Writing, there are two lessons applicable here:
- Write every day.
- If you get interrupted, it is a fly in the ointment.
Like Taylor Swift’s music, Stephen King’s writing is hit-and-miss. Some of it is amazing, and some of it utter crap. Note: his crap does not define him as a writer. He is a fantastic writer with colossal success. (Personally, I believe his writing is better when he’s hooked on drugs or alcohol, but that’s also a different article. Sober Stephen King is boring Stephen King.)
Flys in Crap > Golden Showers
King says, “Tim, you should be writing every day, even if it is crap.” Or something like that. The idea of a “fly in the ointment” is a play from a Bible verse, meaning that sin can make a beautiful perfume stink. In King’s case, he says that it adds flavor to the writing. I agree. The flow gets interrupted, and something interesting breaks in.
In writing, like bowel movements, being regular is the healthiest option. I felt okay putting that sentence in there because if you haven’t stopped reading by now, you’re a bit twisted, like me. You enjoy it. But yes, be regular. Sure, it feels great to take a massive dump after you’ve been constipated for days, but don’t let it back up. You’ll blow your writing colon out.
Ryan DeJonghe loves to write about being unproductive, breaking habits, and getting lots of sleep. He still gets things done and enjoys life.
Follow on Twitter at @LifeisPresence.