Main Topic: Balance and Flow with Steven Puri

PATREON:

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Become a patron of the arts and of me at Patreon.com/valerieihsan.

And you can support my friend and colleague and Visiting Co-Host author Erick Mertz at Patreon.com/strangeairstories for short stories in the paranormal mystery genre.

Announcements/Author Updates:

I've started looking into specific venues for the retreat here in Costa Rica, and I'm working on the sales page. If you are interested in the updates on the retreat, you can subscribe to the waitlist at
https://valerieihsan.com/retreat. And if you are retreat alumni, look for an email coming very soon.
UPDATE: Date for Free Mini writing retreat for patron members (paid and unpaid) is Thursday, August 27th at 5:00 p.m. MT. 2 hours long (cozy, candle; oracle card pull to set intention; check-in: 1 struggle, 1 win, what you are working on tonight; guided meditation; writing words; share word count (optional)); The link is in the last post in Patreon.
Client work
Structure and Spark (writing process and book planning)
What are you reading?

Just finished: •
Creative Act (Rick Rubin)
Fiction: Cold Comfort Farm (Stella Gibbons)

(Main Topic):

Steven Puri is one of the few people on Earth who has been a senior executive at two motion picture

studios and also raised over $20MM in venture capital. He's produced the digital effects for

Independence Day which won the Oscar for Visual Effects and in addition to his film work, he's

founded 3 start-ups - one successful exit and two failures. He lectures now on the lessons in

sustainable high-performance he learned working alongside some of the world's more

productive people.

Flow states can help writers do better work with less friction.

Concentrated state, "Flow" by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi; Being "In the Zone", muses, river to paddle, but align my boat with the current.

How to drop into flow: Charles Limb, look at brains of jazz musicians, prefrontal cortex stops when they drop in to the music.

Music, 60-90 beats per minutes, d minor, non vocal, lulling, long melodical passages, (not love or hate it)

Film composers binaural beats in headphones stimulates the brain to pay attention in a different way. Rain triggers it too.

What kind of sound works for you the best to reach that flow state?

Are you going to get that book out of you in this lifetime?

Have to have the skills, but not phone it in, challenged, believe it's meaningful.

Find Us:

Valerie's Linktree: https://linktr.ee/valerieihsan

Erick's Linktree link: https://linktr.ee/erickmertzauthor

Tools:

ProWriting Aid: https://prowritingaid.com/?afid=9378 (affiliate link)