Does anyone else fall into this weird sort of time warp when writing? Like something I think I did in about ten minutes somehow took an hour. I think I've been writing for about one hour and six have gone by. How is this even possible to lose time like this and have no real sense of where or how this happened? Let me be clear, this only happens to me when I am writing, and I guess it also happens during the revision stages (I do really like to get into those). This does not happen to me while reading. If I think I've read for an hour, I'm usually pretty on the nose with that. Maybe I'm totally weird. In which case I might look a little crazy asking if this happens to any of you, too. But does it?
That's the flow state. You lose track of time, forget to eat meals, etc. It happens when you're really deeply engaged in what you're doing. Been a while for me, but it definitely happens.
@deadrats, that is what is referred to as being in the zone. @Xoic is correct about it being a flow state, where you are so focused that the rest of the world fades out. Though I think it might be more accurately be called a trance state, where the subconscious is coming to the fore.
Same time thing happens to me, though to a lesser degree than when I'm under the influence of cannabis.
i tell myself when i'm on desk shift that i'm only going to jot down my notes so I can write them up later... next thing I know, my 4 hour desk shift is over and my replacement is standing over me.
I have occasionally entered those states for days at a time, only pausing to fall asleep, arise, and continue the process. Coming out of a long stretch of creativity into the real world is disorienting. It's the hunger headache that really gets to me, though. The zone is a place where I forget to eat.
Yes. I work in accountancy and deal with bank statements all the time, so I've had those kind of states when I'm working hard on a statement and forget to eat (and sometimes drink). 3 hours later, I pour myself a glass of water, get up and grab a snack (almonds for me), and keep working. 15 minutes after that ... the almonds are still untouched. That's when I think "Oh %$^@", and grab a handful of almonds. *crunch, crunch, yum* Same thing happens to me when I write, or concentrate on anything else. It's possible to lose track of time.
It can happen with any activity that we have done so much it becomes almost automatic. The classic is the work commute, where you have done the drive so much, we say you could do it in your sleep. Then one day you are home and remember leaving work but not the drive. You entered a trance state with the repeative action and done it on autopilot. Your subconscious basically took the wheel for you. That raises the question of how much of our creativity is our subconscious working on a problem, plot, scene, etc. And we get that flash of insight when it gives us the answers it has come up with, like that science that pops into your head fully formed.
And some of your posts raise the question—what percentage of them are written by your phone's spellchecker? Using the term subconscious, and associating it with repetitive well-practiced actions like that (which is definitely something it does) implies that's all it's capable of, but the unconscious (term used by professionals in the psychology field) is also the source of intiuition, insight, and creativity outside of the range of what the dull plodding conscious mind is capable of. In fact the flow state is really a combination of conscious and unconscious working in tandem, to varying degrees. Yes, you can be thinking about other things (daydreaming for instance) and let the unconscious completely take over driving, but if you're working on something deeply engaging like a story, a picture, a sonata, etc, they can collaborate, intertwining with each other in strange ways that allow for discovery and conscious control both. The best way I've heard it explained (by Jordan Peterson, who frequently explains things better than anyone else) is that if you're working within the range of the known it's only the conscious mind at work—the creative unconscious doesn't engage until you step a little ways into the unknown. In fact he says that seems to be how they function—the conscious mind is for dealing with the familiar and the unconscious for the unfamiliar. It works much faster than the conscious mind can, and brings a lot more thinking power to bear, comparing the new problem to countless problems you've solved in the past (many of which you're unaware of, because the conscious mind isn't what solved them). And if you're dealing with a creative problem (rather than just distracted driving for instance), there's a continual and massive exchange going on—both contributing many things to the process every moment, back and forth rapidly, so that it's impossible to tell where many of the ideas are coming from. It's a partnership that's so complex and instanteous that you have no idea what's happening, it just seems like something else is assisting you at a deep level. As if the ideas are getting batted back and forth 'over the net' so to speak—a dialogue going on inside your mind. Your mind with something else, that's more creative and has access to a lot more power from beyond your range of knowledge. This is what people are referring to when they say it feels like something else steps in and takes over. But that something doesn't completely take over, it collaborates at a deep level with your conscious mind (what you believe to be you—your only mind).
