Tapping Your Comedy Muse How to Maximize Creative Flow to Revolutionize Your Writing By Jared Volle Copyright © 2015 by Jared Volle Table of Contents Introduction 1. The Inescapable Truth About Writing Comedy 2. The Undisputed Champions of Flow 3. How This eBook Is Organized The 8 Factors of Achievement 4. Motivation 5. Skills 6. Responsive Environment How to Take Control of Creative Flow 7. The 9 Factors of Flow 1. Flow Goals 2. Using Feedback to Fuel Creative Flow 3. Balancing Challenge and Skills 4. Achieving the Ultimate Focus 5. Eliminating Distractions 6. Eliminating the Worry of Failure 7. Eliminating Self-Consciousness 8. Bending Time 9. Enjoying Every Moment of "Work" Introduction The Inescapable Truth About Writing Comedy As comedians, we live and die by the material and performances we create. We aren’t paid to write material, we’re paid to get results on stage. The audience doesn’t care how many hours you spend writing or rewriting material. The only thing they care about is whether you’re funny that night or not. It’s entirely up to us to use our writing time effectively. If you want great material, you have to put in the time and effort to write it and hone it to perfection. But not all “creativity time” is created equal. Some days you struggle and end up with only mediocre ideas, but other days you find yourself in a creative flow where everything clicks into place and you create some of your best material with ease. In this eBook, you’re going to learn how to maximize your time “in the zone,” and produce killer material faster than ever before. I’m going to give you a blueprint for getting into and then protecting your creative flow so that you can get the most out of yourself every day. It’s a huge promise. I know. But I’m confident in it for two reasons. First, I live what I teach. I’ve worked with A-list comedians, built companies, and graduated with a 4.0 from the top Creativity & Innovation Master’s program in the U.S. Achieving these goals would have been impossible if it weren’t for my ability to consistently get into a deep creative flow while working. Second, this eBook isn’t simply “what I think.” It summarizes the best of what motivational and creativity scientists have found through decades of research and has translated those findings into actionable advice for comedians. As with Faster & Funnier and Creativity For Comedians, this eBook represents an intersection of psychology and comedy. My job is a simple one. It’s putting in the grunt-work of going through mountains of research (admittedly, I love it), discovering ideas that can help me succeed in comedy at ever-greater levels, testing them out in my own career, and then translating those ideas into something that is both easy to understand and easy to apply to your comedy career. I can do this because I’ve lived in both worlds: I’ve stood in front of audiences of 1000+ waiting for them to stop applauding so I can get to my next joke and I’ve been the nerd sitting on his couch devouring psychology textbooks. I don’t want to tell you what I think, I want to tell you what I KNOW works. Everything in this eBook has been put to the test and triumphed. That means it’s something you can trust in. The process works. Getting The Most Out of Every Moment Flow is the ultimate state of creativity and productivity for any creative person. Think of it as “being in the zone.” Flow is paramount to comedians because it leads to extremely high-quality material with less stress and wasted effort. Perhaps it is easiest to see the true benefits of flow by looking at characteristics of non-flow. Outside of Flow Outside of flow, creative people often describe continual struggle: Difficulty finding creative inspiration, hopelessly searching for ideas on where to start or “where to go from here,” and constant second-guessing. Each step forward is usually met with another step back. In this environment, it is no surprise that creative work comes to a standstill. Unfortunately, this is where many creative people spend the majority of their time. But they press on because they know that when they get into a creative flow, magic happens. All the struggling is justified by the great work they created in their flow state. Thus, they often spend time struggling through non-flow because they know that when they “get in the zone” the results will be worth all the trouble in the end. Inside of Flow However, inside of a creative flow, most people describe a feeling of invincibility; pure, unadulterated engagement in their creative pursuit; increased self-efficacy (belief in your own ability) and happiness; and, perhaps most importantly, the feeling of self-actualizing their creative potential. But it’s not simply that more-creative work was done (increased quality) or that the flow-state allowed them to do that work for a longer period of time (increased quantity). The true power of creative flow lies in reaching a point of self-actualization. In flow, we don’t feel like we are “doing creative things.” We feel like we are being the creative person we were always meant to be. It is no surprise that such powerful emotions have lead to the greatest creative ideas the world has ever seen. This power is available to all. Those that understand the mechanics of flow are able to consistently enter that state again and again, regardless of industry or circumstance. The Undisputed Champions of Flow In the next few pages I’m going to show you how a group of “lazy” people are consistently able to: put extreme focus … into a mentally difficult activity … day-in and day-out … for hours at a time… to quickly master new skills… all while experiencing intense enjoyment. Sounds too good to be true right? … but you undoubtedly know someone like this. This is a state of pure flow, and it’s the Ultimate Advantage in stand-up comedy. It’s been used by elite businessmen, top-level athletes, and world-renown artists to achieve success on massive scales. In this book, I’m going to show you how you can achieve even your most ambitious comedy goals by harnessing the power of flow and directing it toward specific outcomes that lead to massive achievement. So who is this group of “lazy” people that are able to consistently direct their focus, refine their skills, and achieve their goals? You’ll probably find them a little strange at first… but you’re going to find them inspiring as well because flow has been studied in almost every profession or hobby you can think of… and the laws of achieving flow are universal. The same factors lead to flow, regardless of industry. That means when you master flow, you master your personal and professional life. So who are they? … gamers. And they’re the undisputed masters of flow. Gamers are a great example of flow for two reasons. First, we can all relate to loving games. Maybe not video games, but all of us have our own activities where we achieve a similar flow. Choose any activity that you intensely enjoy (maybe even obsessed with) and you’ll see these same principles at work. Second, gamers illustrate the raw-power behind being able to consistently achieve flow. Just think about some of the startling statistics found in the video gaming industry. A study of gaming behavior found gamers spent an average of 20 hours a week gaming. 9% of the participants showed signs of addiction while 4% played video games over 7 hours a day! How is it that a person that many people stereotype as lazy can spend more than 7 hours a day with one, singular focus? It’s not because video games are easy. In fact, many are extraordinarily difficult to master. It’s because video games are designed from the ground up with one purpose in mind… to provide flow. Video gaming has grown to more than an 80 billion dollar industry because game designers have an unparalleled ability to get gamers into an intense state of flow. Here’s exactly how they do it. There are 9 factors of flow, but three of them play a dominant role. When these first three factors are aligned, creative flow is not far away. Here are the first three factors and how video games use them to put gamers in flow: 1. Flow-Inducing Goals - Gamers follow the storyline. They understand where they are and where they need to be. Simply put, the goal is to win… and there’s a fairly clear path toward that victory. As you’ll learn later, the type of goals that produce flow isn’t the same as the long- term and short term goals you might have for your career. 2. Effective Feedback - A gamer can make a mistake, die, and try again. The ability to keep trying allows him to learn from mistakes and quickly develop his skills at a new game. Contrast this with the ambiguous feedback we get in the real world that makes it difficult to know exactly how well we’re doing at any given time. 3. Balance Between Skills and Challenge - Games start off easy, allowing a gamer to explore his new world. As the gamer’s skill increases, the challenges grow as well. He’s never bored because the game is providing a challenge, but the challenge is never so high that he gets overly frustrated or gives up. When these 3 factors are aligned, a flow-state is almost inevitable. Here’s what happens when the first three factors align: 4. Action & Awareness Merge - Early on, a lot of effort goes into learning the controls. The gamer sees where he wants to go, thinks about which buttons to press, and awkwardly makes his way there. But a short time later, he’s not even thinking about the controller. His awareness is in the game… and ONLY in the game. 5. Distractions Are Excluded - As more and more of the gamer’s attention is focused on the game, he sinks deeper into flow. Distractions become irrelevant. Any distractions that do arise are either written off or minimized, allowing the flow to continue. 6. No Worry of Failure - If a player makes a mistake, he can always try again. There’s no need to constantly second-guess a move or feel anxious. If his character dies, he can try again. In the real world, this doesn’t mean you’re free to “do something stupid.” There’s a time for long-term strategy and a time for taking action. 7. Self-Consciousness Disappears - As the flow gets deeper, the gamer becomes so focused on playing the game that self-consciousness disappears. Worries about the past or future drift away. When self-consciousness is gone, the gamer feels a spike of positive emotions. In fact, these positive emotions can be so significant that many researchers argue that this is why video games can be so addictive. 8. Time Becomes Distorted - Any time a person is deeply involved in a flow-activity like this, his sense of time becomes distorted. Hours fly by and only feel like a few minutes. Think about the last time you got caught up in a TV show or a game only to look up and see that you’ve blown through hours in what seemed like only a few (intensely enjoyable) minutes. 9. The Game Is Fun For Its Own Sake - Games are fun for their own sake. A gamer isn’t trying to “get something” from playing a game. It’s not like a horrible job he must grin-and-bare until he gets his paycheck. Playing the game is its own reward. Now I gotta ask… aren’t you jealous?! Never mind the video games. Don’t you want to be able to… quickly immerse yourself in a project learn how to master personal and professional skills quickly? and have work feel more like play? Here’s the great news, just like video game designers have been able to master these principles and provide flow to millions of gamers worldwide, you can master flow for yourself and direct it toward achieving even your most ambitious goals in comedy. What could you do if you were able to spend 50 hours a week in a state of intense mental focus? And what if you felt intense joy while doing it? What if you loved every moment?