Never leave the Zone
Projects have distinctive energies, like radio channels. Once you’re tuned into the right frequency, it can feel like words are flowing from your fingertips. Intuition takes over. You know what to do. But accessing the signal can be arduous. You sit there turning the knob while static hisses in your ears like a washed-up SETI volunteer. And once you’ve found it and have begun the work, returning to the radio tower after a break often leaves you sifting through noise again.
That’s why it’s best to never leave.
In Tarkovsky’s Stalker, “the Zone” is a miraculous stretch of countryside in which reality operates under mysterious rules and dreams come true. To get there, you have to pass through a military barrier by driving behind a train while guards shoot at you. But once inside, your sepia world fills with color. The smell of the flowers remains for years. You immerse yourself in the greenery and breathe it in.
Despite the beauty of the Zone, Stalker portrays those who cross the threshold into and out of it as suffering for doing so. Their relationships are strained. Their thoughts are imbalanced by longing. Their desires become manifested, but in the most devastating ways. Is that the cost of daring to go into that creative place? Or of ever returning at all?
You don’t worship the gate. You go into the inner temple. — Ram Dass
Entering the Zone — the radio tower, the inner temple — is a task in and of itself. But once there, we access incredible insight. Within these walls, we can weather anything life throws at us. No matter the circumstances, keeping company with our own latent creative force gives us the power of all artists: to reclaim, rejuvenate, originate. As Ray Bradbury says, to “be in love every day.” But this work must happen inside.
It isn’t lonely, here. You can arrive with creative partners. And all domains can be accessed from this internal vantage point. When it’s time for a new project, you just dance along the frequencies until you find what you’re looking for. What matters is that by staying here, you keep the lines open.
I keep my lines open by listing Touchstones for each project that I can always return to if I’m in danger of being bumped out. They include inspirations, reminders, music that brings me back to the work in progress. I make playlists for everything I write. And I always allow myself to jot down ideas that come up during the day into a project’s Notestream; some of my best writing gets done when I’m not directly focused on the task. Staying in the Zone is about continuing to tap in.
And since it’s within you, you can remain here anywhere, anytime. You’re a creative tesseract. You’ve entered this place, and yet you carry it with you.
I don’t dream at night, I dream at day, I dream all day; I’m dreaming for living. — Steven Spielberg
I’m not suggesting you hole up and live the rest of your days in the writing cave. Staying tapped in doesn’t have to mean disappearing from everyday life. Your everyday life can actually become more meaningful when you remain in that place of continuous creative inspiration. You’ll connect with friends in deeper ways. Tedious tasks will become richer. You won’t have to creak open the rusty gates of your temple each time you open a draft. It won’t feel like you have to choose between creating and being. Being will become more like creating. Conversations, driving, chores — life will become a series of flow states that you surf from one frequency to the next. I’m not fully there myself, but I want to be.
Dare to linger within your walled garden. Smell the flowers. Breathe it in.
written listening to “Mexico Edit” by Emile Mosseri and Sam Gendel
This was so inspiring!! I needed this! The ZONE!