Frustration is Part of Flow

“I just use AI to finish a sentence when I can’t think of what words to use,” my students tell me. “I just want my writing to flow.” 

And I can see why they are tempted. AI is designed to eliminate mental friction, and it churns out polished looking sentences. This absence of mental friction creates the illusion of flow for inexperienced writers; it makes “generating” text feel as easy as scrolling through text. But flow isn’t effortless. 

In fact, I like to think of flow as “effort + able”. To be in a state of flow is to be immersed in a state of challenge and to be capable of adapting to and meeting that challenge–whether the challenge is climbing a rock-wall, writing an essay, or reading/following/digesting a text. The “frictionless experience” that certain tech evangelists extol doesn’t give us actual flow. It glides past the possibility of flow altogether. And, too often, trains its users to shy away from challenge, to spook at the void rather than exploring its depths. 

The experience of struggling and stretching for the next right words (this uncertainty, this inner awkward silence) is the very moment where shifts in vision happen. When I get stuck and have to reach for words and explore pathways they create, I am pulled into whatever piece of writing I am working with. (I don’t work on drafts, I realized while writing this; I work with them). I have to retune my inner ear. 

If writing flows like a river, these bumps of hesitation and uncertainty are like the rapids and eddies. They enrich the flow. They make for a riskier and more exciting journey.