Fiction Writer’s Toolshed · Practical Tools for Authors
You want focused writing to happen more consistently. But someone else’s morning routine, writing room, or perfect playlist may tell you very little about what helps you work.
In this conversation, Steven Puri shares practical ways to investigate your own working conditions. We talk about useful times for different tasks, environments that help you settle into the work, and sounds that become personal cues for concentration. There are several things you can try -- and adapt to the life you actually have.
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Fiction Writer’s Toolshed
How to Get Into Flow State While Writing (with Steven Puri) | ep 022
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What this episode covers
- Why the work you want to make gives focus a purpose.
- A simple way to notice when different kinds of work go well.
- How writing environments can become useful work cues.
- What Steven learned from music, rain, and coffee-shop sounds in Sukha.
About Steven Puri
Steven is the founder of The Sukha Company, which makes the Sukha focus app. Before that, his film career included roles at 20th Century Fox and at DreamWorks Pictures for Kurtzman-Orci Productions. He also produced digital effects for Independence Day, which won the Academy Award for Visual Effects.
He brings stories from working with screenwriters under demanding deadlines, along with lessons from his own work and from people using Sukha.
Notice when different work goes well
Steven describes screenwriter Ron Bass protecting early hours for writing, then using afternoons for meetings and collaboration. The useful question is when you have clarity for the particular task you’re trying to do.
To start noticing your own pattern, Steven suggests a simple log:
- Draw two columns on a piece of paper: morning and afternoon.
- For five days, jot down the kind of work you did in each part of the day.
- Add a quick note about how it felt. A smiley or frowny face is enough.
- Look for patterns. When did dialogue, outlining, or other tasks feel clear? When did they feel difficult?
You can keep observing for a week or two. When you notice a useful window, protect it for that work where possible.
In our conversation, I explain that my preference for evening writing competes with family time. I work around that, including using mornings when I can and some time after my family goes to bed. Knowing what suits you can help you make choices within the time you have.
Find a place that helps you work
Steven tells two very different stories about writing spaces. One team valued a villa where they could think about the movie they wanted to see. Another rented a modest hotel room that reminded them of being young writers with something to prove.
His own example is simpler. When he carried his laptop from room to room at home, each place brought other things to mind: food, laundry, something that needed cleaning. Leaving it in his office helped make entering that room a cue to work.
Look at what a place invites you to do. What helps you settle into the writing? What keeps asking for your attention? The useful part of these stories is how specifically the writers understood their own conditions.
Test what sound does for you
Steven describes beginning with composed music for Sukha, including non-vocal, repetitive tracks. Then a friend offered a recording of rain in Kathmandu. When people used it, Steven asked what worked for them.
Some told him the rain brought back the feeling of being indoors studying when they were younger. Later, a writer who could no longer visit her usual coffee shop asked for its sounds. Coffee-shop ambience gave her something familiar to work with at home.
My music tastes range from heavy metal to Twenty One Pilots, often with little connection to the story I’m writing. Steven’s examples and mine give you places to begin experimenting. Pay attention to what helps you stay with the work, and what pulls you away from it.
Resources from the conversation
- Sukha for Writers (opens in new tab) -- Steven’s focus app; a link he supplied for this episode.
- The Magic & Science of Flow States (opens in new tab) -- further reading from Steven on the Sukha site, also supplied with the episode.
- When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing by Daniel H. Pink (opens in new tab) -- the book I mention during our discussion of daily rhythms.
You can try the timing log and observe your workspace and sound preferences without buying an app.
Continue the conversation
For our follow-up on getting started, staying with the draft, and self-editing, listen to and read Writer’s Block and Flow State: Start Writing, Stay Focused (with Steven Puri).
Start with five days of observation
Begin the timing log with your next writing session. Note the task, the time of day, and how the work felt. After five days, look for one useful pattern you could work with. Let what you notice guide your next experiment.
Fiction Writer’s Toolshed: Practical Tools for Authors is a Make Exist podcast hosted by Tim Kearney. It offers hands-on training for fiction writers to diagnose writing problems, build their skills, and finish more work.