John McPhee: “On Going into the Zone”

Bardo between-states include intervals when our ordinary reality is suspended, like when we go into the zone while doing creative work. What are your writing sessions like? I have a terrible time getting started. I might be at my desk from nine o’clock in the morning until three or four in the afternoon, getting nothing done and pacing around and making up excuses for not writing, sharpening pencils and so forth. 

It can be hard to stay focused even after you get started writing. Does your mind wander? That’s a good point and question. My mind wanders all over the place all the time. But not that much. And once I go across the boundary and into the zone, there’s a great deal less distraction.

How would you describe the zone? When I finally get going, I go into a different world. One of the things that gets me there is panic. I think I’m going to lose the whole day, and that helps. But at all events, I go across a borderline—it seems like a barricade each day—and once the writing starts to happen, and I’m concentrating on it, and not worrying about whether I’m going to do it or not, I go into a different zone of mentality in which I lose complete track of time. I have to be pulled out of the writing, as opposed to initiating the escape. 

Read the interview here.