Hey Alex,

I figure there aren't any universal solutions, just whatever works for you personally. Even then I'm guessing there aren't any guarantees and your individual method will keep shifting and changing. It's in flux, about as much as your life and its circumstances. Or your relationships for that matter.

In terms of flow I think I know where you're coming from. Sounds like that sweet spot between being busy and not being busy at all, where your mind starts wandering. It's like white noise, or taking a shower. Take Aaron Sorkin, the guy who wrote The West Wing. Supposedly he takes like eight showers a day and argues something about it being a fresh start, after getting stuck. That's kinda excessive, but whatever works.

Look at it this way: The freewriting, or automatic writing and stream-of-consciousness, is a bit like working a specific kind of muscle. Something that allows you to apply force to something else, like one of those ideas you've been talking about. So maybe the trick is to go back an forth between different methods and hope for some kind of synergy. It doesn't have to be either or.

I just hope eventually my writing itself might turn into a mundane activity that encourages my mind to wander. To go with the flow, and all that.

Edit: And then there's that whole thing about editing. Quentin Tarantino was on the Joe Rogan experience recently and talked about his initial process and him puking stuff onto the page. Then he argued it would become about "taming the puke". Meanwhile Rogan referred to his own process and compared it to creating a mountain from layers of paint. I'm paraphrasing, but the point stands. There probably isn't anything like instant perfection. You're processing something rather than creating it from scratch.

Let me go back to synergies. Even if your freewriting seems unproductive, you're probably still priming your subconscious. Meanwhile those seemingly random ideas might as well could've been bubbling beneath the surface ever since you made that initial effort. A bit like trying to remember something that you can't, but then it's suddenly there. But it didn't come out of nowhere, it's more of a result that's being presented to you. I'd say it's all just part of underlying currents, trickles, and streams that are partially rerouted via attention and focus. It's food for thought.