What is "flow" in writing?

Answer 1

The use of “flow” to describe good writing refers to the movement of water in accordance with gravity. Water flows downhill. Now, the flow of a river can be steady, like the widest sections of the Mississippi — and steady’s great for something things, like metronomes. Good writing, though, has more in common with the rock strewn Salmon River, with its class 2 and class 3 rapids. Why is the Salmon River a favorite of rafters and kayakers? Because it offers variation, even a bit of daring. And humans want variation, in their writing and their rafting. 

One rule I suggest you follow without variation: humans love variation, and I think Gary Provost captures that perfectly with his little exercise “This Sentence Has Five Words.” I’ve included it here, since I think it’s a delightful elaboration of the importance of flow. 

“This sentence has five words. Here are five more words. Five-word sentences are fine. But several together become monotonous. Listen to what is happening. The writing is getting boring. The sound of it drones. It’s like a stuck record. The ear demands some variety.

“Now listen. I vary the sentence length, and I create music. Music. The writing sings. It has a pleasant rhythm, a lilt, a harmony. I use short sentences. And I use sentences of medium length. And sometimes when I am certain the reader is rested, I will engage him with a sentence of considerable length, a sentence that burns with energy and builds with all the impetus of a crescendo, the roll of the drums, the crash of the cymbals—sounds that say listen to this, it is important. So write with a combination of short, medium, and long sentences. Create a sound that pleases the reader’s ear. Don’t just write words. Write music.”

Flow pleases your ear. That’s why it’s so helpful to read your work aloud. Your ear can catch things — like monotony, say — that your eye simply can’t. On your next short writing assignment, count the words in each sentence. Are you writing something for a barge cruising down the Mississippi, or for a bouncing down the Salmon?

Answer 2

This is a great question! Because flow has to do with writing style, it's often difficult to explain. Typically, when we say "flow," we're referring to how smoothly one sentence transitions into the next for an ideal reading experience. Basically, flow is the absence of any stylistic distractions that might pull a reader out of your piece and trip up their progression through your writing.

This means that for a piece to have quality flow, we need to see sentence variety, clarity, and a consistent tone. If any of those stylistic components are lacking, they can detract from the flow and interrupt the reader.

Because flow feels more abstract than some writing tools, here are a couple of examples:

1. In Scene Three, the scene addressed earlier, Blanche wears a red satin robe. In Scene Five, Stanley wears a green and scarlet bowling shirt. Both characters wear read in the play, and this color symbolizes their strong personalities. Both Blanche and Stanley are accustomed to being alphas, which Williams highlights with their colored clothing.
2. This is an example of poor flow. The first two and last two sentences have almost identical grammatical structures, which interrupts the rhythm of the paragraph. Because of that repetition, the reader is drawn out of the piece and the flow is interrupted.
3. The first sentence also interrupts the flow because it has that distracting subordinate clause ("the scene mentioned earlier"). Because the clause is tangential, it stands out to the reader and breaks the flow of the writer's argument.
4. Both Blanche and Stanley wear red throughout the play. At Stanley's poker party, Blanche undermines Stanley's authority in the apartment while she wears a "red satin wrapper" (Scene 3). Stanley demands that the radio be shut off as the men gamble, and when Blanche refuses to obey him, her scarlet robe only accentuates the assertion of power against Stanley. Of course, Stanley is the macho man who cannot allow another alpha to live in his apartment. The idea that someone besides himself could control Stella is enough to drive him crazy. As a representation of his contention of powers with Blanche, Stanley wears a red bowling shirt in Scene Five. Just as Blanche's clothing accompanies an act of power, so Stanley wears scarlet as he reminds Blanche of her reputation in Laurel.
5. This is also an example of poor flow. The paragraph uses sentence variety and clear argumentation, only to be interrupted with a change of tone in the underlined passage. The tone shifts from academic to colloquial, which distracts the reader and undermines the flow.
6. Both Blanche and Stanley wear red throughout the play. During the poker party, as Blanche undermines Stanley's authority, she dons a "red satin wrapper" (Scene 3). Here, Stanley demands that the radio be shut off as the men gamble, and when Blanche refuses to obey him, her scarlet robe only accentuates her assertion of power against Stanley. Blanche continues to challenge Stanley's sovereignty, and as he feels his control over Stella and the apartment being threatened, he grows more aggressive. To symbolize his mounting need to prove his dominance, Stanley wears a red bowling shirt in Scene Five. Just as Blanche's clothing accompanies an act of power, so Stanley wears scarlet as he reminds Blanche of her reputation in Laurel.
7. This last example shows good flow. The writer uses sentence variety, specific language, and consistent tone. All of those components help each sentence flow naturally into the following sentence, creating a seamless reading experience.

I hope this helps! Flow is difficult to understand, and utilizing it in your writing takes time! Be patient with yourself as you build mastery, and flow will be natural for you in no time.

Answer 3

Good question!

Flow could refer to how the author moves from one idea to another. If a passage has a "good flow," one might be referring to the transitions from one topic to another. In terms of poetry/verse, the poetic flow often refers to the use of meter or assonance combined with cacophony. A good example of a passage lauded for good "flow" is in Shakespeare's Richard III:

"Now is the winter of our discontent

Made glorious summer by this sun of York;

And all the clouds that lour'd upon our house

In the deep bosom of the ocean buried.

Now are our brows bound with victorious wreaths;

Our bruised arms hung up for monuments;

Our stern alarums changed to merry meetings,

Our dreadful marches to delightful measures.

Grim-visaged war hath smooth'd his wrinkled front;

And now, instead of mounting barbed steeds

To fright the souls of fearful adversaries,

He capers nimbly in a lady's chamber

To the lascivious pleasing of a lute."

Here you might notice how words move smoothly from one to the other, making the speech easy to say, easy to read, and an absolute delight to watch. Several poetic devices might be employed to encourage the flow of a stanza or verse passage. In the same speech, Shakespeare uses cacophony to flow into another tone:

"But I, that am not shaped for sportive tricks,

Nor made to court an amorous looking-glass;

I, that am rudely stamp'd, and want love's majesty

To strut before a wanton ambling nymph;

I, that am curtail'd of this fair proportion,

Cheated of feature by dissembling nature,

Deformed, unfinish'd, sent before my time

Into this breathing world, scarce half made up,

And that so lamely and unfashionable

That dogs bark at me as I halt by them..."

Here we see that the tone has shifted. But be warned--the term "flow" is notoriously arbitrary and I would caution you not to use it at higher education levels (ex, college).

Hope that helped!

Answer 4

In searching for a comprehensive (and credible) resource for your answer, I came across this page: https://www.umass.edu/writingcenter/flow-and-cohesion

But, instead of reiterating the same points that are mentioned there, I would do something else here (which, hopefully, you'd find more useful): in the rest of this 'answer,' I'm going to discuss my own understanding of the 'flow.'

It seems to me that the concept of 'flow' in writing has an important assumption that we need to make explicit: that certain writing qualities are universally "appreciated" and/or are more conducive to the reader's understanding of the written material. Some of these qualities include using varied sentence lengths and using appropriate literary devices.

To wrap things up, a piece of writing has "good/ fluid flow" if the general reader is able to read through the piece with little difficulty and understand the points that are being made.

Hopefully that answer was useful! Please let me know you'd like me to focus on any particular aspect of the flow.