This paper explores the concept of flow (Csikszentmihalyi 1988a; 1988b; 1997a; 1997b) in relation to creative practice as discussed by a sample of Australian fiction writers. Approximately 68% of these writers experienced what they felt was an altered state of consciousness or an unconscious process at work more generally. For example, more than a quarter of the writers interviewed (27%) discussed a sense of empathy with their characters to the degree where they felt the characters ‘come to life’ as separate entities. It can be seen that this experience of a flow-like state with regard to character in particular and content more generally substantially derives from an intense familiarity garnered through idea generation, research, development and the drafting process itself. This discussion of flow, looking at the specific example of character empathy, goes some way towards explaining the apparent dichotomy between writers’ descriptions of conscious, controlled writing and a subconscious or uncontrolled state.