Getting Past Creator's Block
What to do when you just aren't inspired
It is every creative’s worst nightmare… Looking at that blank page, vacant screen, or empty canvas and having NOTHING to put there. I have written in the past about feeling like I have an overabundance of inspiration and allow it to cause me to start too many projects. The truth is I have felt the empty void of creative block settle on me in the past, all the same.
Really, it is no surprise that one would run into a point where they cannot create. Everything is finite, right? Sure, we say there is no limit to one’s imagination, but no one can be inspired 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, right? Regardless of your medium, be you a writer, painter, wood worker, or cheese sculptor, sooner or later, you are going to “lose the muse.”
What does one do when that happens? Simple! Panic! Give up hope immediately and quit all attempts to be creative, walk away from your life-giving creativity and get a job in accounting or something.
Ok, no. Don’t do that. In fact, that is probably step number 1…
Don’t Panic
I know, it is unlikely that you will straight up panic. You are probably not going to light your studio or shop on fire, but I have seen people wreck their current piece of work due to the frustration of creator’s block… I may have thrown a piece or two in the trash because I lost my way in the past.
That’s right! I know exactly how this feels. I consider myself a pretty easy-going guy and don’t regularly give myself over to negative or destructive impulses, but losing that creative push can be really hard. Especially when we identify creativity as a core part of who we are! How could we not be pissed off when we ARE creatives, yet we cannot create??
Don’t panic. Remember that every creative has had their time of creative block. Even Leonardo Da Vinci (one of my personal heroes), often seen as one of the most creative people in history, was hit by creative block. What did Leo do when block hit?
Take a Break
Ok… you have stopped yourself from taking a box cutter to the canvas that mocks you with it’s endless blankness… now what? Maybe, go for a walk.
I used to think that I had this special fault in my brain. I used to believe that my brain was just obstinate. I felt like sometimes my brain would not do what I wanted it to do, just to spite me. I felt like if I was stuck on something, the harder I pushed, the harder my brain dug it’s heels in.
Turns out, this is actually a standard human thing. We ALL get fatigued. We ALL get stuck in monotony. We ALL get blocked at some point. If your brain is anything like mine, pushing harder is not going to get you through to the other side.
That’s not to say you should not try to push through the block. The next three steps are exactly about how to do that. In some cases, though, just stepping away is enough to get you through the fog of creator’s block. It is possible that putting down the pencil or brush, stepping away from the clay or computer and doing something else might be all you need to get back to your inspired self!
What happens if you go for a walk and come back to the same block you just left?
Change Context
Sometimes, I lose my creative vision when I am drowning in the same thoughts all the time. If I am trying to write about something and that is all I have thought about all day, I get so exhausted by that topic, I just can’t do it anymore. I can try walking away, but when I come back and look at my laptop screen, all the block I was experiencing before my walk floods right back into my brain and I am just as stuck as before.
When this happens I find it helpful to switch something up. I change the music I was listening to and turn it up louder. I go draw something in my sketchbook. I watch speed-painting videos from one of my favorite Instagram artists. I get my brain to engage in something new that I know will ignite my creativeness (ok… I am honestly surprised… I just typed “creativeness” expecting my spell-checker to underline it, but it seems that is a real word!).
The point is, sometimes you have to force yourself out of an uninspired rut and what better way to do it than using another medium? Switch context and find new creativity that may help jump start you with a fresh shot of inspiration!
Try Something New
What happens when your standard creativity creators don’t work? For a long time, I have used music to kick me into my creative gear. I used to have a playlist of Chevelle songs that I would throw on and immediately feel like making something new. I don’t know if it was the energy of the music, the lyrics, the most-likely-causing-hearing-damage volume at which I chose to play it, but something about it pushed me forward into inspiration, instantly… until it didn’t.
I remember heading out into my garage to paint something. I was not sure what it was going to be, but I was sure I would figure it out. I cranked up my Chevelle list, hit Shuffle, and stared at a blank canvas. I painted something… but it was… wrong. It did not work for me. I figured it was a fluke and walked away. A few days later I tried again and it STILL did not work. I was a little upset. On a fluke I played a totally different artist and genre (Tony Sly and Joey Cape’s Acoustic album) and a totally new vision for a painting flooded into my head.
It would be great if we had a single cure-all solution to creative block, but the fact is, sometimes we need to shake things up to keep the inspiration flowing! Try new music, find a new artist to follow on social media, go someplace you have never been before and experience something you have never experienced before. Sometimes inspiration requires you to change!
Get Stupid
What if you have tried giving yourself a timeout… then your go-to inspirations fail and changing them up does nothing. What then? Then it’s time to get stupid.
I have read painters talk about going to museums to find inspiration. Writers have talked about how thumbing through another great writer’s best novels can spark creativity. I know that work similar to our own can help drive us forward… but…
You know what I find can be even better? Candy. I was dealing with a painting that… sucked. I thought it would be awesome and unique and instead it was stupid and forgettable. Then I thought about the flavor of a piece of candy I had eaten not long ago. It was tart and sweet and sour all at once. What if I could paint that flavor? With that thought in mind I created something brand new over a failed painting… all based on the flavor of a piece of candy.
What if, instead of trying to find writing inspiration from writing, or designing inspiration from existing design, or painting from existing painting, you looked for it in a meal. What if you got inspired by an animal or the noises that a baby makes as it plays with it’s toes? What if you went completely outside of your current blocked project and absorbed inspiration from the amazing world all around you?
I cannot guarantee that any of the solutions I explored will fix your creative block every time, but I have found that they are pretty good at getting me through most of my struggles.
Do you have a solution to getting through creative block? Let me know about it!