5 Ways to Break a Creative Drought
By Amber Lee
It isn’t easy to find your spark. Some people assume it comes naturally, that inspiration is a godsend that strikes you when you put hands to keyboard. If only it were that easy, right? Like any other kind of energy, inspiration, unfortunately, has to be replenished. Despite expectations for artists to produce work constantly, sometimes the creative bank is just dry. The cure? Depending on the situation, it can vary.
Take a break
If you are burnt out, sometimes, it is just a matter of taking a break. Making sure you are not overworked seems simple, but even this solution is hard to actually put in practice. Many feel like they are wasting time in these breaks, but taking regular rests from work is important for your mental and physical health. When taking longer breaks, making sure you are away from things that are cluttering your thoughts, whether it be social media, your story, skill levels or portfolio may help you feel less frustrated and therefore produce better work. If this isn’t enough to convince you, it might help to realise there is more than one way to take a break. Whether you’re sitting still in a silent room, doing some housework, exercising, talking to someone, or drafting out a different section of your story, you may still be giving your mind enough time to replenish its energy before you go back to your other work.
Change your workspace
Change can be a great refresher, especially if it is in the place you do your work. This doesn't only apply to your physical workspace. Finding a way to change things up can be inspiring and help clear away any thoughts making it difficult to work. Clean your desk, rearrange the furniture, switch devices, change your lighting, light a candle with a scent you are not used to; these are all things that can help drag you out of a creative slump. If you do this often, you may even be able to train yourself to start writing when you see a certain colour, or to switch to editing mode when you see another.
Try something entirely new
Taking time to expand your mindset if you are stuck with a story can really help you push through. Trying something new, whether with your writing or outside of it, can help you do this. Try playing around with a new writing style, voice, genre, characters or story just for fun. It doesn't have to lead anywhere, but if you learn something from it, or even just enjoy yourself, you have succeeded.
Everything is your inspiration
Try to remember that everything you consume and interact with can evolve your views and thoughts. Do you think there is no solution to that one problem you've been stuck on? Consider stepping back and looking more widely, or just absorbing information for a while. Talk to other practitioners, friends, and like-minded people. Consume as much of your medium and niche as you can and look to things that amaze you or make you happy. Consider making a mood board of things you just like, you don't have to know why, just collect as much as possible. You might be surprised by the new way you can look at things.
Just write
Sometimes you can't write just because you think you can't or you are worried you'll fail. Overthinking yourself into a corner is easy to do and not uncommon, but often times once you've got something on that blank page, you'll feel better. Try to remember that many authors go through 15 drafts or more to get to their final product. The point of your first draft isn't to be perfect, it's just for it to be there.
If you need to write a story and you have absolutely no clue what to put down, try starting with a simple line like: "Aura brushed a butterfly of her shoulder. She was utterly disgusted by butterflies." Try your own line and look back at what you've written. Are you interested in where this story could go? What about if you tweaked it a little? Do you like the character's name? The concept? The voice? Is the action interesting? If the answer to any of these questions is yes, keep that aspect and move on.
Likewise, if you prefer more structure, start by brainstorming out random ideas or writing them on sticky notes. Describing your story in one sentence can be enough to decide if you want to take it further.
Still can't write?
If none of these things are working, try to think if there is a specific issue or reason that is stopping you from writing. Are you procrastinating? Or are you uncomfortable writing for any reason? Discovering what is going on and why can help you figure out how to address the issue. Figuring out the problem can often solve your inspiration issues entirely by itself, but even if it doesn't, it's ok to ask other people to help.
Whether through burnout, frustration or procrastination, sometimes the solution to a creative drought is easier than you think!