Overcome Any Creative Rut

QUESTION

Dear Joey, on the flip side to the last week’s question about a well of creativity, what do you do when you find yourself in a creative rut?

Sometimes I have months of a great creative flow, and sometimes I go months without picking up my pencil and putting down a single drawing. Considering this creative side is what I constitute as "me time," what should I do when my creativity stops flowing? Thanks!

—Heather

Have a question for me? Submit it here.

ANSWER

Dear Heather, this is one of my favorite subjects. How do we be creative when we don’t feel creative?

Right off the bat your question reminds me of a quote from Chuck Close, the American painter and photographer:

If you wait around for the clouds to part and a bolt of lightning to strike you in the brain, you are not going to make an awful lot of work.

Of course, not everyone is trying to be a professional creator; as you mentioned, you use your personal time to be creative. It just so happens, however, that the approaches you can take (aside from Close’s suggestion of sitting and starting) are applicable for professional and hobbyist creators.

First, let’s understand ways creative blocks manifest:

Type of Creative Ruts

• Micro Rut: Creative block that occurs within the span of a work session; usually within a single day, but sometimes spans two days when the project is the same.
  

• Macro Rut: Creative block that spans many days (or weeks or months) and multiple projects.

Timing of Creative Ruts

• Pre-Act: Creative block that prevents you from starting.
  

• Mid-Act: Creative block that prevents you from continuing something that’s already begun.

Now that we’ve defined the basic manifestations of creative ruts, we can address them. Laying these out on a four-quadrant matrix (see image below), there’s a method for each.

Creative Rut Strategy Matrix. Details below.

Anti-Creative Rut Strategies

• Five-Minutes (Micro/Pre): Sit down and commit to just five minutes of creating. Micro/Pre is the most common occurrence of creative block, and it’s usually just an issue with starting. Once you start, it’s amazing how often you’ll keep right on going.

• Short & Medium Breaks (Micro/Mid): If you’re blocked mid-project, don’t force yourself. Take fifteen minutes, go for a walk or do an activity that gets your mind off the work. For example, my good friend John Castrillon, a developer, plays a round of Tetris to give himself a reset.

• Change Projects (Macro/Pre): If you just can’t start, even after using the Five-Minute technique, maybe the project just isn’t right for you at the moment. Let it go. If the desire/interest comes back, great; if not, that’s okay too.

• Long Term Break (Macro/Mid): Similar to taking a break from above, sometimes we just need a longer break. If you’ve lost momentum on a project, take a few days or a week or a month off. Do something else and then come back to it.

Whew, lots of info here. I hope it helps you overcome your creative block. We use these techniques regularly at Baronfig and it’s helped us keep our creative mojo strong. Good luck!

—Joey

PS. If you struggle with creative block, I highly recommend The War of Art by Stephen Pressfield. It’s the best book I’ve ever read on the subject.