5 tips on how to get out of a creative rut:
5 tips on how to get out of a creative rut:
It can be incredibly frustrating when you’re not able to create something, but at the same time, you really want to get some work done. Well, it’s kind of inevitable as a creative person that you get stuck every now and then. It’s sort of the deal when being creative.
So we’ve got to accept those periods of not being so super productive all the time. But at the same time, that doesn’t mean we’re not allowed to do anything about it.
A few simple tricks like keeping a journal, taking a walk, or creating something in a different artform, for example, can help you to break out of your creative rut. The main goal of these tricks is to look at the bigger picture of your current creative process, and why you’re currently stuck.
So here are 5 simple tricks to get out of a creative rut:
1: Keep a daily journal that's just for yourself.
Journalling, or writing your “morning pages” as Julia Cameron likes to call them, is one of the most liberating experiences the creator can have. It’s a useful tool to unblock yourself from the current, stagnant situation you are in. And it can help you to reveal things about yourself that you weren’t thinking of before.
You can write in it whatever you want. But the purpose is to just start writing. Nobody has to read those pages.
You can pour all your misery, doubts, and fears on the paper. Or just write about pink fluffy unicorns if that is more your sort of thing. Knock yourself out.
After that, you can start to focus on what you want to do. Whatever you will create afterward will be easier because all of the weight has been lifted off your shoulders. It prepares you to flow into a more creative state.
2: Take a walk.
Walks are great for tuning into a slower way of thinking. It slows down your thinking to a point that you will notice all sorts of small thoughts. This way you're getting more aware of creative ideas you might get when you're walking.
When you walk, preferably don't listen to music or anything else, and walk by yourself. Listen to the surroundings and really pay attention. You might pick up some ideas from where you are at that moment. Walking also teaches you patience.
Of course, you want to go somewhere, but you can only go as fast as you can walk, so you've got to have patience.
3: Create something in a different art form.
You might consider yourself a musician. Great! But why not draw something for a change? Like you probably did when you were a kid. Or take pictures or write. Anything goes.
So why in the world should you create something in a different art form? You might think: “I’ll never make any progress with my work like this.”
Well, the reason why this is useful, is that we often consider ourselves to be professionals or semi-professionals in our own field. This is nice, but it builds up an enormous amount of pressure sometimes. When you pick up something new or something different from your usual field, you can allow yourself to be an amateur at something again.
When you allow yourself to be an amateur again in a different field, you remember the reason why you were doing this in the first place: FUN!
Just do it and be willing to do it badly, as an amateur would. It's a lot of fun. Who knew creativity could be so much fun?
4: Combine 1 creative thing with another.
For me, it's taking pictures when I walk, and then I will write something next to it. Both creative acts strengthen each other because I'm combining them.
I've recently started to experiment with combining 3 art forms: video, music, and blog. It's really fun to combine all different art forms and create something new.
5: Find the joy again in just creating things for the sake of creating them.
So, I know some readers might find this one a little bit too vague or something, but I think we were all put on this earth with a soul, and our soul is here to express itself in many different ways. When you create, you are expanding your soul through your work. When we are creatively blocked, we think about our work as something hard, but in fact: creation is easy when you think about it in this way.
For me, it helps to remember my younger self. For example: when I was taking pictures with the camera of my uncle at a birthday party when I was around 12, or drawing silly things in kindergarten, or trying to write songs with my very first band when I was 15.
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Hey, my name is Erik Reino
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I’m an independent artist, YouTuber, blogger and I’m a teacher/coach for people that want to become better at making music.
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