How to spark creativity when the doldrums hit
During this unusual time in our lives, many people are feeling less than their usual creative selves. And that’s to be expected. If you’re the kind of person who loves to socialize or dine out or travel, you may not be doing these things as often as you used to. And some of these things, no doubt, once helped you spark the creativity necessary for writing.
On her podcast, The Creative Penn Podcast, indie author Joanna Penn often mentions how she’s been unable to visit museums and historical places that normally inspire her fiction. She says that, basically, she’s just not feeling it lately, and that many writers she knows are in the same boat.
I have not been feeling quite so under the weather when it comes to writing and publishing for many reasons: First, I published my debut novel during the pandemic, so the excitement of doing so has kept me inspired for months on end. Every part of the self-publishing process is new to me and thus pretty exhilarating. Even writing a sequel is new to me—and I can’t wait to share Jovian 2 (working title) with my beta readers soon. So, I have many reasons to feel inspired. And yet even my energy wanes on occasion, and when it does, I consider what I can do to harness it again.
First things first. I decide whether I’m simply too tired. If I’m exhausted, there’s no energy there to kindle a flame let alone get the fires burning. If I’m tired, I have to sleep. There’s no way around it. So, before you consider the following ways to spark creativity, first consider whether you need to sleep!
There are probably as many ways to garner inspiration as there are to write a novel. I’m going to share what works for me, but you probably have a few remedies that you already know work for you. Why not share them in the comments section at the end of this blog? I’d love to hear from you.
Prescription for Beating the Creative Doldrums
I try to do at least one activity from this list every day.
1) Read a great book. Make a pile of your five favorite books and keep the pile nearby. When you’re feeling down in the dumps or flat or dull, or like you can’t write a good sentence to save your life, you need literary inspiration. The cure for this is to read a few pages of a literary classic (or other book) that you love. Whatever book gives you goose bumps when you read it, that’s the one you need. For me, doing so provides instant relief. For my favorite inspirational nonfiction books, click here.
2) Ban yourself from writing for a few days. If your brain says it doesn’t want to write (or can’t write), ground it from writing. Now you are not allowed to write for (fill in the blank) number of days. Soon you’ll be thinking up all kinds of great ideas, but don’t let yourself pursue them. You may scribble the ideas on a pad or type into your phone so you don’t forget them, however. When the (blank) number of days have passed, get back to work! For more ways to stoke the mental fire, see my guest post on JaneFriedman.com.
3) Clean my office. Seems like a drag, I know, but it’s difficult to find space in your mind when your physical space is filled with clutter. I am definitely a clutter person. Meaning, I create clutter pretty much wherever I go. I don’t mean to. It just happens. I like to have things that are important nearby, and before I know it, everything is nearby. That’s not good for focus. So, once in a while, I have to reel it all in by purging, straightening, and designating where things belong. When the office is clean, the mind has room to stretch.
4) Visit a park. I like the sounds one finds in a park. Birdsongs, wind through trees, a babbling brook. Nature sounds are soothing sounds. Something about being outdoors where there are no cars and no computers is really relaxing. You don’t even have to try to de-stress because it just happens. Naturally. And it doesn’t have to be a nice day, either. Walking in the rain or the cold or through snow can be really satisfying.
5) Stroll the neighborhood. If you don’t have time to make the trip to the park, just walk out your front door and take a hike around the block. You’ll still get the change in atmosphere, fresh air, possibly songbirds and wind through the trees (depending on where you live). Try to stay out there for at least thirty minutes.
6) Clear the calendar. If you can’t find inspiration for writing, it may be because you have 101 other tasks to complete and all of the noise in your head is drowning out your creativity. So, take a vacation as best you can without taking a vacation. Figure out what must absolutely be done and what can be postponed or canceled. Clear some blocks of time for yourself during which you give yourself permission to write and do nothing else. Three days in a row works well, but a week is even better. If you have a day job, which most of us do, clear some after-work time. Maybe skip the Barre exercises one week or don’t get together with your friends for a week. Or—and this a great one—stay away from Netflix or Hulu or whatever streaming app you have for a week, and see how much more writing you get done.
7) Put an album on. Did you ever just spend a luxurious couple of hours listening to music? I don’t mean putting music on as background noise. I mean listening to music while doing nothing else. This is what people used to do when there were record albums. They would put the music on and the only other thing they might do was read the record album cover. So, put the music on and lie down on the floor or on your couch or bed and listen. Listen to the instruments and listen to the words. Listen to whatever kind of music you love. Whenever I do this, I end up superinspired.
I hope this is helpful. Let me know what you do to spark creativity!
Kim Catanzarite is a writer, editor, and instructor for Writer’s Digest University. Her sci-fi thriller, They Will Be Coming for Us, published June of this year to strong positive reviews. She is currently waiting for temperatures to drop so she can go for a cold walk.
Buy my book from Amazon HERE or from your favorite local bookshop HERE.
