Crisis, stupor, golyak - you can call this state in different ways, but it always means the same thing - the absence of new ideas or the inability to implement them. sometimes leaves everyone creative people who suffer incredibly from this. If you can't create, it often means you can't work, and that brings with it a flood of sad thoughts and uncomfortable states. Today we will talk about how to get out of a creative block - there are a lot of ways, try and choose the ones that you like. And do not forget to share in the comments your ways of overcoming the crisis.
- Inspiring work by other authors in your field can work wonders. Read/watch/listen and get inspired. Me reading beautiful works other authors have been pulled out of the crisis more than once.
- Get away from the computer, the Internet and other sources of information. Turn off your phone and do not distract yourself with conversations. Be alone with yourself - nature and other secluded places are great for this. It may take a few days to wake your mind up, but when it does, it's best to have a pen and notepad handy to jot down ideas. :-)
- Review your old ideas - both embodied and remaining ideas. Very often, inspiration comes from your own creations.
- Chat with people who have completely different interests than you, and even better, do something together with them that you usually don’t do.
- Try changing your daily routine. For example, get up at 5 am and try to create something.
- Diversify your activities and your interests, enrich yourself. Have you long wanted to read a book, try your hand at sports or learn? Well, now is the time. Stupor is the child of stagnation. Let new energies and ideas into your life, and inspiration will not keep you waiting.
- – do something new, intriguing and scary. Emotions from and just discovering something fresh will get you on the right wavelength. Do something crazy, weird, wild!
- The brain, like muscles, needs a variety of loads. To get out of a creative stupor, it’s good to practice logical thinking, read a serious complex book or study .
- Try to overload yourself with information from different sources. In order to create, you need to consume. Beat yourself to failure, digest and start creating something new!
- Change not only working time but also their locations. For example, you can work not only in the office or at home, but also in a coffee shop, on the roof of a building, on the grass in a park, at a train station, etc.
- Don't aim for results. If you need to complete a project or order, and inspiration doesn’t come, forget about the task and just do what you want, what you like. In the process, you may come up with an idea for a project.
- Walking has always helped and helps me. If a stupor sets in, I take the player and go for a walk along the streets of the city, forgetting about my tasks for a while. I listen to music, I look at buildings and passers-by, I clear my head. Upon returning from a walk (and sometimes during it), a flood of new ideas overwhelms me.
Also, to get out of a creative crisis, it is useful to stop thinking about the crisis and ways to get out of it. :-) If you can't create, do other things. Communicate, take care of your home and yourself, help your friends, do whatever you want - even if you lie on the couch all day long, only without thinking about work and the crisis of new ideas! Sometimes a creative block is a hint that you need a good rest.
Creative crisis visits every person, no matter what they do. There is nothing harder for the brain than to figure out what to give another person for an anniversary. Sometimes we are overwhelmed by unbearable agony at the thought of what to cook for dinner. Similar problems occur in creative professions and personal life. Let's see what people have prepared for us, whose life is pushing us to give out a mountain of ideas here and now, otherwise the project will fail and our career will be in jeopardy.
It's rare that a book doesn't have an author. The book “Again the creative crisis? 90 ways to get out of it” from this category. To her well-known and not very representatives creative professions share their tips on how to wind up the brain and make it produce a lot of ideas. Tips are different, professions too, so everyone can find a few unusual ways, and then, perhaps, be inspired and come up with your own (even inventing your own way out of a creative crisis destroys the latter). Advice may even contradict each other, but that's what art is for. In addition, some people metaphorically describe their vision of creative block, which is also extremely interesting.
Find yourself a genius
What's great about geniuses is that they tend to be found in groups. If you find one genius, it will lead you to the rest. Collaborate with geniuses, especially with unrecognized ones - they are more accessible and waiting for your suggestions.
Keep trying, drawing and banging your head against the table
Tip from an illustrator. Very often, all ways out of the crisis are just ways. So just draw, draw whatever you want, even if you deviate a lot from the topic. If you want to become an artist, draw and draw again, there is no other way. You are an artist only when you are painting.
Make lots of mistakes
The problem of a creative crisis is the fear of making a mistake. This turns on procrastination, fear-driven shirking. Mistakes are great. Every mistake moves you towards and this new way of thinking will change everything. Treat mistakes as an opportunity to improve.
By the end of the bike ride, everything is somehow getting better.
I take a long bath, water washes away all bad thoughts. Then I do the cleaning, because how can you think while there is a mess around. If that doesn't help, I get on my bike and try not to think about the project. In the end, everything sort of works itself out.
Stay in an expensive hotel
Pay in advance for all three days that you will spend here. Take everything you need with you. Now just write ten thousand words. If you feel like you're having a creative block, think about the crazy money you shelled out for a room.
Take any book. Whatever - it could be Science fiction, IKEA furniture assembly instructions, religious text. Open a random page and a random offer. I came across a sentence: "There was no pain, but this power was destructive." Wonderful. Think about how this phrase evokes in the context of the text you are or the problem you are solving. Or: "The next morning I went to British museum in London to see the treasure." Perfect. Thoughts come of vampires, cursed jewels, Indiana Jones, the holy grail. Why not? Mix lyrics different authors, try to catch on to any phrase. Didn't like the phrase? It doesn't matter, take another, no one forces you to get hung up on anything.
Speak everything
Panic. You are overwhelmed with a feeling of anxiety, you begin to rush about like a decapitated chicken. I make tea or coffee - I need to freshen up. Go out for a walk, talk to people about your problem, or talk to yourself.
Change chips
This is the Spanish equivalent, meaning a reboot of consciousness, a change in your thinking, a look from the outside. Change anything in your life, anything. Write not at the table, but in a cafe, change food, go to places you would never go to.
Creative crisis is growth
Try to always stay optimistic, go to sleep and wake up with a single thought: "I have not run out of ideas, I'm just trying to come up with something better." Still, it's very simple - if you keep telling yourself that nothing will work, nothing will work.
No two creative crises are the same
You don't need to create rules for wrestling. There are a lot of crises and they are all different, like snowflakes. Generate bad and mediocre ideas, so you will be able to stumble upon something worthwhile. Use all the ways you know. One and the same method can also become boring and temporarily stop working.
Why not drink coffee right before bed?
The best ideas come when trying to sleep. Put a notepad and pen next to you, and create the opportunity to turn on the light without even getting out of bed.
Do something
Cook pastries, clean up the apartment, wash the dishes, draw a face on a sticker and stick it on your computer, chop wood.
Creativity crisis is normal
Great idea. Whenever there is a crisis, we begin to sprinkle ashes on our heads and the thought slips through: “Well, it happened. I'm dull and old." Get it out of your head and start replacing it with another one. The creative block will pass, it always passes, especially when you relax and do not put pressure on him.
Just. Explain. problem.
Creative block very often occurs when we are trying to solve a problem that we ourselves have not formulated for ourselves. Isn't it stupidity? Start looking at the problem. An amazing thought that everyone should understand - in any problem there is an answer. Not in any, but in any. The answer is in the problem itself, that's what you need to understand. He has nowhere else to be. By understanding this, you will show your brain that the solution is in the problem, which means that your problem is solvable.
Books!
Why try to fish out some glimpse of an answer when you can rummage through books - thoughtlessly, haphazardly and start a circuit in the brain.
Sit down, shut up and turn off the internet
How long have you been just meditating in silence? Isn't it strange how we replace thinking with browsing in ? Sit back in your chair and just meditate. All geniuses have done this.
Eat cheese before bed
And see what comes of it. You never know.
Creativity is a muscle
She also needs to rest and recover. Just like training. Alternate work with watching movies, games and books.
Deadline is the best remedy
For many projects, you simply cannot take on until the survival mechanisms turn on. Promise others that you will complete the project in a couple of days. Or promise it to yourself. Make a project in 10 minutes. Let the project take, according to your estimates, a month, sit down and decide that you will do it in 10 minutes. And see what happens.
Imagine you are a possum
These are all great tips that are served under an ironic sauce, and it is precisely irony that allows us to release tons of our creative energy and allow us to relax. Experiment with these tips, print each one on A4 paper and hang it on the wall.
And what methods of overcoming a creative crisis do you personally know? Share it in the comments.
Creative crisis(in English language adopted term Writer's block, writer's block) - a state in which the author loses the ability to create new works or experiences creative decline. The severity of the condition varies from the difficulty in inventing original ideas to many years of inability to work. Throughout history, the creative crisis has been documented many times.
Such professional artists as Francis Scott Fitzgerald, Joseph Mitchell, cartoonist Charles Monroe Schultz, British singer Adele and others. Research on this topic was carried out in the late 1970s and 1980s. Researchers have focused mainly on the creative crisis of writers. The condition was first described in 1947 by the psychoanalyst Edmund Bergler.
Encyclopedic YouTube
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Zwook Response #4: Creative Block
HOW TO GET OUT OF THE CREATIVE CRISIS IN 4 STEPS
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The reasons
A creative crisis can have several possible causes. Sometimes it's creative problems inside the author himself. The writer may lack inspiration, or may be distracted by other events. A fictional example can be found in George Orwell's novel Long live ficus!", wherein main character Gordon Comstock tries in vain to finish an epic poem describing one day in London (translated by V. Domiteva): Actually, the poem did not move, for two years only a bunch of fragments, scattered and unfinished, were stuck.
Also, the crisis may arise due to external adverse circumstances in the writer's life or career: physical illness, depression, relationship breakdown, financial pressure, feeling of failure. The very need to have a product come out can contribute to a crisis, especially if the author is forced to work in an unusual way (that is, under a deadline or in an inappropriate style or genre). Writer's block can also come from the fear of not living up to previous great successes. Writer Elizabeth Gilbert, reflecting on her prospects after the release of the bestseller, suggested relieving such pressure by calling creative writers "having" genius rather than "being" genius.
It has been suggested that creative block is more than just a mental phenomenon. Under stress human brain"switches control from the cerebral cortex to the limbic system". limbic system associated with instinctive processes, such as the fight-or-flight response, and with behavior based on "deeply rooted learning." Limited input from the cortex hemispheres hinders creative processes, which are replaced by behaviors associated with the limbic system. A person is often unaware of these changes and believes that he is creatively "blocked". In his 2004 book " The Midnight Disease: The Drive to Write, Writer's Block, and the creative brain” (ISBN 978-0-618-23065-5) writer and neurologist Alice Flaherty argued that literary creativity is a function of certain areas of the brain, and that the block may occur due to impaired brain activity in them.
In Lawrence Oliver's article "How to overcome a creative block. To Help Students" states that "students receive little or no advice on how to generate ideas and analyze their thoughts, and usually go through the writing process without corrective feedback and without the guiding involvement of a teacher who refrains from commenting and criticizing until evaluation end result." He says that students "learn to write by writing" and often feel unprotected and/or paralyzed by the rules.
Phyllis Koestenbaum in the article " The Secret Climate the Year I Stopped Writing" wrote about her fear of writing, claiming that it was directly caused by the reaction of her teacher. She writes: "I needed to write in order to feel, but without feeling I could not write." In contrast to the experience of Kestenbaum, teacher writing skills Nancy Sommers expresses her belief that just as assignments do not end when students stop writing, so should teachers' comments. She calls for mutual "partnership" so that writers' responses to student drafts turn into conversation.
James Adams in his book Conceptual Blockbusting notes that among various reasons block there is a fear of risk, "chaos" at the stage of thinking about the text, a conflict of judgment with the generation of ideas, an inability to nurture ideas or a lack of motivation.
Overcoming the crisis
» considers various strategies for overcoming writer's block, addressing special attention to the work of Rose, Oliver and Clarke. James Adams, like Rico, discusses the involvement of the right brain in the writing process. Book author " Write ON!» (« Keep writing!”), while Bill Downey intends to base his approach on practical cases, his focus on right-brain techniques suggests a cognitive-theoretic approach similar to Rico's, with more practical advice for writers.
Blank slate syndrome
Syndrome clean slate similar to writer's block, but the term is not psychological. This syndrome can happen to a writer at any time, regardless of career success. It can annoy writers and often results in a long period of time when they can't start anything new. You can practice the following strategies to overcome this syndrome: take a break from work for a while, read books, or force yourself to write something forcibly, without even seeing the point in it. To avoid blank slate syndrome, it's best to have a clear idea of when to sit down to write, and not put off writing until later, because stress only exacerbates this syndrome.
Before you overcome a creative block, think about this. A creative crisis is a very individual thing, so you need to look for exits only for those that suit you. Here are just some ideas that might lead to something...
Storm
Brainstorming is the best tactic that will bring the creative block to naught. We take paper (the computer is not suitable) and write down, write down ... Everything that concerns the topic, everything that does not concern the topic, everything that you think and do not think about this ... We do this for a quarter of an hour, after which we are distracted by something other. In about ten minutes, you can review everything written ... Either the idea will come by itself, or everything will come together from this rubbish.
You can also name three numbers and look in the dictionary for pages with these numbers. We look at every fourth word from the bottom on each page and look for inspiration here. Stupid? And the brain will relax and allow you to create.
New impressions
It is unlikely that you can travel around the world, changing impressions, but you can just walk, look at people and look for patterns. The creative crisis is simply afraid of new images! Try to go to the unusual sports section. You can also try to get to work (or even to your usual store) by different roads every day.
A change of scenery works the same way: this way you get rid of the loop and can break the patterns of your work. Try to rearrange, go to nature and work there. You can ride a bike, but it's important not to think about the project at all when traveling.
Another option for a change of scenery, albeit not as positive, is offered by the writer Claire Dederer. So, you can lock yourself in an expensive hotel for a few days. Ask service staff do not interfere with you at all and do not give the keys even if you really ask. It is desirable that the hotel was in some dull area. Take with you everything that invigorates you, be it sweets or coffee, as well as books that you love but have not read more than once. Your task is to write ten thousand words if you are a writer. Representatives of other professions may have other tasks.
Ask for help from the water
You can go to the shower, and even in the cold. He will certainly wash away everything that has become ballast and prevents you from creating further. You can ask Agatha Christie herself how to overcome the creative block: the queen of the detective looked for inspiration ... in washing dishes. Actually, during this process, she wanted to kill someone, but that's not the point. This process really allows you to get out of a creative stupor.
Another option is to swim. But not in the bathroom. If there is a cold body of water near you, run to it and take a dip.
Return to your past
Namely, re-read old works. You can choose the best ones. Inspiration is a mysterious thing, perhaps it will remember the mechanisms by which you previously created masterpieces. For this, you need to create and replenish your portfolio more often.
Don't be yourself
If you have a stupor, try to imagine that you are not you, but someone else. For example, a restaurant chef, a plumber, or even ... a possum. This will help you look at the problem from a new angle. So if you have to stand upside down and feel like a possum to overcome your creative block, do it.
Another option. Imagine that you are creating a text, program or advertisement not for people, but, for example, for dogs or aliens from Saturn. If you can change your approach, you will get out of the creative block.
Listen to music
Preferably without words so that you are not directed what to think about. Look for something that can be a design for the ear. You can write or sketch while the inspiring track plays.
Refine or rework existing ideas
You can also safely take someone else's idea and bring it to mind. Understand that it is impossible to come up with something new all the time and no one can do it.
This, by the way, can be connected not only with work. Find an old drawing and bring it to mind. Or find your old bike and modify it.
switch
Not happening? A freelancer can clean a room working in an office - to solve several organizational issues. So you decide the long overdue domestic problem, and turn off.
Enjoy your crisis
It's hard, especially when the deadline is right around the corner, but it's better to enjoy than to torment yourself. What can be done?
Start working on anything. Even if it turns out to be complete nonsense, you have already begun, which means that inspiration will remember you.
Write (draw, create) something interesting just for you. Not for money, but for myself, my beloved. Perhaps it is after this that a second wind will open.
Try changing the way you work. For example, use new programs or start writing with your left hand only.
Come to terms with your crisis. This time should be used to fill yourself with something new and something that you can use later.
In the meantime, understand that even the great ones had such stagnations and they were able to overcome it. So do not give up and perhaps you too will be ranked among the great creators.
And one more important point. Some successful works were created without much inspiration, for example, only for the sake of a fee. And the fact that the authors themselves experienced a crisis and criticized themselves for this work does not detract from the merits of this work. Just create, and the fans will finish everything for you.
Brandon Turner
Entrepreneur, investor, author of several books and Chief Editor social network specializing in real estate. Brandon came up with his own algorithm, following which you can forever forget what a creative block is. Using it, he was able to write 250,000 words in a year.
You firmly decided to write something, sat down at workplace, opened a laptop and a text editor, but the inspiration suddenly disappeared somewhere insidiously. A good half an hour has passed, and you continue to sit in front of an absolutely blank page.
It doesn't matter what you're trying to write: a book, a blog post, or whatever. Writer's block or creative dead end the real thing, which will slow down your work and be annoying to the point of impossibility.
It is unlikely that any of us can absolutely guarantee that every day, under any conditions and weather, will be able to freely issue one, or even several.
Inspiration is a capricious and fickle thing, so you need to be able to write without waiting for it. Below we consider four simple advice which should help in such a situation.
1. Use Kindergarten Tricks
Remember, when you were a child, teachers probably offered you more than once to complete an assignment in which it was necessary to fill in the gaps with missing words. Something like that:
My favorite color - ________.
My mother's name - ________.
When I grow up, I want to be ________ because _______.
It is unlikely that you then experienced any special difficulties in carrying out this task, right? There was no talk of any creative blocks. The reason for this simplicity is that the topic was already predetermined and all that was required of you was simply to write the right words in the right places.
That's why filling in gaps in your work is considered the easiest way to overcome writer's block. will help you detailed plan actions. The more details and subtleties you can pre-think and mentally place in your still imaginary text, the easier it will eventually be to write.
Today before answering letters the right people, I spent five minutes outlining in in general terms every thought that I would like to convey. So when it came time to write the letters themselves, all I had to do was just “fill in the gaps” for each particular letter, expand on the points of each idea. The writing of the letters did not take much time: it took only half an hour to deal with the mail. I only managed so quickly because I didn't have to make any decisions. There was no such thing that I just sat and thought: “Hmm, what should I write about today?”
Brandon Turner
The hardest part of the job is the decision making process. Therefore, if you cope with this task in advance, then much. Keep it simple: when you realize you can't get off the ground, just remember this naive kindergarten method.
2. Take a cue from professional athletes
Have you ever seen a professional golfer getting ready to put a ball into a hole? Have you noticed how a basketball player implements a free throw? Or how a baseball pitcher pitches the ball?
playbuzz.com When athletes are about to perform a trick that they have done a million times, they almost always adhere to some kind of pre-set. For example, they take three steps to the right, spin the ball in their hand or beat it off the floor. They all have a little ritual that precedes the routine.
What is it for them? In advance established order helps to tune in to the correct performance of the action and enhances a kind of “thinking of success”. The same rules work for writers. It's time to come up with a couple of rituals for yourself.
When Brandon Turner wrote his first book, his daily routine was very simple:
Get up at 5:30.
Drink a glass of water.
Do a five minute workout.
Sit on the couch for a bit (always in the same place).
Open laptop.
View a pre-planned action plan.
Start filling in the gaps.
Brandon says he followed this every day for a hundred days and never once faced a creative block. Thanks to a clear daily routine, he immediately got to work, limiting the impact of all distractions that could lead to loss of performance.
- Write in the same designated place.
- Write at the same time.
- Listen to the same song before work.
- Use the same text editor for writing.
- Write every day. Nothing kills routine faster than a weekend.
3. Add some weirdness
This item may seem a little wild to you, but Brandon assures you that this is one of the better ways overcome the difficulties that may arise when writing.
First, decide who you are writing for. No, you don't have to come up with an abstract character of some gender, age or profession. Find the real, real an existing person, for which you will write.
Once you've found the lucky one, print out their photo (yes, this is exactly where things start to get weird). Do not print a huge portrait, limit yourself to a small photo. Place it near your workplace (no need to stick a needle into it).
Now all you have to do is write for that person. How would you explain the topic to him or her? How would you tell your story? It turns out that, instead of writing to some unknown reader, you are now writing for certain person. Surprisingly, this little trick really works.
4. Write as much as possible
Often the cause of a creative dead end is not a lack of inspiration, but a banal one. You start writing, then re-read, and in a moment you are already overwhelmed with total dissatisfaction with yourself. The only question you're asking yourself right now is, "Who even wrote this damn thing?"
Instead, just slow down. Stop, take a break. You are now too unsettled to move on, doubts about your writing skills have crept in. That is why you are slipping.
When I write, I just write. I don't edit, I don't look back, I don't try to double-check every sentence. If I feel like I'm stuck, then I just write more. Even more. And then a little more. After I finish writing the daily quota, I may return to correct the text a little, but I never let self-criticism take over. Keeping writing is the best way out for me.
Brandon Turner
If you feel like you can't write, don't panic. To overcome creative block, try some of these tips.
