Brandon Turner
Entrepreneur, investor, author of several books and Chief Editor real estate social network. Brandon deduced his own algorithm, following which you can forever forget what is creative crisis. 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 efficiency.
- 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.
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.
Creative crisis can sometimes become a real scourge for copywriters, bloggers and, in general, everyone creative people regardless of nationality, age, gender and political views. Where does it come from? How to overcome it? And how to make it occur as little as possible? Today's article will answer all these questions.
Where does creative crisis come from?
Creative crisis is a temporary state in which creative process a stupor falls, ideas run from his head like rats from a sinking ship, and he begins to officially be listed as missing.
This may be due to fatigue, stress, feeling unwell or banal. In the previous article, we considered such a negative concept as excessive motivation. It can also provoke a creative crisis.
Creative crisis: ways to overcome
Whatever reasons lead to the fiends of mental deadlocks, there are always several ways to put everything in its place, we will consider them further.
1. Good rest
One of the most innocuous ways to overcome creative block is to take a good rest, fill your life with entertainment and do what gives you pleasure. If conscience wakes up, then let him rest with you. Iron "excuse": rest is necessary for any person, no matter how hard he may be.
2. Physical activity
Physical activity is another way to overcome a creative block. Unlike rest, in this case, pleasure and entertainment are not expected, instead of them - severe trials. exercise, horizontal bars, dumbbells and other equipment.
Physical activity is useful not only because it will save you from a creative crisis, but also because an additional physical activity will keep you constantly in shape and will serve as a prevention of troubles that annoy people with a constant sedentary lifestyle.
3. Task switching
If a creative block is preventing you from moving forward in some endeavor, put it aside for a while and do something else. For example, if you are a freelancer and work from home, do the cleaning, cook dinner, hang a picture, or wash all your dirty laundry. If you work in an office, switch to other tasks, do a couple of organizational things, learn something new, etc.
Thus, you will kill two birds with one stone:
- Get over your creative block
- Do the things that you would have to do, sooner or later
4. Brainstorm
If a creative crisis leads to the fact that thoughts stubbornly refuse to come to your head or drag on one after another, getting lost on the way to your consciousness, you can speed them up. This is done with the help of the so-called brainstorming.
The essence of the method is that you switch to the idea generation mode (and only generation). At this stage, you don't think good idea or bad. You can generate complete nonsense, the main thing is to fix all thoughts.
Then see what you got. The result will lead you to new thoughts and ideas, and the work will begin to boil. In any case, analyzing the fruits of your mind generation, you will be a little distracted, and if you are lucky, you will have fun, so it certainly will not be in vain.
5. Tips
If a creative crisis torments you and haunts you, then you can always ask friends and acquaintances for advice. All people are social beings, everyone has connections, no matter what. real life or on the web.
In addition, you can always use tools such as ICQ, Twitter , social media and other mediums for getting a whole bunch of advice and food for thought from people you may not even know.
6. Problems
A radical way to deal with the creative crisis. Artificial creation of problems for a sense of contrast. It is possible that by resorting to this method, you will get a sky in diamonds, headache, spoiled relationships with people, unnecessary financial expenses and total demoralization, but there will be no trace of a creative crisis. You can be sure that you will have something to say, something to describe, and you will be pierced by streams of violent feelings that you can throw out in your work.
This is the first phase. The second phase comes when you deal with your problems and experience relief. After this, any creative crisis will not be worth a damn, and, therefore, as a problem, it will cease to exist for you.
Main question: where to find problems? This goodness in Slavic countries head is enough. Flush the condom down the toilet from the upper floors, shout "Spartacus champion!" in the dressing room of Dynamo Kyiv, stick your head out the window with a mop during events under the windows with the participation of senior officials - and problems will be provided.
7. Refinement and rework
If the creative crisis stubbornly does not let new ideas and thoughts come to you, you can use alternative options approach to work. One of these options is to refine or rework existing ideas.
It is physically impossible to always create something new. Whatever you do, there will always be people who have either already done something in this area, or are doing something in this moment. And if so, there are no reasons preventing you from taking someone else's idea and implementing it in your own way, making it better and finalizing it.
In this case, you:
- First, get rid of the creative block
- Secondly, develop the direction
- Thirdly, save a lot of time
Of course, the conceptual novelty cannot be compared with any refinement, but, in many cases, this is relevant and justified. Take some ideas
No thoughts, no letters...
Creative crisis- this is a situation in the work of a creative when he loses inspiration and the ability to engage in creative work.
It should be emphasized that this situation is temporary and takes place in the lives of all people whose activities are associated with creativity, the need to come up with something new, original.
Problem
They say that the more creative a person is, the higher the likelihood of creative crises in his life. This is quite understandable - any rise is always followed by a decline, and laziness follows an attack of working capacity. True, a creative crisis cannot be called laziness, at least conscious. The brain just needs the opportunity to relax - that’s why it “turns off” the creative function, requiring time to recover.
Creative crisis: to find an approach to your own computer!
Such a crisis is a problem exclusively for creative people. After all mechanical work can be performed without passion, and without the need to invent something new. Know for yourself - answer calls, sell package tours to clients, deliver mail, count salaries, accept applications. For creative people, everything is different - due to the peculiarities of their nature of work, they always face the need to generate original ideas, new products - whether it's an interview with a successful businessman (theater artist) or the creation of illustrations for a book.
Features of a creative crisis
- Involuntariness. You can’t get out of a creative crisis with a simple effort of will. You can, of course, force yourself to work even when "the soul does not lie", but this is unlikely to lead to a worthwhile result. That is, there will be some result, but it is unlikely that it will satisfy the author of the work, the boss and the client.
- Inefficiency. In some cases, the work can still be done, but in a crisis, a simple task can be carried ten times longer than usual.
- Perpetuity. Of course, there are deadlines for the “raid” of a creative crisis, only the creative person has no way to find out about them. The crisis may last a day or two, or it may drag on for a week or two. There are more unhappy options ... Here, how lucky.
- Lack of secrecy. It’s easy to find out that an employee is in a “crisis” - a previously executive and hardworking employee now delays completing tasks, constantly complains about feeling unwell, asks for time off, and may not even go to work. Well, if he still passes the task, then it is done at a completely uncharacteristic low or average level.
It is useless to work during a creative crisis - it is better to ventilate by going out with friends for a picnic
Ways out of the crisis
- The best way to get out of a crisis is to wait it out. Everything goes and it is also. Therefore, it is recommended not to force your creativity trying to knock something out. It is better to really take a few days off or days off to relax and recover.
- True, the above method is good if the management understands the peculiarities of creative work. Alas, this does not happen everywhere. Many bosses (especially those who are not creative themselves) are convinced that all this is nonsense, there are no crises, there is only irresponsibility and a banal unwillingness to work. You will not wait for understanding from such leaders, and the work will still have to be done (if there are no days off and the opportunity to take days “at your own expense”). How can I do that? Firstly, looking into the "zagashnik" (maybe there is something). True, for this you must have it - a folder or file where you carefully put / write down unused thoughts, ideas. Secondly, you can use old thoughts, changing them a little and correcting them (especially some old ones - no one will remember. Thirdly, you can eavesdrop, peep from other authors and make your own on this basis. Fourthly, as an option - do it as it turns out, and if no one likes it, let them delegate the task to another employee (after all, you warned that you don’t feel well, and you didn’t lie!).
"Literary Master Class" by writer and screenwriter Jurgen Wolf; in it famous writers talk about the techniques that helped them overcome the creative block.
Literary Masterclass: Learn from Tolstoy, Chekhov, Dickens, Hemingway and many other modern and classic authors
Jurgen Wolf
Mann, Ivanov & Ferber, 2014
Why you shouldn't be afraid of a creative crisis
“The smartest thing is not to worry too much about periods of creative sterility. They help the theme to mature and let the reality of everyday life into the plot.
Shelley Jackson suggests that creative dead ends are a perfectly normal part of the creation process:
“I sat on an unfinished draft for several years until I suspected, and rightly so, that I simply did not know how to finish it. When I returned to it again, I still didn’t know it, but I continued and eventually finished the book. If someone had immediately told me that I would never understand how to write novels, I would immediately continue, despite the almost complete confusion and doubt, and after completing the draft, I would evaluate what was written and begin to improve the book.
Roddy Doyle- another novelist with a rather nonchalant approach to work:
“In my opinion, I have never had a creative block. If a novel moves slowly or is extremely unsatisfactory, I switch to another book to return to the trouble spot later. I calmly write nonsense with the full understanding that this is nonsense and then I will correct everything. Often you have to write six bad sentences before you get to a good seven. But first you need to write these six, understand that they are bad, and guess that the seventh is what you need. So even bad days useful."
A temporary creative impasse was accompanied by the work Alice Munro over all her books:
“It happened that I wrote and thought that I was very advanced - I wrote more pages than usual. The next day I get up and realize that I don't want to work on this thing anymore. When I am so reluctant to continue that I have to force myself, I usually know that something is not going right. About three-quarters of the time I've had it so that I felt the urge to drop the story fairly early on. I spend a day or two in a severe depression, wandering around aimlessly and wondering if I should write something else. Everything is as in love story: frustrated and unhappy, you start dating a new guy who you don't like at all, but you haven't figured it out yet. Then suddenly appears new idea in the story I left behind: I need to see if it fits, but only after I say to myself: “No, everything is bad here, forget about it.”
Similar doubts about their own stories were Chekhov. He compared them to those not yet written:
“I have plots for five stories and two novels languishing in my head. One of the novels has been planned for a long time, so some of the actors already outdated before they could be written. I have a whole army of people in my head, asking to come out and waiting for a command. Everything that I have written so far is nonsense compared to what I would like to write and what I would write with delight ... I do not like that I am successful; those plots that sit in my head are annoyingly jealous of what has already been written; it's a shame that the nonsense has already been done, and the good is lying around in the warehouse like book trash.
Writers have several options for practical solutions to these issues.
Move to more
major issues
Paul Auster believes creative deadlock may be a sign that larger issues need to be addressed:
“The greatest patience is needed. After many weeks of sadness and months of suffering, I discovered that if a writer is at a dead end, it usually means that he does not understand what he really wants to say. You need to go back and carefully consider your motives, intentions and goals that you intend to achieve. But the main thing is not to force yourself to write further just to fill the last sheets with words.
Brainstorming topics
If the difficulty is that you have no idea for next book, try the method that applied Philip Roth. He told NPR radio how he came up with the plot of the novel Nemesis about the polio epidemic:
“I started [writing], as I often do: [writing down] in a yellow notebook on lined paper everything historical events which I have witnessed and which I have not yet reflected in my books. When I got to polio, it was a revelation for me. I never thought that this could be the subject of a book. Then I remembered how terrible, deadly he is, and I thought: “OK, try to write a book about polio ...” I wanted to understand: can I portray how much we were all afraid of him?
Roth used the same method for the book The Conspiracy Against America, where he tried to imagine what would have happened if not Franklin Roosevelt had won the presidential election in 1940, but Charles Lindbergh.
Write only if you believe
Ray Bradbury said:
“Those who get stuck are just doing things they shouldn't be doing: those who write scripts or books that shouldn't have been written will end up in writer's block because their subconscious will say:
“No more inspiration!”
His opinion is characteristic of the writer high level: if you write about what you love, a creative crisis will not come.
get treatment
Having experienced problems in the middle of writing the script for the film "Carter Defeats the Devil", Glen David Gold took a break for seventeen months to consider whether scriptwriting was a symptom of dealing with unhealed childhood trauma. He says:
“I decided to go through treatment, change my life, move on to another stage and come back. And then I decided that I needed to surprise myself. I was walking between the shelves in the library and decided that I would put on the stage an object from the first book that I came across. And it turned out to be the story of the guillotine! This was able to surprise me, prompt me to move from exposition to action and finish the rest of the plot.
Keep a diary
Dominic Dunn advises:
“I think keeping a diary is the best thing for a writer ... A journal will be especially invaluable in a creative impasse. Write down complaints to yourself about the creative crisis. Tell me how bad you feel, how angry you are that your talent suddenly left you. Describe the chapter or scene where you are stuck: what kind of characters are they and what do you want to achieve in this episode. Write about it. Believe me, everything will start to improve right there, in the diary.
Give a surprise
H. G. Wells advised:
"If you're having trouble with a book, try the element of surprise: attack her when she least expects it."
agreed with him Francis Scott Fitzgerald:
“Sometimes it is possible to solve a particularly difficult problem if you approach it from the very early morning, with the freshest forces of consciousness. I have done it so often that I blindly believe in this approach.
listen to music
Amy Tan speaks:
“There are many ways. One of them is to put on the same music that I listened to when I was working on this before. Music has a hypnotic effect and mobilizes all the senses. And I'm immersed in the right atmosphere."
Write one
present offer
Ernest Hemingway boosted my self-confidence:
"Sometimes starting new story, I could not move, and then I sat down in front of the fireplace, squeezed tangerine peels into the fire and watched the spray flare up with blue sparks. I got up, looked at the Parisian rooftops and thought: “Don't worry. You could write before and you will write now. You just need to write one truthful phrase. Write the most truthful one you can." In the end, I wrote down one true phrase and moved on from it. And it was already easy, because there was always one true phrase that you knew or saw, or heard from someone. If I started to write intricately, or lead to something, or demonstrate something, it turned out that these curls or decorations could be cut off and thrown away and start with the first truthful, simple affirmative sentence.
