Stay Creative
How do you keep those creative juices flowing? Writing takes concentration but what about when stress hits, or prior commitments pop up? Our obligations to children, animals, and significant others beckons, taking us away from our stories and our access to creativity. Whether you're writing a fiction story, a nonfiction piece, painting, or any other creative endeavor, it's far too easy to get blocked. But all is not hopeless.
Here are 11 different techniques and ideas for keeping those creative juices flowing: ones I’ve learned through trial and error in my 30ish-ish years writing and others from my favorite Writer’s Digest and a Huffington Post article by Stacia Pierce.
KEEP WRITING
Shut out the inner editor
We all have that pesky critic in our brains insists we can’t write: criticizes our prose, guffaws at our dialogue, even second guesses our use of the comma. Tell that critic to shut up and wait. Misspelled a word that your word editor didn’t autocorrect? LEAVE IT! That’s what the red squiggly underline is for, so you can go back and easily find those spelling and grammar errors!
Challenge yourself to write 100 word and 200 word stories and/or enjoy a writing prompt
Both the prompts and the short-short stories force you to tighten up your writing with parameters. When you know you only have 100 words to say what you need to say, your brain considers the weight of each sentence, of each word. I always get a tighter, stronger story as a result.
Freewrite
Let your fingers take the reins, and see where they take you. Sometimes, you might even figure out a problem with your plot! Huffington Post’s Stacia Pierce also says: “Write uninhibited thoughts early in the morning when you first wake up to jump-start your creativity. Brilliant ideas, solutions, and reminders will come early in the morning.”
Keep a journal
I also keep a writing journal to mark my progress on current projects as well as my state of mind as a writer.
STAY CREATIVE
If you’ve hit a wall, and are having trouble, try to do an activity that uses creative energy, preferably a creative endeavor that is not in your preferred artistic arsenal. As a writer, when I need to do a different imaginative activity, I’ll draw a picture. If, like me, you don’t know how to draw, do what I do. Get a book that teaches you how to draw or go on YouTube. I learned how to draw a horse, a dog, and an iris from watching instructive videos on YouTube. Write a poem, take pictures or videos with your phone or camcorder if you have one.
TAKE BREAKS
Taking breaks are essential. They allow us to stand up, stretch, get a drink, use the bathroom, eat, whatever you do on a break. Sometimes my brain starts going faster than I can write, and I get stressed out as a result. I set a timer for 5 minutes, longer as needed, and a time out. When I sit back down to the computer, I can write.If I get stressed out because I feel rushed for time due to a deadline, I wind up getting less work done. I take a break.
BREATHE!!!
There are many different forms of breathing exercises other than the typical breathing we do to survive.There are meditation exercises and even singing exercises that are quite similar to a lot of the meditation exercises that I’ve come across.If, when writing, I start to tense up, I take my hands off the keyboard and sit back. I take a deep breath then to the count of four and then I exhale to the count of four. As needed I will repeat and exhale for longer periods of time, like six seconds and eight seconds. Basically, focus on a long exhale. When we panic, our breath starts coming in going out very quickly and that’s what leads to hyperventilating and lightheadedness and all sorts of unhappy consequences. So when you feel yourself starting to panic or tense up, take a deep breath and breathe out really long and slowly. If you do this a few times you will begin
to notice your body naturally calming down. And then when you go back to your writing, you will be able to pick up where you left off in a nice calm creative manner.
INSPIRATION
What inspires you? Is it a person, place, or thing? I hang pictures on the wall right in front of me. The pictures are ones that I personally find inspirational. I love astronomy, the stars and planets, constellations, nebulae, everything space has to offer. It has a calming effect on me as well. I also have little sayings that can be mantras to keep me going and keep me creative.
DO ABSOLUTELY NOTHING
“Think of it as ‘creative lollygagging,’” writer Cris Freese submits. Sit back, let your brain relax, the thoughts will flow through you and out of you. Breathe into it. Some call this meditation, and if that works for you, go for it. But basically, do nothing. Listen to that nothing. Listen to your body. Listen to the train whistle outside, or the cars rushing past, the garbage truck barreling down your street, or the leaf-blowers showing up at the most inopportune time. Finding peace of mind can be difficult in such a noisy environment. I’ve tried going someplace else like a library or a coffee shop, when my “nothing” time is interrupted by unexpected noise.
STAY MOBILE
Don’t sit on the couch. Get out for a walk, a cup of coffee, paint the house, or go fly-fishing. Need more ideas? Go for a bike ride, or take a dance break. Turn up whatever music gets you dancing, and dance like no one’s watching. The point is, “it’s difficult to preoccupy a moving target.”I chose my favorite out the Huffington Post blog “21 Ways to Be and Stay Creative”.
ASK “WHAT IF?”
Allow yourself to imagine and think freely about ideas that come to you. Focus to remove the barriers and consider how everything would turn out if...From me – “What ifs” are great for writing exercises. You can take a character in your book that perhaps you’re having trouble with or not. Maybe you just want to do it for fun. Give that character a what if that is may be very different situation than this character has ever been put in before and it tests your character’s three-dimensional quality. I will give an example.
KEEP AN IDEA JOURNAL WITH YOU
Few things are as frustrating as the perfect line coming to me when I have nothing on which to record this brilliant idea. If you have a mind impervious to distractions, then you might not need this; however, for the rest of us, having some way to record the ideas, story notes, titles, and all the minutia that come up to us while otherwise engaged, is invaluable!
WRITE ON THE WALLS
Use extra-large paper you can stick on the wall and write your ideas. It’ll bring out the kid in you and help you to create freely. From me - Or just write directly on the wall! Only do this if they are your own wall though. Don’t draw on your parents or friends’ walls. They might not appreciate it.It’s OK to experiment. Try something new with your project. Listen to your gut and go for what hasn’t been done before... your best work can spring up out of a hunch! Give it a whirl... you can always adjust later.
SURROUND YOURSELF WITH CREATIVE PEOPLE
Creative types are all over the place, but a good place to look first is your immediate circle: friends, family, and acquaintances from work and/or school, etc. Other places to find creative people are in writing groups and other creative endeavors groups. I found a few writing groups that I absolutely loved on Meetup.com. Twitter is aflutter with writers of fiction and non-fiction, poetry, painters, musicians, etc. I have found #wssprint as a place where people join together to do writing sprints.
This list is hardly comprehensive, but hopefully gave you someplace to start adding to your writer’s toolbox to help you to stay creative. It’s also good to know when to take a break for the day, hang up your hat so to speak, let sleep take you, and wake up refreshed and ready to drum up some more creativity! Happy writing!