The last couple of weeks my blog has been a little dry. Amidst the essay writing to finish out my degree, the small group materials for church, prep for camp and an epic week of Youth activities I just haven’t felt the desire to write all that much. The book is just around the corner, in fact I get a shipment of them tomorrow. I thought that would pick me up, but I still feel like I have been in the creative doldrums. When I get here, I have some strategies that I use to get out. I wanted to share them, just in case I have some creative buddies who get in a similar situation and need some inspiration to get out.
1) Continue to write anyway, I may not blog. My post may not be that interesting. Even when I feel glum, I try and write a couple of essays/reports/biblestudies. The goal is to continue to work the muscle even if the quality of the work isn’t very good. No one has to see this stuff but it continues to keep me in the writing zone.
2) Paint/Draw/Play Guitar, I am not good at any of the above. I love to do them because they help me to flex a different creative side. If I am feeling like a I have hit a creative wall, I start to work different avenues of creativity. So I break out the charcoal, I get out the stencils, I break out my amp and I start to flex a different creative side.
3) Art book/Cookbooks/Architecture, I love these things, especially street art books. Anytime I get my hands on a quality street art book my writing comes back. Cooking has the same result, if I can get creatively inspired about cooking, then everything else starts to flow again. Architecture is great, composition of creativity in a new space is always fun. There might be limited architecture in Phoenix but there are still some very cool spaces to visit.
4) Taking a walk/ Exercise, Staring at a computer screen can feel a little like a stand-off. Staring into the monitor waiting for inspiration to hit often times doesn’t work. So I get up go outside and take a walk. The fresh air and the motion seems to help. When I finish a full session at the MMA gym I train at I get the same inspiration. Sometimes a good workout helps to blow out the cobwebs and gets me back into the game.
5) A Shower/Bath, The premise for my just finished book, and my next one came to me in the bath. I get these wild creative moments in the shower. Honestly it is weird and unusual but the shower is like my fortress of creativity. It always seems to help.
6) Eating Out, I am a fan of visiting cool/hip restaurants with my wife. Not for the food. For the energy of the space. I don’t like cramped, pretentious, restaurants. I love large expansive spaces, getting into a restaurant like that gets me creatively excited.
7) Conferences, When all else fails a conference seems to leave my head spinning with creativity. I do love a good conference. The challenge for me is to limit them, to allow me to focus on a couple of concepts. Conferences always pull me out of a creative rut.
