The Surprisingly Simple Way to Overcome Creative Block

The Blockovercoming creative block

Have you ever tried writing a book, a blog, or business copy?

If so, you’ve probably experience writers block: the inability to form your ideas into the perfect words, sentences, and paragraphs.

But this type of block isn’t exclusive to writers.

All creative entrepreneurs - from writers, designers, and inventors, to artists, marketers, and entrepreneurs, experience creative block.

Creative block is the inability to satisfactorily form into something tangible the ephemeral ideas in your mind.

Creative block can hit anyone trying to tell the perfect story, build the perfect product, or produce the perfect piece of art.

And if you’ve experienced creative block, you know what an infuriating pain it is and how quickly it can cripple your project.

You also understand one thing only the few brave enough to create understand: Creative block is real.

The Tool of the Creative Enemy

Creative block is one of the Enemy’s most effective creativity-destroying weapons.

If you’re not careful, the Enemy will use creative block to get you to quit your project prematurely, give up before you even start, or abandon your life’s work althogether.

Don’t give up – there is a way to fight back and overcome creative block, once and for all.

But you must be ready to go to war with yourself and your art.

If you want to conquer fear, don't sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy. [Dale Carnegie]

The Paradox

There are ideas in your head - ideas that may be vivid, logical and clear before you sit down to write - but the moment you put pen to paper (fingers on keyboard) they vanish.

You sit down to bring these ideas to life but the ideas fade into nothing.

You stare at the screen desperately, hoping through sheer willpower you’ll be able to form your perfect idea into the perfect sentence…but it’s gone.

The worst part – throughout the day you had no problem at all coming up with great ideas.

But they all came at the most inopportune times.

These brilliant ideas come to you in their lucid entirety while driving, showering, or eating; while mindlessly folding clothes, lifting weights, or going on a long run; while in a conversation, reading a book, or listening to a presentation.

But the moment you need them – sitting in front of the blank screen - they vanish.

It seems like when you don’t need the ideas, the ideas come in waves, but when you need the ideas – when you sit down to write; when getting words on paper is the only thing that counts – the ideas disappear.

Insurmountable?

Hardly.

The Reality of Creative Block

There are ways to overcome creative block.

It starts with identifying the reality of the situation: yes, creative block exists…

But only when we care deeply about what we create and how people will perceive it.

If you don’t care about what you write, or you’re not concerned with how it's perceived, you can write freely and unencumbered (think personal journal or email to a close friend).

For those who care about their work and about how it's perceived, overcoming creative block can be a bit trickier.

Two Techniques that Don’t Work for Overcoming the Block

Fighting back against creative block is hard if we do it through force.

The two most common techniques are:

  1. Forcing the “Right” Words
  2. Waiting for “Inspiration”

Both of these techniques are equally ineffective and will wreck you in different ways.

Both are tools of the Enemy.

Both will bury you.

The only way to overcome creative block is through the circumvention of disempowering thoughts, and focused discipline of good habits.

Simply Create

Forcing the right words never works.

When we sit in front of a computer all day, stressing and straining to get the “right” words onto the screen, we begin our descent into the self-perpetuating abyss of wasted time.

If the words don’t come out right the first hour at your computer, they sure won’t come out right by hour five.

They won’t come out right because they can’t: the words you write are never right.  They’re also never wrong. 

When we focus on creating the perfect sentence, the perfect flow, the perfect tone, style, or theme, we forget what’s ACTUALLY important: the message. 

We forget our purpose; we forget our why; we forget the entire concept of art, which is this: art is never right or wrong.

The first and often most effective way to overcome creative block is to forget forcing the right words and begin allowing the wrong words...

People have writer's block not because they can't write, but because they despair of writing eloquently. [Anna Quindlen]

Eventually, once you allow enough of the wrong words, you’ll forget right and wrong altogether and simply create.

Disciplined Inspiration

Waiting for inspiration is pointless and futile.

Often, when we’re burned out, tired, or simply unmotivated, we rationalize taking off days, weeks, or months so we can reset and recharge.

The thought process: if I’m well rested, if I take some days of to reset my mind, I’ll come back better and stronger.  Plus, the best writing is inspired writing, so I must wait until I’m inspired before I write.

This is the Enemy at work.

The Enemy will justify why you should rest and save strength, why taking a break for an indefinite period is essential for creativity, and why avoiding writing is the surest way to clear your mind for more writing.

Lies.

The Enemy uses creative block to dismantle and destroy your project because it needs you sedated, compromised and passive.

The Enemy’s survival depends on keeping you safely hidden inside the group so as not to expose yourself through your art.

The Enemy fears you as an outlier and uses thoughts of ‘waiting for inspiration’ to cripple your dreams.

Don’t accept this for one second.

Here’s the reality: inspiration comes to those who grind, work, and create.

Inspiration comes to those who allow it to happen through movement, through action, through consistent, repeated behavior.

Inspiration comes to those who are disciplined.

I only write when I am inspired. Fortunately I am inspired at 9 o'clock every morning. [William Faulkner]

Sit down and create every day and you will find your inspiration.

The Courage to Create

When we put our words, ideas, and art out there; when we produce publicly; when we tell everyone who we are and what we’re about, we expose ourselves to the tribe.

And the tribe isn’t always on our side.

This fear of the tribe, of judgment and criticism, keeps many people from starting, finishing, and shipping their great work.

Overcoming creative block really isn’t a secret.  It just means doing the work every day.

But you already knew that.

The real question is: do you have the courage to create in spite of these fears?

And that, like everything important in life, is your choice.

 Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear. [Mark Twain]

 

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4 comments on “The Surprisingly Simple Way to Overcome Creative Block”

  1. Nice one Tom. A good message for the wide variety of creators out there.

    The "courage to create" is what got me. We have so many pressures on us. Our time is limited. The world at large doesn't need our permission so why do we at times so desperately want its. The courage to create, to be public to be vulnerable and sometimes, to not be "right" is such a good message to hear....and hear again!

    Cheers,
    Alan

    1. Thanks Alan! I think courage is too often overlooked but so essential to actually creating something meaningful. Love your thoughts on this!

  2. This is my favorite post of yours so far, and just what I've been needing. Yesterday I was staring at my computer for about two hours before I began my creative writing assignments. Thank you for writing this! I looked up advice on getting over writer's block yesterday, but to no avail. This puts it really simply and clearly. It answers all the worrisome questions in my head. Thank you Tom!

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