Tantalizing tips to evoke creativity and slay writers block

Sunday, June 21st, 2009 at 8:39 pm

Tantalizing tips to evoke creativity and slay writers block

The Challenge
A blank sheet of paper can be a terrifying thing – Inertia a 10,000 ton anchor. Writing a 500-700 word internet marketing article can become a daunting task. Even experienced writers are challenged from time to time and long for a cure for writers block.

Many newer writers discover the hardest part is just to get started. Others, once started, still find it difficult to come up with anything more than drivel. Should you find yourself in this situation, it may be best to stop. Get up. Walk away. Come back another day. But in the interim consider adapting the following writers block tips to your life.

This article will outline five keys to releasing your creativity and discuss how to overcome writers block and stimulate your creativity. Consider them though not as five tips, but five parts of your writing persona. Integrate them into your essence as a writer

Journal
Every writer has a silent unpaid assistant that is usually far more talented than they are – their subconscious. But too often their suggestions get misplaced, lost and forgotten. In part that’s because the subconscious mind tosses up its ideas at unannounced intervals – and usually when you are busy with other things. It’s imperative that you develop a system to capture these ideas.

Some carry notebooks with them at all times. Others always have some sort of voice recorder, and others simply keep a pen and paper handy. Whatever you choose, it’s imperative that you catch these fleeting gems and get them written down. Many you will later discard, but some will set your writing on fire. The genius of your subconscious is ephemeral. The ideas it reveals will dissipate like whiffs of smoke if you don’t capture them in some form of journal.

Relax
While a top ranked surgeon can also be a great tap dancer, you probably wouldn’t want them tap dancing while removing your gall bladder. So too with the task of writing. Your writing may be based on your career, hobby or passions, but the act of writing requires its own mental space.

You need to step out of the rest of your life, and relax. Take a deep breath and focus on your writing task, and not all the extraneous baggage that may be associated with it. Doing this requires a bit of self knowledge. You need to be aware of what triggers your emotions. What gets you excited, what gets your goat.

These emotions can be powerful assets that you can use to inform your writing, but if you are wrapped up in them when they are not part of your task at hand, they can also be debilitating. Instead you need to learn how to develop a state of being where you can disassociate from everything except the task at hand.

Nest
One of the best ways sustain a productive writing mood and atmosphere is to create a space for your writing. Design your own nest, where you can relax and work. Make it known that this is a “do not disturb” zone. And clear it of all other work and obligations. This is not where you pay bills, or twitter. This is where you write. It’s you place to tune out the rest of the world and zero in on your creative muses.

If you like coffee, have a coffee pot, if you prefer cold drinks, get yourself a mini refrigerator. If your writing is less regular, you can use any quiet space, but make it yours, and before beginning clear it of distractions. You want to place where you can get in the zone, and stay there. Once you get the words flowing, you want to keep in that groove. Keep those words coming until the river runs dry.

Mood
Understanding your won moods is the best writers block help. What time of day are you most productive? Do you like absolute quiet, classical music, white noise? Know yourself, and develop routines to take advantage of your peak productive periods.

Pay attention to your mood. Just as a warm up is essential for an athlete, you need to identify those things that help you loosen up and warm up in advance of a writing session. Do you like to work in bright sunlight, twilight or the dark of night. Part of the creative writing process is freeing your subconscious helper. Enabling it to step forward and take you places that may not have occurred to your conscious mind.

While some writers have relied on alcohol and drugs to release this phenomenon, you can achieve results by creating your own signature space and mood. Meditation, exercise, aromatherapy, lighting, music, and intriguing visual environment can all be incorporated into your own personal writers groove, but each of us needs to find our own personal recipe. Look into yourself and discover your own personal creativity triggers and incorporate them into your writing routine.

Getaway
Even then from time to time you may need to break the mold and escape your nest to find a cure for writers block. Personally, I enjoy walking through the tangle of underbrush along the Mississippi River gorge not far from my home. Nature can be refreshing. You may have a favorite beach or mountain top, or dimly lit table in a coffee house. When the lines are stale and the ideas flat, a change of pace may be the only answer. Avoid the siren of mindless television, seek out places where you can observe details that you would never otherwise see.

Mini adventures can refresh the soul, and dissolve the conundrums hampering your flow. While it’s usually best to create a routine, a nest and comfortable mood, breaking the mold on occasion is all it takes to rejuvenate the AWOL muse.

Writing is a personal journey. While a simple article may just be a matter of sitting down and tossing off a few lines for some, it can be an intense struggle for others.

Effective writing over time requires not just a way with words, but also a way with ourselves. If creative writing is to be part of your way of life, it’s a good idea to establish a place for it, both physically and mentally. Doing so, will make it all the easier to call upon that reluctant aide we all have, call it muse, or sub conscious, or the groove.