We’re well into November, which means writers from around the world are avidly scribbling away for NaNoWriMo (or National Novel Writing Month). With the aim of writing 50,000 words by the end of the month, it’s an exciting creative challenge that has seen some success: Erin Morgenstern’s The Night Circus and Sara Gruen’s Water for Elephants are perhaps two of the most notable books that started as NaNoWriMo projects.
But the intensity of creative challenges can quickly take their toll. While we might start with gusto and dedication, life often has the habit of standing in the way, despite our best efforts. As time wears on and other responsibilities suck up time and energy, it’s easy to put creating aside, gradually slipping off the wagon until you lose momentum entirely. Not to mention, being highly productive for a full month isn’t always realistic.
Here are ten tried and tested tips for when you lose your creative steam.
Go Outside
The oldest trick in the book: try and spend as much time out in the world as possible. Easier said than done these days, granted, but a quick walk around the block in the fresh air can be enough to blow away the cobwebs.
Venturing outside also offers the chance to explore new areas: ideal for inspiration! Last month, when I was stuck on an idea, I packed up my laptop and ventured to nearby coastal town, Stonehaven. Walking through unfamiliar streets and sitting on the beach, I could feel my imagination fire up. I then spent a couple of very productive hours in a café, powering through the tricky part of my project, filled with new ideas on how to tackle it.
From a quiet thinking spot at Stonehaven beach, October 2021.
Declutter
My desk is always at its tidiest when I’m working through a problem: no piece of laundry goes unfolded and the charity shop can usually expect a bag of donations.
Doing monotonous practical tasks that take up our focus but not our creative energy lets the subconscious work through the problem at hand. While you clean out your sock drawer, your brain is hard at work figuring out how to move characters from A to B or why that logo doesn’t look quite right. Win-win!
Be Inspired
Surrounding yourself with creativity might sound like the most frustrating activity on earth when we, ourselves, are creatively blocked. But immersing yourself in the bright and bold ideas of others can spark your own.
Read widely. Listen to music. Watch movies. Visit galleries and museums. Even attending events where people share their own creative processes can be helpful. The insightful conversations on the Creative Boom podcast are especially great for discovering different approaches to creativity. I’m currently dipping into Rou Reynolds’ Dear Future Historians and A Treatise on Possibility when I need some inspiration.*
Try Something New
Sometimes we bury our heads in a task for too long and the creative well eventually runs dry. It becomes so overfamiliar and our ideas become stale. The best thing to do is take a step away and do something totally different—and totally unrelated—to your project.
If you’re reluctant to step away entirely, why not mix things up a bit? Try new colour palettes. Use paints instead of pencils. Let your characters try something new, away from your main storyline: this might not make your final draft but the exercise will sharpen your creative thought and let you get to know your characters better. Shaking things up a little makes life more exciting—for you and your creations!
Set Deadlines
Need a bit of pressure to keep motivated? Creative challenges usually come with an overarching deadline but breaking your project down further and setting small daily targets can help to keep things manageable.
Take NaNoWriMo for example: focusing on writing 1,667 words every day, rather than the larger 50,000 target, immediately makes it less overwhelming. Taking part in a drawing challenge? Scheduling in prep time to come up with a primary theme and making preliminary sketches before the daily drawing challenge kicks off is less intimidating than coming up with ideas from scratch on the fly.
Exercise
Confession time. I’m one of those weirdos who drags myself out of bed in the wee hours to exercise. I often question why as I pull my trainers on, but on days I hit snooze, I feel more sluggish and end up spending more time scrolling aimlessly on my phone than I do putting my brain to work. Frustratingly, exercise does actually seem to be beneficial.
Exercise releases endorphins, combatting negative mental health demons like stress and anxiety. Squeezing in just 30 minutes of exercise every day can help make you more alert and give you the energy boost needed to crush your creative goals.
Reflect
When we begin to feel overwhelmed by the pressure to be continually productive, our projects are often the first thing to get dropped. Isn’t it funny how easily we shrug off creative pursuits?
Creative challenges can add to this feeling of pressure: the need to keep up and succeed. When it starts feeling like too much and you’re ready to give up, take some time to remember why you wanted to create in the first place. Whether it’s to write an entire novel, build your portfolio, or brush up on your skills, reminding yourself of your ‘why’ will help you refocus and keep taking those small steps towards completing your project.
Be Accountable
Creative work can often be lonely. We burrow away behind our pens, paints and ideas to get the job done. But when we’re stuck, a creative network is the most helpful thing to have.
Chatting ideas through with a friend, editor, or creative community, such as a writing group, can offer new perspectives on old problems. Not only are accountability buddies a fantastic source of support, but they also help keep you on track. Regularly checking in with your network will help keep you motivated and inspired!
The Ten-Minute Rule
On days where I really struggle with creative block and can feel the urge to shrug off creative tasks, I try the ten-minute rule: I switch on a timer for ten minutes and just push through that uncomfortable feeling, putting whatever comes into my head onto paper. Whatever hits the page during those ten minutes will probably never see the light of day, but it helps to get the ball rolling: almost like triggering muscle memory. The ten minutes often turns into a couple of hours as I get into the swing of things.
For the ten-minute rule to work effectively, it helps to shake off the idea that everything you create has to be perfect. Let your inner critic go and have fun being messy. It’s important to remember that no one looks at your earliest drafts: only you. As the late, great Terry Pratchett once said: “The first draft is just you telling yourself the story.” The fine details and polishing can be worked out later.
Rest
Running out of steam is sometimes our brain’s way of telling us we need to slow down. Even when taking part in a challenge that encourages daily activity, it can be important to walk away and switch off.
Taking a day off and coming back stronger will be more beneficial in the long run, instead of painfully battling through. Ignore the productivity goblin that sits on our shoulders, nagging us to do something. Your work will be better for it.
Above all, it’s important to have fun when creating: that’s why we all do it. These tricks help me to stay on track and enjoy the creative process. Got any others you’d recommend? Let me know!
*Disclaimer: This post includes affiliate links which means that I may receive a small commission if you buy these books through the listed links, at no additional cost to you. You can rest assured I only ever feature books that I’d gladly talk your ear off about IRL and the opinions shared here are my own.