OVERCOME WRITER'S BLOCK
Techniques for Restoring and Maintaining Thought Flow
Techniques for Restoring and Maintaining Thought Flow
INTRODUCTION
If you are in the business of having new ideas, people and companies look to you for creativity and ingenuity and it is your job to come through with concepts that are thoughtful and original. It can be stressful to come up with new ideas every day. The added pressure of deadlines, approvals and money often make it harder to be creative. There is nothing quite like an unsatisfied client, boss, or professor to freeze up the wheels of the mind.
After years as a music composer and producer I have learned the hard way how to be creative under pressure. This little handbook, Overcome Writer's Block, is a compilation of the techniques I have developed over the years to keep my ideas flowing, even in the most stressful of situations.
Writer's Block is commonly misunderstood, so Section 1 clarifies what Writer's Block is and just as importantly what it is not. There are many issues that give us creative trouble, and Writer's Block is only one of them. Section 2 elaborates several techniques to spark creativity that have been foolproof for me. I rarely get mental blocks anymore, and I always get past them quickly by using one or several of these techniques.
If you are in the business of having new ideas, people and companies look to you for creativity and ingenuity and it is your job to come through with concepts that are thoughtful and original. It can be stressful to come up with new ideas every day. The added pressure of deadlines, approvals and money often make it harder to be creative. There is nothing quite like an unsatisfied client, boss, or professor to freeze up the wheels of the mind.
After years as a music composer and producer I have learned the hard way how to be creative under pressure. This little handbook, Overcome Writer's Block, is a compilation of the techniques I have developed over the years to keep my ideas flowing, even in the most stressful of situations.
Writer's Block is commonly misunderstood, so Section 1 clarifies what Writer's Block is and just as importantly what it is not. There are many issues that give us creative trouble, and Writer's Block is only one of them. Section 2 elaborates several techniques to spark creativity that have been foolproof for me. I rarely get mental blocks anymore, and I always get past them quickly by using one or several of these techniques.
SECTION 1: UNDERSTANDING WRITER'S BLOCK
WHAT IS WRITER'S BLOCK
We all get stuck. You know that feeling when the idea is on the tip of your brain. Like you can almost touch it but not quite. You sit in front of a blank sheet of paper wondering where to start. You think: There is no solution. I can't think of any new ideas. I am stuck.
You are experiencing Writer's Block - the wall between you and your ideas. The ideas are there, they just seem out of reach.
Writer's Block is not limited to writers, or even the arts. It goes far beyond into technology, science, architecture, business, you name it. Any field where you need to think and generate ideas (which is pretty much every field), there is potential for Writer's Block.
To understand Writer's Block and stuck ideas, we must first understand our minds and the way ideas work. First of all, a good idea is a process, not an event. It takes three steps:
Writer's Block happens by confusing the steps of this process. Many fall into the trap of premature Editing. Instead of generating lots of ideas during Step 1, they try to edit the ideas while they are having them. Or they try to develop them before deciding which ideas are the best.
Do you try to incorporate Editing while you're generating ideas? Do you ever have an idea and, before it's even all the way out, decide it's worthless and discard it? This kind of mental behavior can get you into trouble. It is easy for the editor in our minds to get carried away and begin shooting down every idea before it even gets a chance to be an idea.
This is Writer's Block: scrapping an idea so early in the the process that it seems like there was no idea in the first place.
But the ideas are there. Trust me, they're there. We just have to get them flowing again.
THOUGHT FLOW
What we are seeking is a general flow of ideas called thought flow.
Have you ever noticed that the people with the best ideas are also the people with the most ideas? I had a music teacher who told us that he had a perpetual improvisation going on in his head. "There's a G#," he would say, cocking his head to the side and pointing his finger into the air. That is a living example of thought flow, the near-constant stream of ideas that moves through your mind. It is the key to overcoming Writer's Block.
If thought flow is a river of ideas in your mind, Writer's Block is a dam in that river. You have to remove the obstacle or find a way around it in order to get things flowing again.
Being Creative
Creativity in general has a lot to do with establishing a healthy thought flow. Not all of your ideas will pertain directly to the task at hand, but that is a good thing. When your ideas are flowing, they come thick, fast, and about any topic under the sun. Even when the ideas don't pertain to the task at hand, it is important to keep your mind moving. Don't let the internal editors stop your thoughts. If you interrupt your thought flow by editing the unrelated ideas, you risk slowing the wheels of your mind and eventually stopping them altogether.
All thoughts are your friends. They invariably lead to other thoughts.
WHAT WRITER'S BLOCK IS NOT
A Lack of Ideas
Writer's Block is not a lack of ideas. It is an interruption in your thought flow. This is an important distinction. Do you have the knowledge and ideas but feel cut off from them? Do you feel like they are on the tip of your brain? If so, that is Writer's Block.
A Lack of Knowledge or Experience
Writer's Block is not to be confused with a lack of knowledge or experience. If you are having trouble coming up with great ideas because you don't know much about your topic or your work, then it is not a case of Writer's Block. A lack of knowledge can only be solved through study. Lack of experience can only be solved by doing.
If you haven't done sufficient research on your topic, don't think that the techniques in this essay will help you. These are techniques to restore thought flow, not to make you smarter or more experienced than you are. These techniques will help you access the knowledge that you already have and create some new connections and associations in your mind.
INSPIRATION
Inspiration is one of those sticky words that means something different to every person and often ends up meaning nothing. What is inspiration? It is being mentally or emotionally compelled to do something, especially of a creative nature.
Inspiration is not the magical force or bolt of lightning that many associate think it is. Occasionally inspiration is a momentary flash, but more often it is the sum of months of thought and consideration. Inspiration is beyond conjuring but not beyond building. Inspiration can be developed with time and persistence.
Find It
When you are having trouble building inspiration, try techniques like Stream of Consciousness and Opposite Day. These exercises will get your thought flow moving and can generate tremendous creative breakthroughs. You can increase your ability for creativity and inspiration by following three simple steps:
(This is not the place for an indepth exploration of things like inspiration or building creativity. I go into detail about those topics in How to Build Your Creativity.)
MOTIVATION
While a lack of motivation is not technically Writer's Block, it is a common obstactle on the path to achieving our creative goals. Lack of motivation comes from a conflict between your mental goals and the realistic necessities of achieving them. Most people when they say they lack motivation mean that their mind wants something but not enough to put in the actual work to achieve it. Their ego desires success or money or fame, but the realities of personality, persistence, logistics or hard work overwhelm their desire.
If your goals conflict with the realities of accomplishment, you need to reassess the equation from both sides: your mental goals and what you are willing to put yourself through. Most people don't take little things like time into consideration when setting goals. But time is a constant in our lives, and it takes a lot of time to accomplish anything worthwhile. If you want to realize great heights, you must also be willing to put in the time and effort.
Consider how you like to spend your time, because time and lifestyle are significant parts of the motivation equation. They are at least as important as money and adulation. Take a look at the Clarify Your Goals section to help you figure out if you're headed in the right direction. Choose goals that you can pursue with enthusiasm and emotion. Remember, if greatness were easy, everyone would do it.
Where To Start?
Sometimes you may be willing to do all the hard work necessary to achieve your goal, but you don't know what is necessary and you don't even know where to start. If you don't know what is necessary to achieve your chosen goals, do a little research. Think it through. Will it take money, connections, products (or all three) to get where you want to go? The answer is probably yes.
First, figure what you need, and then figure out how to get it. Take small steps in the direction of your goal. If you don't know where to start, the solution is simple: start anyway. You may not know what the perfect first step is, but no one does. Start down the path and adjust as you go. A good plan today is better than a perfect plan tomorrow. Do not let uncertainty prevent you from beginning your journey, because we will never finish if we don't begin.
CLARIFY YOUR GOALS
Preparation is important. If you are not prepared with sufficient knowledge, experience and direction, it will be difficult to move forward. It is easy to confuse a lack of any of these things, especially proper goals, with Writer's Block. What do you hope to accomplish? What do you expect your final product to be? What do you want the project to look like in five years? One year? Six months? One month? One week?
Start with the biggest picture. What is the ultimate goal in the best case scenario? If you can't say it out loud, how do you expect to accomplish it? Now work backwards through time, gradually getting closer to the present day. What will your project have to look like at the halfway point in order to achieve the final goal? What will it look like at the quarter-way point?
Work all the way back to the beginning and you will have a pretty good idea of where you are headed. And that gives you a good idea where to start.
It is fine to do things without knowing why or where you are headed. It often leads to wonderful discoveries that you could never plan, like in the Stream of Consciousness exercise. But make sure you know the difference between directed and undirected activity. Don't set out wandering and expect to end up some place specific. It is best to have at least a general sense of direction before you start.
We all get stuck. You know that feeling when the idea is on the tip of your brain. Like you can almost touch it but not quite. You sit in front of a blank sheet of paper wondering where to start. You think: There is no solution. I can't think of any new ideas. I am stuck.
You are experiencing Writer's Block - the wall between you and your ideas. The ideas are there, they just seem out of reach.
Writer's Block is not limited to writers, or even the arts. It goes far beyond into technology, science, architecture, business, you name it. Any field where you need to think and generate ideas (which is pretty much every field), there is potential for Writer's Block.
To understand Writer's Block and stuck ideas, we must first understand our minds and the way ideas work. First of all, a good idea is a process, not an event. It takes three steps:
- Step 1: Ideas - Generating ideas. Lots of ideas. More ideas than you need.
- Step 2: Editing - Taking your abundant ideas (from Step 1) and separating out the good from the bad and the great from the good.
- Step 3: Development - Armed with your best ideas, you can begin fleshing them out.
Writer's Block happens by confusing the steps of this process. Many fall into the trap of premature Editing. Instead of generating lots of ideas during Step 1, they try to edit the ideas while they are having them. Or they try to develop them before deciding which ideas are the best.
Do you try to incorporate Editing while you're generating ideas? Do you ever have an idea and, before it's even all the way out, decide it's worthless and discard it? This kind of mental behavior can get you into trouble. It is easy for the editor in our minds to get carried away and begin shooting down every idea before it even gets a chance to be an idea.
This is Writer's Block: scrapping an idea so early in the the process that it seems like there was no idea in the first place.
But the ideas are there. Trust me, they're there. We just have to get them flowing again.
THOUGHT FLOW
What we are seeking is a general flow of ideas called thought flow.
Have you ever noticed that the people with the best ideas are also the people with the most ideas? I had a music teacher who told us that he had a perpetual improvisation going on in his head. "There's a G#," he would say, cocking his head to the side and pointing his finger into the air. That is a living example of thought flow, the near-constant stream of ideas that moves through your mind. It is the key to overcoming Writer's Block.
If thought flow is a river of ideas in your mind, Writer's Block is a dam in that river. You have to remove the obstacle or find a way around it in order to get things flowing again.
Being Creative
Creativity in general has a lot to do with establishing a healthy thought flow. Not all of your ideas will pertain directly to the task at hand, but that is a good thing. When your ideas are flowing, they come thick, fast, and about any topic under the sun. Even when the ideas don't pertain to the task at hand, it is important to keep your mind moving. Don't let the internal editors stop your thoughts. If you interrupt your thought flow by editing the unrelated ideas, you risk slowing the wheels of your mind and eventually stopping them altogether.
All thoughts are your friends. They invariably lead to other thoughts.
WHAT WRITER'S BLOCK IS NOT
A Lack of Ideas
Writer's Block is not a lack of ideas. It is an interruption in your thought flow. This is an important distinction. Do you have the knowledge and ideas but feel cut off from them? Do you feel like they are on the tip of your brain? If so, that is Writer's Block.
A Lack of Knowledge or Experience
Writer's Block is not to be confused with a lack of knowledge or experience. If you are having trouble coming up with great ideas because you don't know much about your topic or your work, then it is not a case of Writer's Block. A lack of knowledge can only be solved through study. Lack of experience can only be solved by doing.
If you haven't done sufficient research on your topic, don't think that the techniques in this essay will help you. These are techniques to restore thought flow, not to make you smarter or more experienced than you are. These techniques will help you access the knowledge that you already have and create some new connections and associations in your mind.
INSPIRATION
Inspiration is one of those sticky words that means something different to every person and often ends up meaning nothing. What is inspiration? It is being mentally or emotionally compelled to do something, especially of a creative nature.
Inspiration is not the magical force or bolt of lightning that many associate think it is. Occasionally inspiration is a momentary flash, but more often it is the sum of months of thought and consideration. Inspiration is beyond conjuring but not beyond building. Inspiration can be developed with time and persistence.
Find It
When you are having trouble building inspiration, try techniques like Stream of Consciousness and Opposite Day. These exercises will get your thought flow moving and can generate tremendous creative breakthroughs. You can increase your ability for creativity and inspiration by following three simple steps:
- Be yourself
- Make time every day to be creative
- Write your ideas down when you have them
(This is not the place for an indepth exploration of things like inspiration or building creativity. I go into detail about those topics in How to Build Your Creativity.)
MOTIVATION
While a lack of motivation is not technically Writer's Block, it is a common obstactle on the path to achieving our creative goals. Lack of motivation comes from a conflict between your mental goals and the realistic necessities of achieving them. Most people when they say they lack motivation mean that their mind wants something but not enough to put in the actual work to achieve it. Their ego desires success or money or fame, but the realities of personality, persistence, logistics or hard work overwhelm their desire.
If your goals conflict with the realities of accomplishment, you need to reassess the equation from both sides: your mental goals and what you are willing to put yourself through. Most people don't take little things like time into consideration when setting goals. But time is a constant in our lives, and it takes a lot of time to accomplish anything worthwhile. If you want to realize great heights, you must also be willing to put in the time and effort.
Consider how you like to spend your time, because time and lifestyle are significant parts of the motivation equation. They are at least as important as money and adulation. Take a look at the Clarify Your Goals section to help you figure out if you're headed in the right direction. Choose goals that you can pursue with enthusiasm and emotion. Remember, if greatness were easy, everyone would do it.
Where To Start?
Sometimes you may be willing to do all the hard work necessary to achieve your goal, but you don't know what is necessary and you don't even know where to start. If you don't know what is necessary to achieve your chosen goals, do a little research. Think it through. Will it take money, connections, products (or all three) to get where you want to go? The answer is probably yes.
First, figure what you need, and then figure out how to get it. Take small steps in the direction of your goal. If you don't know where to start, the solution is simple: start anyway. You may not know what the perfect first step is, but no one does. Start down the path and adjust as you go. A good plan today is better than a perfect plan tomorrow. Do not let uncertainty prevent you from beginning your journey, because we will never finish if we don't begin.
CLARIFY YOUR GOALS
Preparation is important. If you are not prepared with sufficient knowledge, experience and direction, it will be difficult to move forward. It is easy to confuse a lack of any of these things, especially proper goals, with Writer's Block. What do you hope to accomplish? What do you expect your final product to be? What do you want the project to look like in five years? One year? Six months? One month? One week?
Start with the biggest picture. What is the ultimate goal in the best case scenario? If you can't say it out loud, how do you expect to accomplish it? Now work backwards through time, gradually getting closer to the present day. What will your project have to look like at the halfway point in order to achieve the final goal? What will it look like at the quarter-way point?
Work all the way back to the beginning and you will have a pretty good idea of where you are headed. And that gives you a good idea where to start.
It is fine to do things without knowing why or where you are headed. It often leads to wonderful discoveries that you could never plan, like in the Stream of Consciousness exercise. But make sure you know the difference between directed and undirected activity. Don't set out wandering and expect to end up some place specific. It is best to have at least a general sense of direction before you start.
SECTION 2: OVERCOMING WRITER'S BLOCK
If you've come this far in the essay, we'll assume that you are suffering from Writer's Block. The rest of these pages will help you restart your thought flow, assuming that you are at peace with your Inspiration (p8), Motivation (p9), and Goals (p10).
We Shall Overcome
To overcome Writer's Block, we must embrace the process of generating ideas. Some people call this brainstorming. I call it thought flow because ideally ideas should never really stop. They should be a constant in a creative mind. When our ideas are flowing, we can largely avoid Writer's Block. But when we do get
stuck, we need to know how to get the thought flow started again.
That's what this section is about: restarting and maintaining thought flow.
Start by embracing all of your ideas. Even the bad ones. You will be surprised at how free you become once you start loving your bad ideas as much as your good ones. As soon as you can embrace all your ideas, you will begin to notice the difference between good ideas and bad ones. And you will notice that some of the bad ideas are really good ideas in disguise.
Early ideas are like ugly ducklings. They may look dull and gray at the start, but as they grow and mature they become strong and beautiful. An idea should not be edited until it has bloomed in its full and choatic wonder. You may think you are saving time and effort by nipping bad ideas in the bud, but you are really preventing the seeds of ideas from growing and developing.
I can't tell you which ideas are good and which are bad. What is a bad idea for me might be a good idea for you, and vice versa. It's like they say: "One man's trash is another man's treasure." You will learn what works for you.
GET OUT OF THE HOUSE
Take a Walk
I will start with this technique because it is my favorite way to overcome Writer's Block. It is the simplest method but the most effective. I rarely have to try any other methods after this one.
Take a walk, take a jog, take a drive, see a movie, grab a drink, visit a friend, run an errand. Basically, do anything that takes your immediate focus off of your work. You can still think about it, but do something else too. By engaging our minds and bodies in a different activity, we partially access our subconscious mind and even connect it with our conscious. That makes this method very powerful, even in its simplicity.
Move Your Mind
Exercise helps you think. The brain is part of your body, so it benefits just as much as the rest of you when you exercise. Moving your body raises your blood pressure and releases powerful natural chemicals that both relax and invigorate your brain.
When you get the blood flowing in the rest of your body, it also gets flowing in your mind. That means elevated functioning and the stronger possibility for ideas. Sitting still and expecting your brain to function well is essentially like eating potato chips and ice cream and expecting to be able to run a marathon.
Break Your Normal Rhythm
All of us have habits, even mental ones. These are places that our mind goes when it faces challenges. Prevent your mind from finding its usual ruts. If you are used to working in a coffee shop, go to the library or stay home. If you are used to staying home, go out.
Force your mind into new and unusual situations. New experiences will activate different areas of your brain and help you make connections you couldn't make before. This method may seem obvious, but it works for me 95% of the time. When I am stuck on a thought or idea, going for a run almost always opens my mind and gets my thoughts flowing.
PACE
Pacing (walking back and forth repetitively) is another of my favorites. It has some of the same benefits as Getting Out of the House - it is slightly (and only slightly) distracting, and it gets the blood flowing a bit. But pacing has some distinct advantages that separate it from other physical activity.
Pacing is derivative of many age-old traditions that use repetitive physical movement to calm the mind so it can achieve a higher consciousness. Many African religious traditions use jumping for this effect. They repeatedly jump up and down, believing that the trance-like state it induces will bring them closer to God.
Similarly, the whirling dervishes of Turkey spin in circles to enter a trance and be united with Allah.
While not quite to the extreme levels of jumping or whirling (you can try these at your own risk), pacing has many of the same positive psychological effects as the more advanced versions. If you are pacing and you start to get a little dizzy, don't be afraid. There is a trance-like space that you can enter. A place where your mind is at peace while functioning on a very high level.
Of course, it takes a little bit of practice to know when enough is enough. You don't want to fall over and hurt yourself. So take it slow and be careful.
Take Note
Pacing is particularly good when you already have an idea but are stuck about how to move forward. It quiets the mind and allows you to work through many possibilities for realization. I like to carry a notebook while I pace, jotting down ideas as they come and quickly moving on. I also commonly talk to myself while pacing, working through segments of the ideas as they pop into my head. The vocalization helps solidify the ideas as well as slowing down the speed of my mind while I speak.
STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS
This is a great method for fleshing out an idea - if you have the idea but can't seem to get past it into the development. It is also great for discovering or rediscovering your inspiration or motivation. Stream of Consciousness writing never fails to unearth unexpected possibilities.
Here's how you do it: write what comes into your mind. Don't censor anything, even if it is unrelated to what you are seeking. Write about the football game if that's what you're thinking about. It is very possible that those thoughts could lead to thoughts of your topic, so don't force them. I have written pages and pages just to come up with a single line of lyrics for a song.
There is the danger in this method of falling into the repetitive All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy phenomenon where you just write the same thing over and over again. Don't let yourself do this. It is ok to write I'm bored or I have no ideas. But then you have to pursue it.
Here's an example: Why can't I think of any ideas? My brain isn't working. I'd rather be eating popcorn and watching a movie than doing this work. I'd really like to see that new Spielberg movie. A friend told me she cried at the end. She cries at every movie. She's just sensitive I guess. I wonder why she always cries. Why do some people cry and some people don't? Are they insecure or more secure than the non-cryers?...
This method is all about drawing connections in your mind. Follow the thread. You can never be sure when your stream of consciousness will tie back into the problem at hand. The point of the above example is to show how quickly you can get your brain moving away from a defeatist attitude and into a thought flow. This method works best if you can step away after writing. Let the thoughts sit on the paper for a day or two and then go back and read them with a pen. Cross out the unrelated ideas, underline the good ones.
And the best part is: Writing in a stream of consciousness almost always reveals new ideas that you didn't even know were in you.
WHAT WOULD SHAKESPEARE DO?
Copy someone who you admire. Of course it doesn't have to be Shakespeare. What melody would Mozart use? What colors would Van Gogh pick? What decision would Steve Jobs make? Imagine your heroes and pretend you are them. Do what they would do.
You don't have to keep what you create as you imitate, but it will knock loose some of the restrictions in your mind and unveil ideas that were in you but being edited. This method illuminates the amount of knowledge that is in us. Often, we have perfectly good ideas but shy away from them because we fear that if they are ours, they are unworthy. This technique removes that self- conscious barrier, allowing you to have brilliant ideas by giving someone else credit for them.
You will be surprised how much of your own personality comes through even when you are trying to imitate someone verbatim. At the very least it is your interpretation of their work. When you imitate, you create a gray area between you and your subject.
You can try mixing characters: A Maya Angelou character in a Robert Frost poem. Or Tom Waits doing a Tony Bennet song. Gradually your imitations will become so diluted that you are creating original work even though you're imitating while you create it. And hopefully you'll realize that you are coming up with ideas that are worthy of Shakespeare himself.
OPPOSITE DAY
This is a fun one - coming up with all the wrong ideas to illuminate the right ones.
The Opposite Day technique is useful when you don't know where to start. You may have done all the research and gained all the knowledge, but you are still stuck coming up with that first seed of an idea. Create the opposite of what you actually want to create. Literally. Think about what you specifically don't want, then do it.
If you're writing a song, write the stupidest, most obtuse song you can conjure. If you are a poet, write a children's story or a limerick. You can write about what's current in your field. What is everyone else doing? Is their work good or bad? What are they doing right? What are they missing? Make a list of things not to do in this situation.
As you work through what it is you don't want to do, your point of view often becomes clear. It rarely takes me more than a few minutes of considering what not to do before I realize what I do want. By coming up with the wrong answers, the right ones often present themselves. A lot of times, good ideas will come out even when you're trying for bad ones. Simply removing the pressure of creating brilliance often opens the mind and starts your thought flow.
PURSUE THE OBVIOUS
When you are stuck on one aspect of a project, you can still make progress on a different aspect.
Whatever you know, do that. Pursue the path of least resistance. This has the advantage of freeing your mind from the topic that's bogging you down while still moving you forward in the bigger picture. Don't beat your head against the wall trying to figure out the one thing that you can't. If you know another detail, work on that. Follow the thread of what you do know. Often the big picture becomes clearer as you put the pieces in place illuminating the path toward progress in the problem area.
We are trying to jog your mind into action by taking the path of least resistance. At the very least, we want to get it moving. And in this technique we even take steps to complete the project at hand. This technique works especially well when you have a large scale project with lots of segments. Larger projects make it easier to set one section aside while you work on another.
This technique is also great if you're on a deadline. It promotes action and progress toward completion of the project.
TAKE A VACATION
When All Else Fails...
Sometimes we just need to take time off. This is a more extreme version of Getting Out of the House. Our brains occasionally need distraction and recharging. Too much focus makes us dull. Too little diversity in our minds and lives gets us stuck in ruts.
Creative energy is like a bucket of water. When you work on a demanding project you are forced to dump the bucket out, using your stores of mental energy and even the stores of ideas. This is especially true if you have done a lot of creative work recently. If you feel like your ideas are exhausted, now might be the perfect time to take a break and refill the bucket.
Even when there are enough ideas to keep you busy for three lifetimes, you may be exhausted of your creative energy. So even though you have ideas to spare, you still feel like you can't get anything done. When this happens, you simply need to take a step back. Take a little break. Focus your mind on something else or nothing at all.
There is no shame in taking other work or trying a new hobby. These new activities will open your mind to new structures and functions. And that will make you more creative, not less. The ideas are there. They have not deserted you. Your energy and desire to create will return. They just need a little time.
IN THE END
Regardless of the method you use, it is important to get your thoughts going and keep them going. Don't let insecurities block you from the great ideas that are just on the other side of that wall. Once your thought flow is started, it is easier to maintain. I am constantly writing down ideas so that I can keep my thoughts moving forward without wasting too much mental energy on remembering.
It is also important to build your base of knowledge and skill through study and practice. That will expand your foundation for having ideas and give you more resources for realizing them. It seems like the more I learn, the easier it is to have ideas and fit them in where I want them.
We Shall Overcome
To overcome Writer's Block, we must embrace the process of generating ideas. Some people call this brainstorming. I call it thought flow because ideally ideas should never really stop. They should be a constant in a creative mind. When our ideas are flowing, we can largely avoid Writer's Block. But when we do get
stuck, we need to know how to get the thought flow started again.
That's what this section is about: restarting and maintaining thought flow.
Start by embracing all of your ideas. Even the bad ones. You will be surprised at how free you become once you start loving your bad ideas as much as your good ones. As soon as you can embrace all your ideas, you will begin to notice the difference between good ideas and bad ones. And you will notice that some of the bad ideas are really good ideas in disguise.
Early ideas are like ugly ducklings. They may look dull and gray at the start, but as they grow and mature they become strong and beautiful. An idea should not be edited until it has bloomed in its full and choatic wonder. You may think you are saving time and effort by nipping bad ideas in the bud, but you are really preventing the seeds of ideas from growing and developing.
I can't tell you which ideas are good and which are bad. What is a bad idea for me might be a good idea for you, and vice versa. It's like they say: "One man's trash is another man's treasure." You will learn what works for you.
GET OUT OF THE HOUSE
Take a Walk
I will start with this technique because it is my favorite way to overcome Writer's Block. It is the simplest method but the most effective. I rarely have to try any other methods after this one.
Take a walk, take a jog, take a drive, see a movie, grab a drink, visit a friend, run an errand. Basically, do anything that takes your immediate focus off of your work. You can still think about it, but do something else too. By engaging our minds and bodies in a different activity, we partially access our subconscious mind and even connect it with our conscious. That makes this method very powerful, even in its simplicity.
Move Your Mind
Exercise helps you think. The brain is part of your body, so it benefits just as much as the rest of you when you exercise. Moving your body raises your blood pressure and releases powerful natural chemicals that both relax and invigorate your brain.
When you get the blood flowing in the rest of your body, it also gets flowing in your mind. That means elevated functioning and the stronger possibility for ideas. Sitting still and expecting your brain to function well is essentially like eating potato chips and ice cream and expecting to be able to run a marathon.
Break Your Normal Rhythm
All of us have habits, even mental ones. These are places that our mind goes when it faces challenges. Prevent your mind from finding its usual ruts. If you are used to working in a coffee shop, go to the library or stay home. If you are used to staying home, go out.
Force your mind into new and unusual situations. New experiences will activate different areas of your brain and help you make connections you couldn't make before. This method may seem obvious, but it works for me 95% of the time. When I am stuck on a thought or idea, going for a run almost always opens my mind and gets my thoughts flowing.
PACE
Pacing (walking back and forth repetitively) is another of my favorites. It has some of the same benefits as Getting Out of the House - it is slightly (and only slightly) distracting, and it gets the blood flowing a bit. But pacing has some distinct advantages that separate it from other physical activity.
Pacing is derivative of many age-old traditions that use repetitive physical movement to calm the mind so it can achieve a higher consciousness. Many African religious traditions use jumping for this effect. They repeatedly jump up and down, believing that the trance-like state it induces will bring them closer to God.
Similarly, the whirling dervishes of Turkey spin in circles to enter a trance and be united with Allah.
While not quite to the extreme levels of jumping or whirling (you can try these at your own risk), pacing has many of the same positive psychological effects as the more advanced versions. If you are pacing and you start to get a little dizzy, don't be afraid. There is a trance-like space that you can enter. A place where your mind is at peace while functioning on a very high level.
Of course, it takes a little bit of practice to know when enough is enough. You don't want to fall over and hurt yourself. So take it slow and be careful.
Take Note
Pacing is particularly good when you already have an idea but are stuck about how to move forward. It quiets the mind and allows you to work through many possibilities for realization. I like to carry a notebook while I pace, jotting down ideas as they come and quickly moving on. I also commonly talk to myself while pacing, working through segments of the ideas as they pop into my head. The vocalization helps solidify the ideas as well as slowing down the speed of my mind while I speak.
STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS
This is a great method for fleshing out an idea - if you have the idea but can't seem to get past it into the development. It is also great for discovering or rediscovering your inspiration or motivation. Stream of Consciousness writing never fails to unearth unexpected possibilities.
Here's how you do it: write what comes into your mind. Don't censor anything, even if it is unrelated to what you are seeking. Write about the football game if that's what you're thinking about. It is very possible that those thoughts could lead to thoughts of your topic, so don't force them. I have written pages and pages just to come up with a single line of lyrics for a song.
There is the danger in this method of falling into the repetitive All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy phenomenon where you just write the same thing over and over again. Don't let yourself do this. It is ok to write I'm bored or I have no ideas. But then you have to pursue it.
Here's an example: Why can't I think of any ideas? My brain isn't working. I'd rather be eating popcorn and watching a movie than doing this work. I'd really like to see that new Spielberg movie. A friend told me she cried at the end. She cries at every movie. She's just sensitive I guess. I wonder why she always cries. Why do some people cry and some people don't? Are they insecure or more secure than the non-cryers?...
This method is all about drawing connections in your mind. Follow the thread. You can never be sure when your stream of consciousness will tie back into the problem at hand. The point of the above example is to show how quickly you can get your brain moving away from a defeatist attitude and into a thought flow. This method works best if you can step away after writing. Let the thoughts sit on the paper for a day or two and then go back and read them with a pen. Cross out the unrelated ideas, underline the good ones.
And the best part is: Writing in a stream of consciousness almost always reveals new ideas that you didn't even know were in you.
WHAT WOULD SHAKESPEARE DO?
Copy someone who you admire. Of course it doesn't have to be Shakespeare. What melody would Mozart use? What colors would Van Gogh pick? What decision would Steve Jobs make? Imagine your heroes and pretend you are them. Do what they would do.
You don't have to keep what you create as you imitate, but it will knock loose some of the restrictions in your mind and unveil ideas that were in you but being edited. This method illuminates the amount of knowledge that is in us. Often, we have perfectly good ideas but shy away from them because we fear that if they are ours, they are unworthy. This technique removes that self- conscious barrier, allowing you to have brilliant ideas by giving someone else credit for them.
You will be surprised how much of your own personality comes through even when you are trying to imitate someone verbatim. At the very least it is your interpretation of their work. When you imitate, you create a gray area between you and your subject.
You can try mixing characters: A Maya Angelou character in a Robert Frost poem. Or Tom Waits doing a Tony Bennet song. Gradually your imitations will become so diluted that you are creating original work even though you're imitating while you create it. And hopefully you'll realize that you are coming up with ideas that are worthy of Shakespeare himself.
OPPOSITE DAY
This is a fun one - coming up with all the wrong ideas to illuminate the right ones.
The Opposite Day technique is useful when you don't know where to start. You may have done all the research and gained all the knowledge, but you are still stuck coming up with that first seed of an idea. Create the opposite of what you actually want to create. Literally. Think about what you specifically don't want, then do it.
If you're writing a song, write the stupidest, most obtuse song you can conjure. If you are a poet, write a children's story or a limerick. You can write about what's current in your field. What is everyone else doing? Is their work good or bad? What are they doing right? What are they missing? Make a list of things not to do in this situation.
As you work through what it is you don't want to do, your point of view often becomes clear. It rarely takes me more than a few minutes of considering what not to do before I realize what I do want. By coming up with the wrong answers, the right ones often present themselves. A lot of times, good ideas will come out even when you're trying for bad ones. Simply removing the pressure of creating brilliance often opens the mind and starts your thought flow.
PURSUE THE OBVIOUS
When you are stuck on one aspect of a project, you can still make progress on a different aspect.
- Work on the outline.
- Write the 3rd verse.
- Write the conclusion first.
- Decide on the cover.
- Pick a title.
Whatever you know, do that. Pursue the path of least resistance. This has the advantage of freeing your mind from the topic that's bogging you down while still moving you forward in the bigger picture. Don't beat your head against the wall trying to figure out the one thing that you can't. If you know another detail, work on that. Follow the thread of what you do know. Often the big picture becomes clearer as you put the pieces in place illuminating the path toward progress in the problem area.
We are trying to jog your mind into action by taking the path of least resistance. At the very least, we want to get it moving. And in this technique we even take steps to complete the project at hand. This technique works especially well when you have a large scale project with lots of segments. Larger projects make it easier to set one section aside while you work on another.
This technique is also great if you're on a deadline. It promotes action and progress toward completion of the project.
TAKE A VACATION
When All Else Fails...
Sometimes we just need to take time off. This is a more extreme version of Getting Out of the House. Our brains occasionally need distraction and recharging. Too much focus makes us dull. Too little diversity in our minds and lives gets us stuck in ruts.
Creative energy is like a bucket of water. When you work on a demanding project you are forced to dump the bucket out, using your stores of mental energy and even the stores of ideas. This is especially true if you have done a lot of creative work recently. If you feel like your ideas are exhausted, now might be the perfect time to take a break and refill the bucket.
Even when there are enough ideas to keep you busy for three lifetimes, you may be exhausted of your creative energy. So even though you have ideas to spare, you still feel like you can't get anything done. When this happens, you simply need to take a step back. Take a little break. Focus your mind on something else or nothing at all.
There is no shame in taking other work or trying a new hobby. These new activities will open your mind to new structures and functions. And that will make you more creative, not less. The ideas are there. They have not deserted you. Your energy and desire to create will return. They just need a little time.
IN THE END
Regardless of the method you use, it is important to get your thoughts going and keep them going. Don't let insecurities block you from the great ideas that are just on the other side of that wall. Once your thought flow is started, it is easier to maintain. I am constantly writing down ideas so that I can keep my thoughts moving forward without wasting too much mental energy on remembering.
It is also important to build your base of knowledge and skill through study and practice. That will expand your foundation for having ideas and give you more resources for realizing them. It seems like the more I learn, the easier it is to have ideas and fit them in where I want them.