A small matter of creativity

[The Backward OX]

My creative spark seems to be going out.

I want to write fiction and cannot.

EDIT: I've edited out some nonsense about diet. Sorry, Thekla. My real problem is inhibition. I need to find a way to break out, that doesn't involve drugs.

Does anyone have anything to contribute on this topic that may help?

Thank you in advance.

[Thekla]

Hello OX,

I'm sure diet and exercise could help, but I think focusing on them doesn't address the creativity and writing idea very correctly. Might I recommend a few books on writing and creativity to you, and a possible fun project?

The first is a book called The Artist's Way, which is a 12-week program for unleashing your creativity with very powerful exercises: Powell's Books - The Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity: A Course in Discovering and Recovering Your Creative Self by Julia Cameron

You might also like Bird by Bird which is specifically about how to become a more creative and better writer: Powell's Books - Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott

If you read these or other books, the important thing is to actually do the exercises and follow the process - as reading a book on its own won't help you much.

I also find participating in National Novel Writing month is good at helping many people overcome writer's block. That's a project where people all over the country and even world try to write a 50,000 word novel in one month. By focusing on quantity instead of quality for a while, it becomes possible to overcome a lot of internal struggle against getting started and circumvent your inner critic a bit. You can find out about NaNoWriMo here: National Novel Writing Month

Good luck moving forward!

Take care,
Thekla

[The Backward OX]

Originally Posted by Thekla

Hello OX,

I'm sure diet and exercise could help, but I think focusing on them doesn't address the creativity and writing idea very correctly. Might I recommend a few books on writing and creativity to you, and a possible fun project?

The first is a book called The Artist's Way, which is a 12-week program for unleashing your creativity with very powerful exercises: Powell's Books - The Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity: A Course in Discovering and Recovering Your Creative Self by Julia Cameron

You might also like Bird by Bird which is specifically about how to become a more creative and better writer: Powell's Books - Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott

If you read these or other books, the important thing is to actually do the exercises and follow the process - as reading a book on its own won't help you much.

I also find participating in National Novel Writing month is good at helping many people overcome writer's block. That's a project where people all over the country and even world try to write a 50,000 word novel in one month. By focusing on quantity instead of quality for a while, it becomes possible to overcome a lot of internal struggle against getting started and circumvent your inner critic a bit. You can find out about NaNoWriMo here: National Novel Writing Month

Good luck moving forward!

Take care,
Thekla

Thanks for the reply. Regarding NaNoWriMo, I can no more write without thinking than fly to the moon. Inhibition is my middle name, and it's what I need to cast aside if I'm ever to write fiction.

[ArthurHung]

Start falling in love with doing what other people don't.

I'm one of the most creative people in the world and that's how I do it

[Thekla]

You don't have to write a certain way for NaNo. The beauty of it is that ALL you need to focus on is word count. The process will likely teach you how to write more freely, but you don't need to try to write any particular way at all. With NaNo, or any creativity exercise... it's not what's possible for you now that matters. It's what becomes more possible in the process of challenging yourself.

[Trezker]

Putting up artificial limits is a great way to generate creativity.

Pick a random requirement, like character X has to do Y with Z, and stick with it. Like improvisation exercises, you present yourself with limiting conditions and have to make it as interesting as you can within the box.

This can be done iteratively. First you set conditions for the whole story. That gets you started on the structure, just brainstorm. When your mind is empty you set conditions for a subsection of the story and brainstorm again.

Eventually you should have generated enough creative content so all you have left is the boring work of tidying everything up.

[Parthon]

OX: have you tried meditation?

[Annya]

Read books. Especially classics. I love to write and whenever I feel low on creativity, reading helps Free association, journal writing can help for a few days to give you a break from judging your own writing. One thing I do is carry with me a v. small notepad on which I scribble a moment of genius dialogue or metaphor or poetry. After a few days when I look back at these few one-liners I can begin to form some semblance of character traits, charcaters or plot devices or a whole story.

[Desmond]

The Backwardx OX:
Spend at least 5 minutes a day writing something random on a piece of paper. Pretend it was an assignment given to you, but don't make it dreadful, instead, look foward to it.

You can't "learn" creativity. So reading books will not help you. Just write random crap every day, and eventually a good idea will come to you. That's how everybody does it.

One day, you will look back, and find a story that you actually like, and build on it.

[Desmond]

Oops, my computer had issues and I accidentally double posted.

[Thekla]

Desmond, I agree that you can't learn creativity itself. I believe that we are all creative beings, and that creativity is natural... it's not something we need to learn. What you can learn to do, I think, is open yourself more fully to creativity, and unlearn all the things we've taught our minds to do that block creativity from surfacing in our conscious minds.