How to overcome creative crisis among designers? How to get out of a creative crisis. A new type of creative activity

Accept that you are experiencing a creative crisis. If you have writer's block, no ideas come to mind when you write, you're just stuck on what to write next. Understand that any impasse can be easily overcome and there are many ways to deal with it. Don't settle for thinking that you'll never write again.

Write about anything. Write about anything in the world, even write about pineapples. This will allow your brain to think more and think creatively. This is best practice for many people. After you've thought about a paragraph or sentence, come back to your topic.

Get some of your ideas down on paper without worrying about how they sound. The writing may not be brilliant; Writers often experience writer's block because they worry so much about the quality of their writing. Remember that you don't need to show anyone the world you wrote. You can show it when you are ready.

Try changing the pace. For example, if you have a long futuristic sequence, try moving into a motivated conversation. Rest assured that this transition makes sense. Don't write at the same speed and in the same tone all the time. Something different can ultimately really inspire you to reach new heights. If you have a penchant for writing dramatic stories, switch to something light-hearted, and vice versa.

Know when to give up on an idea. Look at what you've written and ask yourself, "does it feel like you're going nowhere?" If you feel this way, then it's time to change your direction.

Decide if you really feel the real situation. You may get into writer's block if the situation is not realistic for you. Don't be afraid to rewrite part of the story to make it more natural.

Try starting with a different part of your story. If you have problems at the very beginning, try starting from the middle or end. After finishing one part of the story, return to the starting place.

When writing out the order, more familiarization may be required from beginning to end. At the same time, it can help you come up with details when you don't know what to write about next. Writing a good ending will help give your story structure while you think about the rest.

Write something completely different. You might even be surprised at how much you enjoy it. A monologue, a song, a poem, or you can spend a little time writing a scene with a completely different story, it will make you feel the writer's blood running through your veins.

Use hints. For all writers who have a writer's block, using writing prompts is the most effective means of getting out of it. Use any random word or sentence to start your story. For example, if you ask a friend for a clue and he says the words "Forever" and "Passion," you'll likely think of romance. And if they said the phrase “Bite me,” you would most likely think of vampires or werewolves.

Use the world around you. Use the people around you and personalities. Use the character, atmosphere and scenes that surround you to create your story/plot. The best possible way to do this is to use a journal. Describe in it your daily life, your random thoughts, feelings.

If you maybe can't write about something, just name a bunch of objects, ideas. Even if you think it won't work. This is a common way to get rid of creative block. It's much easier to say what you're thinking out loud. You're bound to come across something. Good luck!

Start with a character
1. Take paper, pen or pencil. Or use your computer if that's more convenient for you. The first thing you need to create your character is a blank sheet of paper.
  
  Write down the name, the first name that comes to mind, at the top of the page. It could be the name of a person you know, a person you've read about, or even just straight out of your head.
  
  Ask a question about the person. Under his name, start making a list, ask yourself the following questions: Who is this? How he / she looks? Are there any brothers or sisters? If yes, who are they?
  
  Let the character develop. See his character in your head, become the character.
  
  Try to imagine the character's life. What does it look like when the hero wakes up in the morning? Does he work or go to school? How does he feel in his family? What does he like for lunch? All these details come together to life.
  
  Look what you wrote. When you are done with the list. Read it and hopefully you can put that character into a scenario that might spark a story idea. Just one detail can pique your interest in an entire story.
  
  Play the "and then" game. Surprisingly, this game is a great way to get out of creative block. You start with any random phrase, for example, "Once upon a time there lived a girl named Destiny" you continue the story with the phrase "and then" after each sentence. And then she met a guy named Daniel. And then she found out that he was a vampire and so on. This may not be the story you write, but the deeper you dive into this game, the sooner you will find a way out of the situation.
  
  Write a backstory about your main character. Create tons of information about your main character. Why is her hair so short while all the other girls have long braids? Her hair was also like that, but the evil man wanted to cut her neck in pursuit, and she managed to dive, as a result he cut off a clump of her hair.
Get inspired by reading
Avoiding perfection
Play Crazy Games
- If you can't do any of these things you just read about: reading will give you ideas on how to write and what to write. Take a break, it's necessary. Try to write every day, but don't force yourself to write too much. Your writing will not benefit from this.
- Write a paragraph that sounds good, exciting, touching, or somehow good in a different way. And see if you can pick a story that matches it.
- Next time, get to the point in your letter where you are excited. Even if it means taking a break.
- If you love art, try drawing one of the characters, scenes of a place, objects, or anything else from your story; this will really help you get out of creative impasse. Designing a cover for your book will help get you excited about your story and bring your inspiration for it to life.
- Don't be afraid to emphasize your character's personality a little, but not too much, as they will become unloved.
- Mock interviews with your characters to practice characterization or create some characters for them. Understanding your character is a key part of writing.
- You can use these steps to visualize your strings, it works great.
- Listen to inspiring music. It is preferable if it is on the topic of your story or related to a certain point in it. If it's a romance novel and you're stuck in a scene where you want to connect two loving hearts, listen to something that reflects that musically.
- Take what is written, it does not have to be correct. Your first project is not your final project. Don't be such a perfectionist.
- Leave everything alone. Even during a creative crisis, an idea can come to you one day. So don't worry, everything will be fine.
- Have a character do something like dye their hair purple.
- Seeking step-by-step help can yield better results.
- Your friends can help you find new ideas when you don't have any. Try to communicate with them about the scenes that flash in your head.
- Allow yourself to write nonsense. This will help lead to new stories.
- Do not give up! Almost every writer experiences a crisis. This doesn't mean you need to stop writing.
- Just wait, inspiration will come to you. If you don't have an idea, maybe you should leave the manuscript for a few weeks and then come back to it.
- Try meditating. This will help you open your mind and cope with creative crisis.
- When you don’t know how to characterize a hero, imagine what he looks like, what he wears, what he does.
- Listen to music that matches your scenario. You can even create a whole playlist for all the episodes. Music is a great way to get out of a creative crisis. Listen to what makes you happy, but don't overdo it as it may distract you from the main task. You should be writing, not getting distracted by the music and singing and dancing along.
- Travel, look around, use what you see. Are there people nearby, do you feel good in a cafe or park?
  - Take a pen and paper or a laptop, whichever is more convenient, and try to start writing somewhere quiet. Write down the things you need to do today. Write about arguments with your husband, wife, child, or neighbor. Describe the ideal scenario for a picnic with friends. Write everything that is not related to your story. Just write, quickly and with emotion, and in what you write you will find a chain that will help you get out of the crisis.
- Write cheerfully and with pleasure.
- You do not must use a notebook, use what you are comfortable writing in. For example: laptop, sketchbook, computer or notepad.
Warnings
- Do not give in to stress due to a creative crisis, it can worsen and drag on for a long time.
- A crisis is harder to overcome if you wait to write.
- Don't work with prompts that make you uncomfortable.
- Never focus on how difficult it is to get out of a creative crisis. If you constantly think about it, it will become increasingly difficult to give up this thought.
- Don't just write something for it to be, you'll still have to go back and redo it.

Brandon Turner

Entrepreneur, investor, author of several books and editor-in-chief of a social network specializing in real estate. Brandon developed his own algorithm, following which you can forever forget about what a creative crisis is. Using it, he was able to write 250,000 words in a year.

You firmly decided to write something, sat down at your workplace, opened your laptop and text editor, but the inspiration suddenly disappeared somewhere insidiously. A good half hour has passed, and you continue to sit in front of a completely blank page.

It doesn't matter what you're trying to write: a book, a blog article, or anything else. Writer's block, or writer's block, is a very real thing that will slow down your work and be incredibly annoying.

It is unlikely that any of us can absolutely guarantee that every day, under any conditions and weather, we can easily issue one, or even several.

Inspiration is a capricious and fickle thing, so you need to be able to write without waiting for it. Below we will look at four simple tips that should help in this situation.

1. Use "kindergarten" tricks

Remember when you were a child, teachers probably asked you more than once to complete an assignment in which you had to fill in the blanks with missing words. Something like that:

My favorite color - ________.
My mother's name - ________.
When I grow up, I want to become ________ because ________.

It’s unlikely that you experienced any particular difficulties in completing this task then, right? There was no talk of any creative blocks. The reason for this simplicity is that the topic has already been determined in advance and all that is required of you is simply to write the right words in the appropriate places.

This is why filling in the gaps in your work is considered the easiest way to overcome writer's block. A detailed action plan will help you. The more details and subtleties you can pre-think and mentally place in your still imaginary text, the easier it will ultimately be to write it.

Today, before responding to emails to the right people, I spent five minutes outlining every point I wanted to get across. Therefore, when it came time to write the letters themselves, all I had to do was just “fill in the gaps” for each specific letter, expanding each idea point by point. Writing letters did not take much time: it only took half an hour to sort out the mail. I only got through it so quickly because I didn't have to make any decisions. It wasn’t like I just sat there and thought, “Hmm, what should I write about today?”
Brandon Turner

The most difficult part of the job is the decision-making process. Therefore, if you cope with this task in advance, then much more. Don't complicate things: when you realize that you can't move from a dead point, just remember this naive kindergarten method.

2. Take cues from professional athletes

Have you ever seen a professional golfer getting ready to put a ball in the hole? Have you noticed how a basketball player shoots a free throw? Or how does a baseball pitcher throw a ball?

playbuzz.com

When athletes are about to perform a trick that they've done a million times before, they almost always stick to some kind of pre-established routine. For example, they take three steps to the right, spin the ball in their hand, or bounce it off the floor. They all have a little ritual that precedes the routine action.

Why do they need this? A pre-established order helps to tune in to the correct execution of the action and strengthens a kind of “success mindset”. The same rules apply to writers. It's time to come up with a couple of rituals for yourself.

When Brandon Turner wrote his first book, his daily routine was very simple:

Get up at 5:30.
Drink a glass of water.
Do a five-minute exercise.
Sit on the sofa for a while (always in the same place).
Open laptop.
Review your pre-planned action plan.
Start “filling in the blanks.”

Brandon says he followed this every day for a hundred days and never experienced writer's block. Thanks to a clear daily routine, he immediately began to work, limiting the impact of all distractions that could lead to loss of performance.

Write in the same designated place.
Write at the same time.
Listen to the same song before work.
Use the same text editor for writing.
Write every day. Nothing kills routine faster than the weekend.

3. Add a little weirdness

This might sound a little outlandish, but Brandon says it's one of the best ways to overcome writing challenges.

First, decide who you are writing for. No, you don’t need to come up with an abstract character of some gender, age or profession. Find a real, real person to write for.

Once you've found your lucky winner, print out their photo (yes, this is where things start to get weird). You shouldn’t print a huge portrait, limit yourself to a small photo card. Place it near your workplace (no need to stick needles into it).

Now all you have to do is write for that person. How would you explain the topic to him or her? How would you tell your story? It turns out that, instead of writing to some unknown reader, you are now writing for a specific person. Surprisingly, this little trick really works.

4. Write as much as possible

Often the cause of creative impasse is not a lack of inspiration, but a banal one. You start writing, then you re-read, and after a moment you are already overwhelmed with total dissatisfaction with yourself. The only question you are asking yourself at this moment is: “Who even wrote this damn thing?”

Instead, just slow down. Stop, take a break. You are now too unsettled to move on, doubts have crept into you about your writing skills. This is why you are stalling.

When I write, I just write. I don't edit, I don't look back, I don't try to double-check every sentence. If I feel stuck, I just write more. Even more. And then a little more. After I finish writing my daily quota, I may come back to tweak the text a little, but I never let self-criticism take over. Continuing to write is the best option for me.
Brandon Turner

If you feel like you can't write, don't panic. To overcome writer's block, try putting some of these tips into practice.

Creative crisis visits every person, no matter what they do. There is nothing more difficult for the brain than coming up with what to give another person for their anniversary. Sometimes we are overcome with unbearable torment when thinking about what to cook for dinner. Similar problems occur in creative professions and personal life. Let's see what people have prepared for us, whose lives push us to come up with a mountain of ideas here and now, otherwise the project will fail and their career will be in jeopardy.

It's rare for a book to have no author. The book “Creative crisis again? 90 ways to get out of it" from this category. Famous and not so famous representatives of creative professions share their advice on how to stimulate the brain and make it produce a lot of ideas. The advice is different, so are the professions, so everyone can find several unusual ways, and then, perhaps, get inspired and come up with their own (even coming up with your own way out of a creative crisis destroys the latter). Advice may even contradict each other, but that’s what art is all about. In addition, some people metaphorically describe their vision of creative crisis, which is also extremely interesting.

Find yourself a genius

The great thing about geniuses is that they usually occur in groups. If you find one genius, it will lead you to the rest. Collaborate with geniuses, especially unrecognized ones - they are more accessible and are waiting for your suggestions.

Keep trying, drawing and banging your head on the table

Advice from the illustrator. Very often, all ways out of a crisis are just ways. So just draw, draw anything, even if you deviate greatly from the topic. If you want to become an artist, draw and draw again, there is no other way. You are only an artist when you draw.

Make a lot of mistakes

The problem with creative crisis is the fear of making mistakes. This triggers procrastination, shirking, driven by fear. Mistakes are beautiful. Every mistake moves you towards and this new thinking will change everything. Treat mistakes as reasons to improve.

By the end of the bike ride, everything somehow gets better

I take a long bath, the water washes away all the bad thoughts. Then I clean up, because how can you think while there’s a mess around. If that doesn't work, I get on my bike and try not to think about the project. In the end, everything somehow works itself out.

Stay in an expensive hotel

Pay in advance for all three days you will spend here. Take everything you need with you. Now just write ten thousand words. If you feel like you're having a writer's block, think about the crazy amount of money you shelled out for your room.

Take any book. Anything - it could be science fiction, instructions for assembling IKEA furniture, a religious text. Open a random page and a random offer. I came across a sentence: “There was no pain, but this force was destructive.” Wonderful. Think about how this phrase evokes feelings in the context of the text you are solving or the problem you are solving. Or: “The next morning I went to the British Museum in London to see the treasure.” Perfect. Thoughts of vampires, cursed jewels, Indiana Jones, the Holy Grail come to mind. Why not? Mix texts from different authors, try to catch on to any phrase. Didn't like the phrase? It doesn’t matter, take another one, no one is forcing you to get hung up on anything.

Talk everything out

Panic. You are overwhelmed by a feeling of anxiety, you begin to rush around like a headless chicken. I make tea or coffee - I need to freshen up. Go out for a walk, talk to people about your problem or to yourself.

Change the chips

This is the Spanish equivalent and means rebooting your mind, changing your thinking, looking from the outside. Change something in your life, anything. Write not at the table, but in a cafe, change your food, go to places you would never go to.

Creative crisis is growth

Try to always remain optimistic, go to sleep and wake up with one single thought: “I haven’t run out of ideas, I’m just trying to come up with something better.” It’s still very simple - if you tell yourself that nothing will work out, nothing will work out.

No two creative crises are the same

There is no need to create rules for fighting. There are a lot of crises and they are all different, like snowflakes. Generate bad and mediocre ideas, so you can come across something worthwhile. Use all the methods you know. The same method can also become boring and temporarily stop working.

Why not drink coffee right before bed?

The best ideas come while trying to sleep. Place a notepad and pen next to you, and make it possible to turn on the light without even getting out of bed.

Do something

Prepare some baked goods, clean the apartment, wash the dishes, draw a face on a sticky note and stick it on your computer, chop some wood.

Creative crisis is normal

Great idea. Whenever a crisis comes, we begin to sprinkle ashes on our heads and the thought slips through: “Well, this happened. I have grown dull and old.” Get it out of your head and start replacing it with something else. The creative crisis will pass, it always passes, especially when you relax and do not put pressure on it.

Just. Explain. Problem.

Creative crisis very often occurs when we try to solve a problem that we have not formulated for ourselves. Isn't it stupid? Start looking at the problem. An amazing idea that everyone should understand - there is an answer to every problem. Not just any one, but any one. The answer is in the problem itself, that's what you need to understand. He has nowhere else to be. By understanding this, you will show your brain that there is a solution to the problem, which means your problem is solvable.

Books!

Why try to get some glimpse of an answer when you can rummage through books - thoughtlessly, unsystematically and set off a circuit in your brain.

Sit down, shut up and turn off the Internet

How long have you just thought in silence? Isn't it strange how we replace thinking with browsing? Sit back in your chair and just think. All geniuses did this.

Eat cheese before bed

And see what happens. You never know.

Creativity is a muscle

She also needs to rest and recover. Just like coaching. Alternate work with watching movies, games and books.

Deadline is the best remedy

Many projects you simply cannot take on until your survival mechanisms kick in. Promise others that you will complete the project in a couple of days. Or promise it to yourself. Make a project in 10 minutes. Let the project take, according to your estimates, a month, sit down and decide that you will do it in 10 minutes. And see what happens.

Pretend you're a possum

This is all great advice, served with an ironic sauce, and it is irony that allows us to release tons of our creative energy and allow us to relax. Experiment with these tips, print each of them on A4 sheet and hang it on the wall.

What methods of overcoming a creative crisis do you personally know? Share this in the comments.

How to overcome creative crisis?

Inspiration and creative crisis are always nearby, but there is still a difference between them.

Inspiration, in my opinion, is a mood, an uplift of spirit, a special state of “lightness” of creativity, when everything works out, including difficult things. A creative crisis is precisely the loss of insight, conjecture, and ideas.

Writer's block is most often associated with a lack of ideas. It seems to me that this is not entirely true. Or rather, this is one of the reasons, but there are others. Eg:

– there are ideas, but there is no ability to implement them;

– a feeling of dissatisfaction with one’s own results;

– emptiness after completing a big job;

– the inability to navigate information flows can also cause a crisis;

– dissatisfaction from transferring what is in the head onto paper (file) – the so-called “dumbness”;

– the feeling that everything has already been written, said;

– lack of readers and a feeling of uselessness of creativity, etc.

There are many reasons, and each writer has his own.

I tried to collect ways and techniques for getting out of creative impasse, voiced on the Internet (as is the case with inspiration). I noticed that often the same methods are offered to return inspiration and to get out of a creative crisis. That’s why I sorted them and highlighted those that are necessary (or called necessary) to overcome a creative crisis.

Once again, Tin and I experimented on ourselves and came to the conclusion that there are many ways, but the choice of them is more individual than the choice when inspiration returns.

Look at the table and how to work with it so that it can benefit you too, you already know.

Methods and techniques	pros	Minuses	My comments	Comments Tina
Return of ideas
Meditation	15 minutes a day of relaxation and supposedly “not thinking” distracts you from thinking, gets you out of a dead end, returns strength, energy, new ideas and inspiration appear	It's not about sleep	I don’t know, I need to try... If I find these same 15 minutes)))	I can’t) I think I’ll fall asleep right away
Switch to thinking about the future	The method helps to temporarily forget about a problem, a task that cannot be solved, and positive pictures of the future provide rest and new solutions.	Thinking about the apocalypse is not conducive to inspiration	Hmm... some fantasies are replaced by others. Yes it helps	I often think about him, but I haven’t noticed any dependence on inspiration)
Switch to memories	Similarly, pleasant memories return strength and energy, and you can find solutions to problems in them	It's hard sometimes to separate good and bad memories	It's hard to say, this method is probably not for me. In any case, I don’t associate it with overcoming creative crisis	In the same way... You can pull sensations from the past, but these are only details when inspiration is already there. I didn’t notice the dependence of inspiration on pleasant or terrible memories
Try something new	Any creativity requires novelty, it’s worth looking for it, and then you will get new ideas	The method is difficult when, for example, you have already thought about the plot of the story	It’s good when you start something, but when the “skeleton” is done, something new can lead you astray. Hence the desire of the authors to cram into the story everything that he has seen and knows from the moment of birth	New ideas and genres – that’s how competitive ones – combined with an attitude – inspire. Or rather, they serve as guides along which the flower of the story will grow. Why not grow it?)))
Observations	Observing the world, people, situations and actions gives rise to certain reflexes and new thoughts	Not everyone knows how to observe correctly	I love this, sometimes I have to write down my thoughts on anything)))	Observations provide wonderful material for individual scenes. And inspiration can strike, especially when the “thought has gone”
Experiments	If the story is not being written, but there is an idea, experiment with the plot, with a set of characters, like with cubes, change, swap places, introduce into the story something that previously seemed unthinkable to you, etc. As a result, new ideas will appear in the process of such changes	Or they will destroy the story	I do this often))) It helps	It's difficult, but inspiring)
Self-development	Learn, discover, develop, master new things, explore - development is the basis of creativity. No other way	You can get carried away with something else and quit, for example, writing. Goals are important	I'm greedy in this regard, I grab everything and use it all later	Necessarily. When you study the subject you are describing, you get inspired, even to the point of changing the plot
Meditate	A creative task requires thought. They will lead you away from patterns and stereotypes	Patterns and stereotypes are not always harmful	Well, where would we be without this?)))	So this is a must. Also say “don’t forget to breathe”
Collect	Collect your ideas, impressions, feelings... Write down, preserve, save drafts - all this may come in handy one day. And in times of crisis, returning to an old thing can be a way to overcome it	Don’t forget about order, the archive is not chaos	Agree 100%	This is more of a habit than a method of inspiration)
Mind games
Free associations	Open the dictionary to any word and write down all the thoughts associated with it that arise in your head. Or guess two random numbers corresponding to the page number and line, then open and find the corresponding place in the book. Or ask someone to give you an association, work with it. The result is a ton of new ideas.	Remember the randomness	Interesting, yes, sometimes a conversation in our chat gives the impetus to write something	Unfortunately, I have too many of them, and therefore rarely use them statistically. Most ideas die out due to lack of time for implementation.
Free writing	Freewriting: you must, within a short period of time, say 10 minutes, without pausing or thinking, write everything that comes to your mind. Sometimes it turns out very interesting	Then we will have to refine “what I see is what I sing”	I rarely write like this, very often. More often - poetry	I used to write) Now - rarely, I try to “put” free thoughts into the framework of “debts”, for example, in notes or reports
Find your game	There are many intellectual games. Find those that interest you and that personally get you out of the crisis		I've never specifically looked for it, but I think it makes sense	I can't imagine)
Our habits and requirements
Don't expect perfection	Bringing everything to perfection is good, but you can’t do it endlessly	Remember perfectionism	Well... I'm a very demanding person. Sometimes it gets in the way)))	I know that perfection is unattainable, and not abstract. But it is working on imperfections that gives a very strong creative impulse
Don't wait for the Muse (inspiration)	Start creating without waiting for inspiration. Craft and creativity are like brothers. Where there is one, there is another	It is sometimes difficult to understand whether craft has developed into creativity	This helps me personally	Waiting is not our method, life is short
Nowadays
Creative suggestions	Be active, agree to all creative proposals, competitions, projects - this gives new experience, knowledge and opportunities	It takes time	I want! There would be even more time	I love it) But I don’t like to participate in something that depends on someone else’s inspiration, if there are problems with it)
Organize your time	Sometimes your many ideas make it difficult to focus on one thing. Set priorities and allocate time	It is sometimes difficult to set priorities and set goals	Good advice, but I don’t always follow it, I can get carried away with something else	Life is an unpredictable thing. I would replace it with "use the time"
Don’t waste time on social networks, email, browsing websites, etc.	It's distracting and wastes your time.	The threat of loneliness	Strange advice, the world no longer exists without it	Come on, that's nonsense. Going outside or walking around sites is good, if in moderation). And it influences inspiration positively if it influences
Activating creativity
Divide	Take a break from the global creative task, break it into small parts, work with them sequentially, and then put them back into one whole, this helps overcome the crisis	Avoid Chaos	I use it sometimes, especially if it’s a novel, say, or an article	This is rather a method rather than a reason for activation. Work with logical blocks organizes
Visualization	Visualization of thoughts immediately revives them, remember the drafts of the classics, drawings in the margins	You need to stop in time	Yes, it helps me. I really love books that have illustrations.	I love it) I really like to draw pictures for what I write. There are works that inspire you because of the very atmosphere - you want to drop everything and run and write
Find the cause of the stupor, dead end	If you're stuck, it means you can't clearly identify the problem that's stopping you from moving forward. Finding it means finding a way out of the dead end	Sometimes it's hard to do it on your own	I agree, everything has a reason, if you understand it, you can eliminate it	Well, I found it... So what?)) Usually these are external problems. Awareness of them is not a secret and not a solution
Make the decision easy	Sometimes the solution to the problem itself is clear to the author, but turns out to be very difficult to implement. Hence the stop. Try to find an easy solution to a creative problem or put it aside for a while	Lightness is not always good for the work or its meaning	I don’t know, I love difficult tasks, they help overcome creative crisis	Not interested. Just going down on a sled is not as interesting as bobsleigh and doesn’t give you the same thrill and impulse to repeat it
Remember the reader	Target audience is important. The author must understand for whom he is writing. This focus helps to concentrate on the meaning of the work and the recipient, creates a motive for creativity	The eternal question: who is following whom?	Sometimes I think)))	The reader is an incentive to write “for him”... In principle, sometimes it helps)
Creative panic	Creative panic forces you to grab onto everything at once, and in the end nothing is completed. Use all the methods listed above to prevent it.	Emotions sometimes get in the way	Again, I don’t know, I don’t remember this	Panic? I don't understand
Routine work	Editing, proofreading, reading aloud, corrections of various kinds - all this is routine work that can be done during a crisis, and which helps to overcome it	It still needs to be done	But I love this work and also consider it creative	You can get carried away with routine work and plow mountains. She can be very captivating, and if this is writing, then probably too
The principle of the “first phrase”	Never get hung up on the beginning. Otherwise, it’s a dead end. Write a draft right away and don’t edit anything for the time being	Still there is a limit to this	Of course, there is always the option to go back to the beginning. But usually my draft isn't very long because I end up getting annoyed by the incorrect writing. However, the fast writing method is very good	No, when writing I leave “markers” where I am not satisfied with the text. And while I’m writing, I’m finishing up these passages with a “second layer” and coming back. Ignoring the second layer is almost violence, why?

After thinking and filling out the table, Tin and I came to the conclusion that quite simple things most often help to overcome a creative crisis:

1. Observations

2. Experiments

3. Self-development

4. Visualization

5. Routine daily work

I wonder if your opinion matches ours?

There is a good word “plow”. Plow - in any case. Work and understand that you yourself need creative work...

And so I looked at all these collected methods and techniques, thought, and I was missing something. I would like to say one more thing: in my opinion, there are things that are either not mentioned or not explained in numerous articles about inspiration and creative impasse.

The important thing is author's emotional environment .

Imagine a writer is writing a novel. He gets used to the fate of the heroes and experiences a certain emotional state over and over again. Like an actor on stage, it can be very difficult for him to switch it to something else, but the actor learns this!

We often dream of scenes from a future novel or story, we think about it all the time, we are sad or love together with our heroes.

You need to be able to get out of this state. And it's not that simple.

Sometimes it helps "cinema" reception , when the author, as it were, mentally edits the film, mixing different scenes of the future story and not allowing himself to be deeply immersed in the emotions of one scene.

Creative fun – also a good way out of their crisis. When an author shuffles the actions of his characters this way and that, like cards, it helps him find new ideas.

However, many do not know how to stop; they write series, not realizing that everything is already over.

And here we need new emotions and a long rest, perhaps switching to something else. It is known that L. Tolstoy, while “resting” from War and Peace, studied and learned some languages.

Finding and eliminating the cause.

It is important, in my opinion, to find pinpoint the cause loss of inspiration and creative crisis. And the reasons are different.

External reasons It’s quite easy to detect: troubles at work, at college, a rude salesman or bus driver, fatigue, family problems, everyday difficulties, lack of necessary resources for creativity, etc.

Personally, it’s difficult for me to create if I, say, have a quarrel with someone. And one day I discovered the cause of the crisis in - believe it or not - a broken kettle. Really: I couldn’t write normally, all the time being distracted by boiling water in a saucepan. Both serious and funny can be the reason.

All these reasons are not only negative. Completely positive things can also throw you out of a creative rut. For example, if I have a date in the evening, I think about the date, not about the next chapter of the novel.

Internal reasons not so easy to detect.

Lack of ideas is not a reason in itself. Why aren't there any? That is the question.

And then, if you look for reasons, sometimes very interesting things happen. For example, you sketched out the plot of a story, but it doesn’t get written, you suffer and don’t understand that your inner “I” is struggling with all its might to resist the development and actions of the hero that you came up with. Or you simply lack the experience and knowledge to develop ideas. Or maybe the “scatter” of ideas does not give you the opportunity to put an end to it.

But! It is important not only to find the causes, but also to eliminate them. Otherwise nothing will work. And if in order to regain inspiration you need to make peace with someone, you will have to do it. And if new ideas require acquiring new knowledge, you will have to do it.

I’ll say more - even creativity brought people out of a state of grief. And I know those who wrote one book - a book of memory - but it brought them back to life. What can we say about a broken kettle, the very fact of whose existence just begs to be included in a pamphlet?

You and I understand that problems in our lives always exist: big or small, tragic or not, but, one way or another, we have to solve them.

That's true “...what do I care about Faust, an extravaganza of rockets gliding with Mephistopheles in the heavenly parquet! I know that the nail in my boot is worse than Goethe’s fantasy!”– wrote V. Mayakovsky.

What to do? But here, in my opinion, motivation will help.

Motivation as a way to overcome a creative crisis.

Strictly speaking, motivation in its most primitive meaning is an understanding of why (or for whom) you are doing something.

Even if this is so (superficially), the motive of creativity will still be present.

Often motivation appears spontaneously, from the external environment .

For example, there are people who support you. They are waiting for your creativity, they read you, they criticize you - in any case, they are not indifferent to you. There may be many such people, or it may be two close friends or a couple of relatives.

It is very difficult to write something completely alone. This is probably why a huge number of graphomaniacs, having found two or three fans of their graphomania, hold on to them as if they were a lifeline. And this is good. It's inspiring. Man creates - for them. Of course, it is advisable not to feel like a star and to study. Let's remember the famous lines: “...they accepted praise and slander with indifference...”

I am lucky in this regard: my work is supported by my family, friends and loved one. I have a circle of readers whose opinions I value and whom I respect and love. My loved one freezes and practically does not breathe when I do something there. And this is also one of the reasons now for love, and not just creativity.

Firstly, there is still readers, critics, there are communities (website) .

I think there is no need to be shy about asking for a review; on our website you can order a review, and directly contact the inquisitor with a request to read the work. There is no need to be afraid of this; on the contrary, whether they scold you or praise you, this is a community that will give you experience.

Secondly, there is no motive - create it yourself!

Let it be anything: from dreams that your story about how a shrew found the meaning of life will receive the Nobel Prize in Literature to images of how your friend or someone on the site will read it, that you yourself will be happy and satisfied.

The degree of your adequacy and perception is important here: it’s no secret that authors who suddenly found a couple of readers are starred as if they had already been published in a million copies on Mars.

Underestimation often creates conditions for creative crisis. However revaluation Same.

If you learn to stick to the “golden mean”, you will go oh so far.

I’ll tell you about myself - I most often underestimate myself, and this really bothers me.

As a result, I came to the following conclusions:

1. There are no universal methods, everything is individual for everyone. And here, oddly enough, you need to be inspired to find these very own ways and then use them.

2. Elementary laziness and lack of responsibility for one’s creativity are very often mistaken for a loss of inspiration and a creative crisis.

3. Inability to search, lack of knowledge lead to eternal rhetorical sob questions: how can I regain inspiration or overcome the crisis?

It’s clear how. But no one sees what you do. Any action is better than inaction.

This concerns my personal attitude to issues of this kind.

Brandon Turner

It is unlikely that any of us can absolutely guarantee that every day, under any conditions and weather, we can easily issue one, or even several.

Inspiration is a capricious and fickle thing, so you need to be able to write without waiting for it. Below we will look at four simple tips that should help in this situation.