Jumpstarting Creativity
From the desk of our fiction editor, Heidi Turner.
We’ve all been there—a blank document (or sheet of paper, if you’re into that), an open stretch of time that is filled to the brim with creative possibility. So full, in fact, that absolutely nothing gets done and the only writing that happens is (perhaps) some clever #amwriting Tweets. As a writer myself, I’m all too familiar with hitting a creative wall, or struggling to get my mind going. Here are some of the tricks I’ve learned that get my creative engine back up and running.
Set up a writing appointment.
Brains are weird little machines—if I try to sit down at random to write something, I usually can’t. Realistically, my schedule doesn’t allow me to set aside a specific, unchanging time slot every day (although this works for a lot of writers). Instead, I make sure I set a time each day that I will definitely, definitely write something.
By telling my brain, “I am going to sit down to write once we get back from the grocery store, and we are going to have an idea to write about at that time.” It’s simple, but it works almost every time.
Turn tedious task time into part of the writing process.
Normally I listen to music or podcasts when I’m doing household chores, but if I’ve got a problem to solve in a piece I’m working on (or just have no ideas at all) I’ll either listen to instrumental music or even work in silence. During these times, when my hands and body are busy being productive, I can usually get out of my own way and find my way through to a resolution.
Embrace the shitty first draft.
The first draft is for you, the writer—it’s so your words have a place they can exist and make themselves at home. The first draft isn’t for looking good or sounding pretty. It isn’t even (necessarily) for making sense. All it needs to have is a beginning, middle, and end, and those component parts don’t even need to be working the way you want them to.
By embracing the idea that my first draft is supposed to be shitty, is supposed to just give me a place to start, I’m able to enjoy the revision process because I know that I’m crafting a draft into a piece, not just “fixing” a “bad” piece.
Phone a friend.
I’m really, really lucky to have supportive peers here at the University of New Hampshire and to have supportive friends all around the country (and a few around the world) who believe in my work. When I’m super stuck, I’ll call or text a friend and ask them what they think I haven’t written yet, what they most want to see from me.
It’s not something I do often, since it is always nerve-wracking to ask someone a question that assumes they want to read my work, but I almost always get great ideas—ideas that can become something—out of those conversations. More importantly, it reminds me that my writing is supposed to be seen, that people want to see it, and it’s worth the time it takes to get it to the point that it’s ready for the world.