creative

5 Ways to Help Stimulate Ideas During a Creative Block

5 Ways to Help Stimulate Ideas During a Creative Block

Many creatives sometimes face a lull in their production of new works or the continuation of an existing work due to a “creative block”. They may often find it difficult to conjure up an idea to work on a new piece or to even finish a piece they’ve already begun. 

Creative Thinking

It can feel like the end of the world (or at the very least, your career) when this occurs, but alas, there is hope! Below are five tips that have worked for me in the past – as a writer, an artist and a photographer – which I hope will help you to overcome a creative block and get you back on track to create more new and extraordinary works.

1. Start a creativity journal. Keeping a small notebook with you at all times can come in handy for jotting down that fleeting idea that you might have during the day (or night) that you may forget after 10 minutes otherwise. A creativity journal can also serve as a place to create sketches of things like wardrobe ideas you would like to shoot, recording lists of names, places or words and descriptions of things to use in your prose and much more.

Creative Journal

A creativity journal can serve as a record of your thoughts and ideas – something you can refer back to during those times when you might have a creative block.

 

2. Look to other media for inspiration. Sometimes looking through your favorite magazines, reading a good book or taking in other works of art at a museum can be enough inspiration to spark the creative flow in someone going through a creative block.

Magazines

Other forms of art such as watching a film or listening to music can also be just as inspiring and motivating to cause a boost in your creative juices.

 

3. Experiment with new media. Try drawing or painting one of your photographs. I very often will take my charcoal pencils out and draw one of my photographs. You can also try to sketch out a scene from your story you are crafting, or describe in words what you want to photograph.

Photography and Drawing - Trying New Media -1

Flirting with other art mediums can not only assist in getting the creative juices flowing again, but you may find you like practicing in a new type of art!

Photography and Drawing - Trying New Media -2

4. Assign yourself a project. There are numerous books as well as websites and articles on the internet that are devoted to daily, weekly and monthly art and photography project ideas for artists and photographers to aid individuals in getting their creative juices flowing again. Writers can also set goals for projects – one popular organization that aids writers is NaNoWriMo which “helps you track your progress, set milestones, connect with other writers in a vast community, and participate in events that are designed to make sure you finish your novel”.

Photo Projects

Some examples of projects for photographers might be:

 

  • Shooting a monochromatic theme for an entire day. This helps you to become more aware of your surroundings by looking for things that are one specific color.
  • Taking a photo walk and shooting with only one prime lens (a 50mm is a good example). This also helps you learn to zoom with your feet and experiment with different angles to capture a subject.
  • Shooting one self-portrait a day. Each self-portrait has to be different, which forces you to dig into the deep crevices of your mind to come up with a new way to shoot a portrait of yourself every day for a week, month or even a year.

 

5. Participate in a contest. Sometimes a contest can be all it takes to get your head back in the creative game, especially when there is some type of incentive involved. Many contests and competitions are based on a theme, such as “best travel destination” photo or a “tell us your best travel story” writing contest. Since the actual “what” is already decided for you, it’s only up to you to determine how to create it. Participating in a competition can not only get you practicing your craft again, but it may also yield you some type of reward!

Contests

Creative blocks are not the end of the world. They are just a small bump in the road to becoming a better, more creative individual. Creative blocks can provide you with opportunities to look at other works and try new techniques granting you continued education, practice and production. Have patience. Don’t look at a creative block as an obstacle, but as part of the creative journey.

Posted by Dawn Wayand in Arts, Photography, Writing
5 Tips for Taking Care of Your Mental Health While Hibernating During the Novel Coronavirus

5 Tips for Taking Care of Your Mental Health While Hibernating During the Novel Coronavirus

You’re not alone. Not this time. With the exception of our frontline heroes who are supplying medical care; law enforcement, public safety and EMTs; food and agriculture; utilities; communications and information technology; transportation and logistics; critical manufacturing; public works; hazardous materials and chemical workers; government operations, military and national security employees; among others; most of the world is self-quarantining at home, many of us – alone. Other than the masked trip to the supermarket, if that, most of us have been stuck inside for weeks now, if not longer. Cabin fever may be starting to set in. If you’re hibernating alone, it may be hitting you harder than others – that need for in-person human interaction and physical touch. Spending an exorbitant amount of time alone now compounded with the fear of the Novel Coronavirus pandemic can be enough to set off anxiety and depression in someone who may have never previously experienced these mental issues. I’ve put together – and would like to share with you – a short list of my five tips for taking care of your mental health during this hibernation period whether you are alone or with someone else; and whether you currently feel fine or if you are starting to experience anxiety or depression. 

    1. Take care of yourself first. It’s important to make sure you’re consuming healthy options for food, trying to get in 30 minutes of some sort of exercise daily whether it’s working out to a streamed fitness workout online at home or taking an early morning walk (with all available safety precautions, of course!) and getting enough sleep at night. When you let these things fall to the wayside, not only will your physical health become more vulnerable to illness, but your mental health will suffer as well. If you currently suffer from any type of mental illness, you probably already check in regularly with a psychologist or psychiatrist, however, with a majority of the world currently forced to stay at home, those who hadn’t suffered any sort of mental illness in the past may begin presenting symptoms of anxiety and/or depression now. Many licensed mental health specialists are currently set up to participate in video appointments via Skype, Facetime or other web and phone applications. In taking care of yourself first, this also includes taking care of your mind too. Don’t be afraid to seek out guidance and support from a licensed mental health practitioner when you need to.
    2. “Dirty on the outside is dirty on the inside.” Or so the saying goes. This period of isolation at home is an excellent forced opportunity to not just clean your home but to get to those lingering organizational tasks that you’ve been putting off for ages such as scanning, backing up and shredding old hard copy documents; culling through and disposing of or donating unused items in your garage that have been accumulating over the years and/or reorganizing or rearranging rooms in your home to make better space or harmony, etc. Sometimes additional clutter in our lives can cause our brains to function at a less optimal level than if things were better organized for easier retrieval and if our surroundings are minimized to allow less intake on a daily basis.
    3. Explore creative outlets. A creative outlet can be an excellent source for releasing stress and anxiety. So you might be thinking, “what if I don’t have a creative bone in my body, I’m all left-brained!” Things like culinary art (cooking), musical arts (singing, playing an instrument, dancing), visual arts (photography, drawing, painting, collaging, etc.), textile arts (sewing, crocheting and knitting, etc.) and more – are not just natural talents and can actually be learned. Many stores can deliver what you need as far as materials and there are many classes online via YouTube as well as specialty schools and workshop groups. You may find or learn a talent you never knew existed within you and continue with it after we are released back into the world again.
    4. Make plans for the future. A great way to try staying positive during a time when things begin feeling less than so, is to sit down and make future plans. Work on a budget for retirement or a savings budget for something you really want to purchase or a trip you’d like to take (once this pandemic disappears and allows us to travel again!) Work on a travel bucket list: make a list of all of the places you would like to travel to at some point in your life. Make a bucket list of experiences you would like to have in your life. Then really think about how to make it happen and write it down. Writing things out on paper or typing these things out on your computer gives you documentation to reflect back on which is always better than trying to reflect on memory alone.
    5. Keep in mind that this situation is only temporary. Research has commenced. Companies are racing to find solutions to combat this global health crisis. Many things have changed in the way we are doing things to survive. They will continue to do so. We adapt, because that’s part of our natural survival instinct. If the past has been any indicator, this will not last forever. Keep the hope. Stay strong. Stay safe.
Posted by Dawn Wayand in Health