Although many people believe the best way to battle writers block is to sit down and fight through it, I like to kick-start things with an activity that lights me up, gets me giddy, and puts me in the right place to write my best stuff.
Here are sixteen activities that can help you tap into the creative part of the brain and get you jazzed to put pen to paper. Many of them are completely unrelated to writing, but in my experience that’s the best way to beat writers’ block. Bookmark it for the next time you’re out of creative juice!
1. Tackle that problem area in your home. The icky kitchen floor, the less than dazzling-clean fridge, the drawer that desperately needs organizing. Cleaning something ‘til it sparkles white can truly set the tone for a productive and refreshed few hours of creativity.
2. Do something extremely generous. Call an overly busy friend and ask her what she needs from the shops today. Offer to babysit for an hour for your stressed out neighbor this weekend. Go drop off that killer dress to the friend who has a wedding to attend this weekend. Generosity is calming and uplifting. Practicing generosity regularly deserves our attention and helps us get out of our own minds for a few minutes.
3. Walk or drive to your nearest independently owned coffee shop. Order your favorite hot beverage, make interesting conversation with your barista, and leave a generous tip. Return home with caffeine, a smile, and triple the energy to write!
4. Use your hands to make something awesome. A card for your niece, a flower arrangement for your Ma, scones for your colleagues. Experimenting with your hands taps into your creativity and helps you get centered.
5. Throw all that unnecessary stuff out—books, clothes, magazines, CDs you never listen to, take-out fliers. Recycle. Notice how refreshing the cleanse feels.
6. Stretch, just ike you used to in gym school. You’ll feel waves of energy flow right through you.
7. Get three ugly things you’ve been dreading doing out of the way. Pay that bill. Reply to that email. Cancel that subscription. Enjoy the small achievements and clear up mind-space for fantastic ideas to pour in.
8. Try a brain-dump on 750words.com. 750 words of drivel, for no-one else to see but yourself. Now that’s out of the way, start writing the good stuff.
9. Music. Tune into a genre that you once loved but barely listen to anymore. TuneinFM has stellar reggae, jazz, and 60s soul stations. Dancing is optional, but highly recommended!
10. Be someone’s anonymous angel today. Order the book your friend really needs to read right now and drop it off at his door. Buy a stressed out relative a gift voucher and send it anonymously. Do a chore your spouse usually dreads and don’t mention it.
11. Email an author you love and admire, and tell them what you love about their work. Let them know specifically how it has impacted you. Don’t expect a reply; simply express your gratitude. Hitting send is optional.
12. Go somewhere you’ve never been before but have always been curious about. Head to that park, library, or café you always drive past, and take your pen and paper. Delight in the adventure, and notice how new environments awaken your senses.
13. Spend fifteen minutes looking over an old photo album of happy memories, online or off. Relish in the good times, lighten up and laugh. Close that file, and get to work.
14. Shower, put on some lipstick or aftershave, and get ridiculously dressed up for no reason. Make a huge pot of tea or coffee, sit at your desk, and fantasize that you’re Virginia Woolf or Ernest Hemingway. What would they do right now? Write!
15. Read a chapter of your absolutely favorite, life-changing, earth-shattering novel. Close it, take five, and go pen your own masterpiece.
16. I’ve saved the best ‘til last, because this one never fails: Rain or shine, head out in nature, walk for twenty minutes, and breathe. Go home and write your little toosh off.
There you have it. Any other red-hot energizing ideas you’d like to invite to the party?
PRACTICE
Now over to you! Today, do one of these sixteen inspiration-guaranteed exercises. Then, get writing! Afterward, let us know how the exercise (and the writing that followed) went in the comments section.
Happy writing!
These are fabulous tips. I need to tape them to my whiteboard. Some I’ve used, but others are definitely going into my toolbox as new and necessary. Thanks!
Always good to have them close to your desk, Stephanie! What a great idea 🙂
Try as I might, I’ll forget if they aren’t posted and in front of me. 😉
Thanks for having me today, Joe!
These were really great ideas. Some I’ve tried some are on the list to try. One thing that always seems to inspire me was taking a pen and note book and head to water.Sitting by a pond in the park or my favorite lake has always proven a good source of ideas. Just watching the water flow by me helps get the ideas flowing. And on a beautiful spring or summer day feeling the breeze through my hair just adds to the creativity.
I’m a big fan of lakes too, Debra. Lakes and mountains 🙂
Fantastic ideas. Many of them I do regularly for this specific purpose. Many of them I’ve never considered for this purpose (emailing an author, being an anonymous angel, going somewhere new). Another that helps me is a long shower. I imagine the water cleansing away all that’s clogging me up, purifying me. Thank you so much for a very helpful post!
oops… #14 is shower! I didn’t read that far before I started replying! Now I’m making a poster out of this to hang up in my writing space and reading all of them.
🙂 Good minds think alike!
These are great suggestions. I usually favour the walk, tackling cleaning, or going to a coffee shop. Like the idea of emailing authors (though I’d feel a bit creepy actually hitting send!)
I’m sure they’d appreciate it! 🙂
After much hesitation I started writing my favorite author. I definitely wanted her to know how much she had impacted me, she responded very graciously. I even got up the courage to ask to write a guest post for her blog. She said yes!
That’s an encouraging story, thank you!
Great story!
You missed my favorite: try to get to sleep at 3am. I’m not joking, when I’m wide awake at odd hours, I get the best inspiration. I like to exercise before I write as well. Gets the blood to the brain.
Interesting Ron. I’m a total early bird not a night owl, but I know many writers like burning the midnight oil 🙂 Thanks for adding that one!
I have on occasion awoken from a deep sleep and felt the urge to write. In general I fall asleep if I try to write to much after my kids go to bed. I prefer getting up early. To each his own I guess!
Lots of great ideas! I believe exercise or even just moving around will generate creative energy and it’s a no brainer. Your body’s in action but your mind is free to explore. As for cleaning something, this has been recognized by generations of wise housewives as a natural anti-depressant. And caffeine is a stimulant, but be warned: you’ll drop when it wears off.
One other suggestion: find a poem, even a haiku–there are zillions online–and reply to it either in agreement or rebuttal. This could even give you a blog post someday. (Choose an article to answer if you wish, but that could get involved and lengthy.)
For example: “Roses are red, violets are blue…”
My reply:
Well, that may be. I know roses are considered tokens of affection and violets are delicate little things, the painted porcelains of the flower world. Personally I love the “in your face” approach of marigolds. Nothing insipid there; in their orange, gold, yellow or splattered dresses, they boldly go where few other blooms dare to tread.
They’re tough little things, no soft velvet petals that need to be babied. No greenhouse humidity and shelter to keep them cheerful. They laugh at adversity, thrive in drought, don’t fade in hot sun. Their scent is an announcement all its own, too. Unapologetic. Like me or hate me, here I am. Beat it, bugs!
Yep. Marigolds I appreciate. Wouldn’t you like a bouquet?
Brilliant idea! And I agree with you whole heartedly about marigolds!
Thanks, L & G. I think I’ll post this on my blog next June. 🙂
Love this, Christine! What a unique idea.
These are good ideas. And I knew not one of them would work for me today. I’m in this odd contemplative mood where my muse is just out of my reach. So I tried something different, not really expecting it to work. I listened to music in Italian. Why Italian? I understand it. It’s wonderful to listen to a language you are both familiar and unfamiliar with and hear the way the lyrics are composed and the ebb and flow of language and melody. It was quite inspiring. Maybe listening to music in a second language that you understand isn’t something that everyone can do (you need to know a second language first) but it’s certainly I’d recommend you trying if you do.
Love this suggestion, Giulia! I love listening to Brazilian music when I write/ work, though I don’t understand a word of Portuguese 🙂
Music can be a great writing companion.
What do you listen to? (I’m a Brazilian man who listens to french music, though I don’t understand a word of French)
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This was fantastic! 🙂 Such simple ideas, yet they’re so effective! I’m bookmarking this for when I have a killer case of writer’s block.
I did the brain dump XD That usually helps me the most… Sorry if it’s incomprehensible, it’s set in a fantasy world 😛
I should be doing homework now instead of procrastinating. And if I have to procrastinate, I should do something useful, like devving Taye’s emotionally twisted brother, or at least doing some random scene. But I’m even procrastinating *that*, for goodness sakes. I’m procrastinating my procrastination by supposedly getting my creative juices flowing, although I’m pretty sure I have them in abundance at the moment. Oh, well. It’s good practice for my wordcount, to have this set goal. Meh.
I really shouldn’t have stayed up until 3 last night… It probably wasn’t smart, and besides, I absolutely detest waking up in the afternoon, I always feel like I’ve wasted so much of my life.
Tonight, I hereby resolve to go to bed at the suitable time of 10:00 pm! Hurrah!
Anywho, I think I’ll ramble some more now.
I love my characters, but somehow the thoughts that are supposed to stay thoughts end up jumping out of their mouths. That’s okay for Donte, it’s normal for him, but Rhao and Dessa are more reserved. Taye usually tells the truth, but he won’t say any more than is necessary for the most part. *He’s* being more cooperative.
*Glares at Dessa and Rhao*
Okay! Now I feel better. Time to figure out how Dessa’s mom and Taye’s dad fit into all of this. So far I’m thinking maybe Dessa’s mom (Irah) was part of some rebellious group, and Taye’s father somehow became a target. Perhaps Irah, young and angry at the way her town was neglected and left to starve, became part of a group that works at court to change this.
But now, is this a violent or non-violent initiative? Maybe the idea was originally conceived in an honest, earnest way, and those who joined fought only with practical words for justice. As the group grew, however, the younger generation wanted to become a part of it, and, as rash and angry as they were, they decided that the only way to make a real dent, to chink the aristocrat’s armour and make them see, was murder. Besides, by neglecting their town’s needs, *they* killed dozen’s of their friends, family, and neighbors every year. Why not?
Irah was caught up in this scheme, orphaned by an epidemic that swept the country with a drought. She was angry all right– furious, in fact. Furious that, with all their money and cures, no one had done anything to help her family and village. A quarter of them died in two weeks, and another quarter the next. Half of the village gone, the dead eyes no longer able to see the glittering jewels that didn’t even disappear over the horizon.
Like her daughter, Irah had quite powerful spiritual energy. However, no recruiters from the Academy had bothered with her little town, and she hadn’t been shipped off to the Academy, despite her blooming talent. She didn’t know this, and she had no clue how to control her power. It was spontaneous, explosive, and dangerous, with all her emotions running wild and strong. One day, when a small band of these younger rebels walked to the nearest town (half a day there, half a day back), to steal some much needed supplies.
Irah had been rooting through the purse of some pompous lady who looked like she wouldn’t even miss it, when a man found her in the back alley where she crouched. As dirty as she was, and covered in rags, it was quite obvious she wasn’t the original owner of the purse; it was made of silk and lined with gold, costing enough to feed any family in her village for months.
This man demanded the purse back. Irah could see just how rich this man was, in his uniquely tailored clothes and the sure set of his jaw. He’d never known what it was to watch as your friends and family die around you while those who wanted to help, couldn’t, and those who did stepped aside to let the dead men pass into the Wisp World.
More than anything, this richness enraged her. Irah refused, knowing that the money she found in this purse could buy enough medication to save her friend, who was suffering from a flu that would surely kill her otherwise. When the man tried to take it from her by force, Irah kicked out at the man’s ankles, sending him sprawling onto the ground. She punched him savagely in the stomach to keep him down, telling him he couldn’t understand what it was like, and she ran for the exit to the alley.
Unfortunately for both of them in the end, the man was tougher than he looked, and he was on his feet a few seconds later, catching the girl by surprise when he caught her and pinned her to the wall. In a flurry or panic and rage, her spiritual energy exploded, killing the man quickly. He was Taye’s father.
The best way I’ve ever combated writers block was spending time at Toledo Museum of Art. It’s an excellent museum, wonderful glass exhibit, and such a variety of halls. When all else failed I would take my little notebook, slip into the silence, and park myself in front of Monet’s Water Lilies. Shear magic! I’ve since moved and I swear my writing’s suffered.
Love this, Beck! Art inspires art, after all 🙂
Printing this out and putting it on the board. Particularly love the 80’s jazzercise graphic!
I swear that’s not me! 🙂
I wrote 750 words of gibberish, and I feel like a new writer ready to go.
Glad to hear it helped Michael 🙂 that one is so powerful in my experience.
I really like #3 – and living in Colombia makes it easy to find an good coffee in an interesting coffee house. Those non-writing activities can really get the creativity flowing again!
All of these activities look like a good idea… Just one thing strikes me: if we were to write a list of our top 16 procrastination techniques (our favourite ways to avoid doing the one thing that we really need to do), I suspect it would look very similar!
Haha, love it Alex! At least post procrastination you’ll be more inspired? 🙂
I think the trick, if you are going to use these diversion/reinvigorating techniques, is to be strict about the time allowed and when you’re going to start writing again. You might say, I’ll go for a walk now but I will be back at my desk writing by X o’clock. I find that having an appointment for my next writing session helps me focus and reduces the scope for unending diversions!
Some really good ideas! I’ve been in a creative slump lately, so I definitely needed this. I’m saving this for later when I need another push.