Everyone knows the state when nothing new comes to mind, and you urgently need to come up with something or solve a problem. How to free your imagination and force your brain to come up with new ideas?
We are not robots that can create on demand, so creative dead ends are familiar to everyone. In this state, there are no ideas in the head, we lose touch with the creative process and become distracted. As a result, we are dissatisfied, disappointed, and it seems to us that we will never be able to create anything new.
At such moments, it is important to take a break and go to unwind in order to relax both mentally and physically. How exactly?
1. Go to a coffee shop and listen to the conversations of the customers. Catch snippets of dialogue and write it down in a notebook.
2. List ten things or features that you observe directly around you.
3. Think of five unusual uses for the cup (other than drinking from it, of course). This advice is mentioned by Peter Himmelman in the book Let Me Out! Unleash your creative mind and bring your ideas to life.” Himmelman cites the “doll hat” and the “mini basketball hoop” as examples of unusual uses for cups.
Once you have come up with five uses for the cup, continue the exercise with other surrounding objects: a table, a toothbrush, a scarf, a cupcake, and so on.
Give yourself permission to come up with twenty bad ideas, the worse the better.
4. Another tip from Peter Himmelman. Draw a meaningless squiggle in a notepad, then try to see the full picture that the squiggle can be a part of and fill in the missing pieces. Perhaps it will be flowers, animals or faces. The main thing is to quickly draw the first thing that comes to mind.
5. Come up with a short song using one of your favorite tunes about your creative dead end.
6. Imagine that you are developing a smartphone application that helps you get out of a creative block. Spend five minutes thinking about what it will do, how it will look, how it will work, and why it will work.
7. Answer the question for yourself: what is creativity? Make lists of what does and does not apply.
8. Give yourself permission to come up with twenty bad ideas. The worse the better. Sometimes we get stuck because of our own high expectations. Forget it and try to deliberately come up with as bad ideas as possible.
9. Set a timer for five minutes and dance or stretch, take a few yoga poses. Or walk around the house, or run around the block. Get moving. Invigorate your body and mind.
10 Sketch a self-portrait in the style of cartoons or comics. Next, describe why you are trying to create what you are creating. It doesn’t matter if your creation has the power to change the world. Write why it is important to you.
11 Take pictures of your favorite things for ten minutes.
12 Try to describe what the world will be like in 3017, or draw.
13 Make a collage. This is an excellent game for kids and adults. If you have children, invite them to participate.
14 Get up early and watch the sunrise. Describe your experience.
15 Describe a “day in the life” of your creative block. What is this crisis doing all day?
16 Write a letter to your imagination, ask it to help with your project: “Dear imagination, I’m having a lot of trouble with…”. Then write a response from your imagination with words of encouragement and support.
17 Try to keep a creative diary in which you can freely express your thoughts, emotions and ideas in any form, combining a regular diary and any kind of artistic creation – drawing, coloring, etc.
18 Describe in writing what is happening outside your window right now.
19 Write a one-paragraph review of your imaginary novel, set in, say, the 1920s or on another planet.
20 Advice from art therapist Lanie Smith: “If you have a favorite color, grab a pencil or marker from that color. Move them around the paper as you like. Then try the same with another material of the same color – for example, if you started with a marker, now take a pencil or crayon. Set a timer and just play with different drawing materials for 15-25 minutes.”