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What to Do About Creative Blocks - Part 1
by: LeonardoTrait
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Word Count: 557
It is common to talk about "writer's block," but it's much more than that, really. Painters get blocked. Graphic designers get blocked. As do musicians.
Anyone with a creative job, or a creative avocation, can find themselves suffering from a "creative block." This can be very frustrating, even painful, emotionally, and can be very difficult to recover from.
I have had my share of creative blocks, the most severe several years ago. I finally broke it, and haven't had a serious block since, but it was one of the more difficult times of my life, and I'd like to share some of the techniques that worked for me.
**Technique 1: Pretend you're not blocked.**
This is a tough one sometimes. I don't necessarily mean that the first thing you should do is go back to creating; that comes a little later.
What I mean is to not spend time dwelling on the fact that you're blocked. If you see a creative book you'd like to read, read it. Don't think, "Oh, I'm blocked. I won't get anything out of that."
Do everything you'd do if you weren't blocked. Sit at your desk and do things you'd do as a normal part of your day. If you can't create, at this point don't. But don't avoid your office or studio because you're blocked.
A creative block is not an occasion for a sick day. Time off, yes, and I'll discuss that in a later section. But not a sick day. You're not ill, you're not injured. You're just not creating right now.
If you focus on your block, you give it power and become more blocked. It becomes this big Looming Thing you can't get around.
Do not let your block take on the proportions of Mount Rushmore.
It's simply not that big, or that important.
Think of children's blocks. No, not those square ones with the letters on.
Legos. The little kind.
That's a block.
Visualize YOUR block as a very small child's block, not as a big piece of granite used to build the Lincoln Memorial.
When I urge you to pretend you don't have writer's block, I'm not trying to minimize the emotional pain you're going through.
What I am trying to do is help you reclaim your own power over the block, and REDUCE the emotional pain you're going through.
You see, a lot of what we experience as creative block is not the block itself, but the emphasis we place on it.
What you focus on, seems to grow. It's true for me, and I'm sure it's true for you.
If you can find a way to focus on something other than your block, such as how full your life is, or how wonderful your children are, I think you'll feel more creative and less blocked immediately.
But at least you'll have less pain from the block.
And if you're feeling less pain from the block, you'll feel less blocked, and you'll focus less on the block, and then it will all just continue to cycle until it gets much better, just from this one technique of refusing to give your block any power over you.
[End of Part 1]
About the Author
Angie Dixon is a creativity expert and author of The Leonardo Trait: Living the Multipassionate Life. Get a free creativity kit at LeonardoTrait.com. Contact Angie at mailto:angie@LeonardoTrait.com
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