Getting Out of a Creative Rut

Ernest Hemingway was once asked, "What is the most frightening thing you've ever encountered?" And he responded, "A blank sheet of paper." Keep in mind, this was a guy who drove an ambulance in World War I, received a medal for bravery in his service in World War II, and was in not one, but two plane crashes over the Belgian Congo. Feeling creatively dry can be downright terrifying, and it can mess with your self-esteem and mental health. But never fear, we at WellCaster are here... Okay, sorry. Look, we can't finish your painting or novel for you, but we can give you our triple F plan for defibrillating your creative pulse. You ready? But first, what causes a temporary lack of creativity? There are many explanations, and here's one. A neuro-researcher named Alice Flaherty conducted brain scans on people who said they were experiencing writer's block. She found two interesting things happening in their brains. First of all, the subjects had decreased activity in the frontal lobe. This makes sense because the frontal lobe is responsible for most language faculties. When these people said they were having trouble forming words, they weren't lying. More interestingly, however, was that people with writer's block had increased activity in their temporal lobes. That's the part of the brain that assigns meaning to language. Basically, their ability to use language decreased, but their need to provide meaning increased. They were metaphorically speechless but bursting with things to say. Here's the takeaway from this, though. It means that a creative rut doesn't necessarily mean a lack of creativity. It just means a temporary inability to express it. So, how do we get around that? While science hasn't given us a hard and fast answer for how to dodge these creative impasses, artists the world over have found a bunch of ways around them. For example, acclaimed singer-songwriter Tom Waits reportedly addresses his creativity as if it's another person. If he's having trouble with a particular song, he'll pace around the studio telling the song to either get itself written or leave him alone. We're not saying that you have to talk to an imaginary sprite, but, hey, if it works for you. Imaginary friends aside, a great way to get over a rut is to shake yourself out of one. Here are our three Fs for getting your creative mojo back. Sometimes, it just takes a stale workplace to get you feeling stagnant and bored, and that can show up in whatever you're trying to make. Clean your room, repaint your walls, rearrange your desk photos. Whatever the task is, it'll take your mind off of your problem and it'll shake up your surroundings. Yeah, forget it. Take a break. That lump of clay will be there when you get back. Take a walk, go to a movie, get your mind off of the project at hand. Sometimes, the knowledge that you're in a rut makes you scared, and that fear creates an impediment to produce something, which just gets you more tied up. If you try to forget about your project for a day, you might come back with a fresh eye and some new ideas. Yeah, it's counterintuitive, but one of the things that can keep you in a rut is habit. If you force yourself to attempt something that you're not that great at, say, drawing with your left hand instead of your right, or learning a heavy metal song on guitar when you've only ever played classical, then you won't be able to fall into a familiar boring pattern. You might not be great at whatever you try, but it won't be boring. So next time you feel like your ideas are going nowhere, try our three F's. Fix your environment, try to forget the project for a bit, and finally, force yourself out of your comfort zone. Mess up. See what comes of it. Email us at watchwellcast@gmail.com or leave a comment down below. We'll see you next time.