You know the phenomenon of writer’s block. You have a deadline coming up and you want an amazing creative idea. But no matter what you do, there isn’t one popping up. This creative blockage can be quite annoying and even hindering your work flow and overall productivity. Today, expert Angelo Vero tells you how he deals with it.

I have been working in the creative sector for more than 11 years, so a creative blockage is certainly not unknown to me. I even notice that I regularly go through such a period. Often my best ideas come after such a period, so fortunately I’m not losing much sleep over it. Although, I can understand that when such a moment is super inconvenient, you want a quick solution. Therefore I would like to share some of my tips to help you get rid of your creative block quickly. 

Stop and do something else

When you get stuck trying to force creative energy, chances are nothing will simply come. Creativity is hard to force. Then there is usually nothing left to do but simply stop and do something else. Our brain works even when we don’t. When we don’t use a part of our brain for a while, that part starts making its own connections. Connections with memories, knowledge, patterns that we do not notice but our subconscious does. Those connections can create an ‘I GOT IT’ moment afterwards. 

Keep paper or smartphone close by

Creative ideas often come when we are busy with something else or at a time when we least expect it. Therefore, it is helpful to always have pen and paper or your smartphone notes handy during the period of a creative block. That way, you can quickly write off or sketch ideas so that you can move forward with this idea later. A good tip is to hold the idea for 5 minutes and write down what you think, so you have enough information to work out the idea later. 

Use random things as inspiration

If you really don’t have time to do other things or to distance yourself from them ánd you still have to come up with something creative, you can try to arouse your creativity with random things in your neighborhood. Perhaps you can put yourself in the shoes of an object and pretend that the object is alive and thinking. How would the object react in a certain situation. Or maybe you have a cute pet and you can wonder what it thinks about.

What also works well is using the associations technique. For example you start with an object and describe its properties. You then choose a property and try to associate new words with it, then you choose a word again from that list and do exactly the same. Afterwards you can make combinations of all the words you have written down and see if a story emerges that you can continue with. 

Rework or improve old ideas

Sometimes we don’t need to reinvent the wheel either and we can just look back at old ideas that did well. We can use those as a base and work with them to improve them. This technique can even cause that while we are reworking an old idea there is a sudden creative impulse and new ideas come flooding in. 

So what you need to remember most of all from today’s article is that creativity is hard to control or direct. There are techniques to help you through a creative block, but it’s definitely ok to give your brain a break for a while too. Good luck!