Blocks and Barriers to Creativity

CC Image by Go Within

Today, during my scheduled early morning writing time, I flitted from draft to draft, trying to find inspiration. I added words, sentences, and paragraphs here and there, but generally, none of the 80+ drafts inspired me. It was like when you look at a restaurant menu and nothing appeals to you. You have to choose something, but you…just don’t want to.

The creative mind doesn’t just work on demand, regardless of your preferred schedule. Workaday writers often set themselves a word limit that they will produce, say 500, or 1000 of them, but that does not mean they will all be good words. This sort of forced word limit looks good when you do the math-

Usually, though, if you produce something, anything, there will be a few little gems hidden in the trashheap- a word, phrase, sentence, or paragraph worth pulling out and saving.

There are two things you can do in this situation:

1. Force yourself to keep working until your muscles cramp up, long after your mind has, and you sit, frustrated, staring at the same spot on the wall, as you try to push through, to make something happen.