Authored By Sally Taylor
To those who are not writers, artists, or composers the creative process seems an allusive mystical gift bestowed upon a fortunate few who are held in awe by the general population. When asked "where do you get your ideas" or "how do you do it", many cannot answer the question because the creative process is often not understood even by those who create. Writers sometimes remark about "inspiration" which does nothing to explain the creative process, but don't be hard on them. When writers block hits it's very easy to imagine creativity to be a gift of inspiration -- and who but an inspired person will sit for hours, days, and months pounding the keyboard into pulp, right?
One day in college I was walking with a friend after spending hours trying to come up with a suitable idea for a writing assignment. She asked me how I come up with my ideas. Astounded, I turned to her and replied, "if I knew that, I'd be sitting at my typewriter instead of walking around out here in the rain like a moron." That was when it struck me that I was approaching writing from the wrong angle. I was already able to get my ideas down on paper in a semi-cohesive manner. The problem was to get the ideas to put on paper at all. That day I decided to turn my attention to learning everything I could learn about the creative process. What I found was that creativity is easily obtainable, works according to certain principles, and can be called upon whenever the urge or need arises, and - here's a bonus. It gets easier with practice. If you write every day you probably observe many of the steps I have outlined below without even realizing it. If you have not used these methods, you are in for pleasantly surprising experimentation.
The first step may seem silly but should be taken seriously. The first thing you have to do is decide whether you are a writer or you are not. Writing is a glamorous occupation and draws the attention of many who are interested in that glamor but not in the actual work. Writing is work. If you are suited for it, it's entertaining work, but work none the less. Just as there are people who are meant to be doctors, lawyers, and accountants, there are people who are meant to be writers. If it drives you crazy to filter through piles of literature for facts and ideas, or to sit at a keyboard for hours at a time and every day of your life, you are not a writer. If you are slammed into inertia by rejection, you are not a writer. If your grammar skills are lacking you may be a writer, but you need to learn the language you intend to wield in your craft before you inflict poorly executed manuscripts on the rest of the world. If you don't love it enough to spend quantities of time on it, find another field more suitable for you.
Now, if you've decided you are, in fact, a writer at heart, the second step is to find out what kind of writer you naturally seem to be. Are you journalistic? Are you a story teller? Are you good at persuasion, advertisement writing? The easiest start for any writer is to develop the area of writing that comes most naturally to you first, then branch out from there. For years I have written letters for people with deep feelings and no idea of how to express them. I write the most tear jerking apology and love letters you've ever read. From there I branched into life biographies for people who wanted to leave more to their grandchildren than a bare branched, factual family tree. Then I moved on to other areas from there. It is only recently that I have moved into other realms and I am now enjoying writing styles that previously would have been frustrating for me. I experience none of the writer's block that I experienced as a college student and that I hear others co mplain so bitterly about. Developing your writing skills in a way natural to you will aide your creative development, but is not a guaranteed freedom from writer's block or lack of subject ideas. The rest of the steps are those taken to keep the ideas flowing freely no matter what area of writing you have decided to devote your attention to.
This is the last thing many of you are going to want to hear, but it is much easier to deal with than it sounds. The number one cause of writer's block is poor physical condition. Dieters often waste money for the "quick fix" instead of applying themselves to a healthy lifestyle. These people wind up in an endless quest for the right pill, and an endless struggle with weight, never finding success Sorry, there is no effective quick fix for the writer, either. It was no accident that Plato, the walking philosopher, developed his most profound ideas, and did most of his teaching, on foot. The body must be operating well and blood must be pumping oxygen and nutrients to the brain for it to function well. The best way to avoid writer's block is to eat healthy foods and to live an active lifestyle. Take note, I did not say get an exercise program. People quit programs. People put off programs. Programs are a miserable form of work. You need to adopt an active lifestyle. This doesn't mean sit ups in the living room.
My lifestyle includes walking my dog everyday and going rock hunting as often as possible, so I am in the mountains, streams, and canyons, walking, climbing, breathing fresh air. Besides clearing my head and keeping my body in shape, this also gives my mind plenty of time to wander and play. It burns out all the stress that cuts off the free flow of ideas. Rarely, if ever, do I come home from a day of hiking without new ideas that were not worked at, but came to me naturally and on their own. So find your own niche. Roller skate, walk, run, bike, climb, dance. Do what ever comes most naturally and is most fun for you. The more fun and interesting exercise is, the easier it is to keep it in your lifestyle. The less it feels like work that has to be done the better. If you're skeptical, get up and take a mile walk today, right now, then again each day for a couple of days. You will be amazed at the difference in your thought processes just a few days of exercise will make. You will soon find the exercise is something you actually look forward to.
Now that you've put your mind in shape it's time to train it to be creative. Thinking and creating are simply a matter of focusing energy. You have all heard spiritual leaders, healers, and the like attesting to focusing energy. They can all describe how they do this. Writers focus energy, too, but for some reason are speechless when asked how they do this, even though you probably experience it everyday. The key word is ritual. Ritual is well known throughout the spiritual kingdom.
The practice of donning specific clothing, chanting specific phrases, and using specific props and specific action sequences are all recognizable forms of ritual. Those preforming the rituals know that the ritual itself works no mystical wonders. The ritual is merely a procedure that, step by step, prepares the mind to call upon and focus it's energy on spirituality and enlightenment.
Ritual also prepares the mind to focus on being creative. Of course, not many of us will go through rituals resembling a spiritual gathering when we prepare to write, but if you stop and think about what you do before you write successfully, you will probably notice that you do, in fact, preform specific procedures before you sit down at the computer. My rituals are very specific. Before sitting down to write I do an hour or so of housework (I find it difficult to concentrate with clutter around me), then I do a few minutes of stretching, fix a pot of coffee, put on a white collared shirt and jeans, then I sit down to write. My mind knows when I preform these procedures that I am getting ready to create. By the time I change my clothes and sit down to write I am completely focused on the task at hand. My mind has been cued and given time to finish what it's doing and focus it's energy to creating writing for me.
Writing rituals are a personal matter and what works for one person won't have any effect on another. Perhaps you need to heat a potpourri (aroma does trigger some people). Maybe you need a certain beverage, or like particular clothing. Maybe you need to organize your papers and desk in a certain fashion. Whatever you notice a preference for doing while getting ready to write, you can incorporate into a before writing ritual. The trick is to use whatever works for you each time you intend to sit down to write. You will be amazed at how well this works. Soon you will never be at a loss to answer any question about how you do it.
Practice is the next key to creativity. If you are going to play piano, you know it takes plenty of practice to do so fluently. Just so, if you are going to write well and fluently, you need to practice every day, without fail. Keeping a daily journal is a good way to keep in practice. Daily entries not only keep your skills in practice, but also provide you a sounding board from which you can pull ideas for future articles and stories. I recommend keeping a journal even if you're job already entails daily writing. The journal will let you explore subjects and alternative forms of writing that you are not involved with on a daily basis.
So what happens if you have followed every step here and still experience a bout of writer's block? Learn to talk through it. Writing is not an innate ability. Many societies have functioned quite nicely with no written language. Verbal communication, however, is instinctual and any time two humans are raised together they will develop a means to communicate verbally. I could not have made a living writing letters if everyone who had feelings they could express to me verbally were also able to get those down into written form. So talk it out. Listen to your conversations when you talk with others. A normal conversation will jump from subject to subject via free association, that is, one subject will bring attention to the next much like a keyword in a computer will bring up lists of url's of related information. Somewhere in all those key subjects covered within your conversations with others may lie your next writing topic, so listen carefully.
Perhaps you are wanting to write something fictional about a topic that you have discussed with someone. For instance, say you were talking to a friend about a woman you saw on television who was talking about how to keep your spouse faithful. You are wondering how to turn it into a fictional piece. Start asking yourself questions out loud (your answers will come quicker) about what you heard. Ask yourself things such as, "what would happen if they found out this woman's husband, or she herself was having a affair" or "what if she was asking women to write to her for information so she could send information privately about a brainwashing technique". The more "what ifs" you can think of, the more subjects you have for your story.
After you find your subject, if you are a little stuck on which way to go with it or where to start, do some more talking. Bring the subject up purposely in conversation and see what others have to say. What do they already know or think about it? What questions and opinions do they have or wonder about? There is your starting point. You already have an audience viewpoint. If one person is wondering about something or holds a particular opinion, it's a safe bet others have the same questions or point of view.
Vocalizing also works well while you are actually writing and get blocked about what to say or how to word something. Just start talking out loud to yourself. Start with a line or two that you have just written and start talking. Just pretend you are talking to another person. Talk to your pet, they love the attention. Talk to your computer, the walls. If sitting and talking isn't helping, take a walk and talk out loud to yourself as you walk. You will appear mad as a hatter to anyone who sees you but your ideas will be flowing freely in no time.
If you have tried everything and still have had no success at retrieving an idea or two you can still do two more things to help the situation out. The first is to do some more research on the topic. As you go over material that is already available you can find areas that could use more information or a different point of view. The more you know about a subject, the easier it is to write about.
The second means is to just leave it all alone for a while. Once you have chosen a topic to write about your mind will keep working on the topic even after you quit paying attention to it. This can also sometimes result in having an idea come to you at some inconvenient time such as the middle of the night when you are sleeping nice and comfy, but at least it will come to you. It's no wonder that creativity seems like it just descends upon us from the heavens sometimes.
Now that you know how to trigger the free flow of ideas, creativity will no longer seem like the allusive gift bestowed upon the few and fortunate. Don't let that bring you down, though. You are still in an elite class, because, as mentioned before, writing just isn't for everyone. Besides, most other people will still regard creativity as a gift to the few - and there's no reason you have to tell them any different!
