How To Break Out Of A Creative Slump In Twenty-Four Hours
6 Fun techniques, and the one thing you should never do
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Every writer cycles in and out of a creative slump. If you’ve been in one, you know the symptoms. Your ideas feel stale and repetitive. You might even feel bored or uninterested in your work.
You can write a successful story and remain mired in the depths of a recession. It has nothing to do with external success.
A creative slump is nothing more than a recession. Your mind temporarily pulls back to regroup from the excesses of creative prosperity.
If it’s your first time, you might feel like it will last forever. Heck, if it’s your tenth time you might feel that way. Go through enough of them, and you’ll understand it’s part of the process.
In this story, I’ll share six techniques to compress the doldrum phase of your writing cycle. A slump can last for days or even weeks. It will eventually work itself out.
You can speed up the process and snap out of your downturn in as little as twenty-four hours.
1. Learn about a new subject
A few months ago, I found myself in the depths of a rut. I felt like I was running out of new angles on the same ideas. I read a book called The Hidden Half of Nature by David Montgomery and Anne Bikle.
It’s a book about microbes. I had a passing interest in the subject and needed an influx of new ideas, so I tried it.
Of course, you need to do more than just read a book. You need to put it into practice. Don’t just write about what you learned, put a creative spin on it.
Take notes of crucial concepts and ask yourself this question.
How can I apply the [fill in the blank] concept to my domain of expertise?
In the book I mentioned, they write about radiation resistant bacteria. I could take the concept of these bacteria and write about resiliency, stubbornness, and redundancy. I ended up using it in a sci-fi story.
