5 Creative Exercises for Writer’s Block
Some of the writing agencies I worked for before going off on my own got plenty wrong, but one in particular understood that writing is a CRAFT.
“Craft” as in something that should be revered, but also like ARTS and CRAFTS.
And what do artsy people do? THEY STAY CREATIVE so they can CREATE.
Us creative types need to keep discovering new ways to pour our creative energy into something other than rumination, worst-case scenarios, and maladaptive daydreaming. Or we turn hopeless and stagnate, or in some cases, aggressive.
The creative exercises below do help a great deal with writer’s block, but they’re also just good for the soul, like chicken soup.
Draw on Your Refrigerator with a Dry-erase Marker.
Disclaimer out of the way, I have no idea if this is safe for your particular fridge. Please don’t come for me if you happen to taint a $3,000 ultra-mega steel robotic refrigerator or something. Not kidding.
I took up fridge art back in preschool, like a lot of millennials, and I’ve been trying to help a few friends through burnout lately, which has got me thinking about childhood healing. The creativity from childhood came from simplicity. We didn’t have hundreds of rules (imagined or otherwise), expectations, or even options. We just knew we liked the color blue or that the sun always needs squiggly rays because it “looks happier.”
Draw your favorite animals on your fridge, and I can almost guarantee you’ll smile the next 10 times you crack it open. For me, that looked like a wonky wombat, a waddling duck, a sleepy koala bear, and my bulldog.
Go On a Color Walk or Senses Walk
I cannot take the credit for color walks. A lot of my prior therapists can, though.
Yadda yadda…being present…yadda yadda…working out is good for your mental health. These are things that are true but sound intensely impossible when you actually need that information, so let’s focus on the fact that finding ways to appreciate nature can make you feel much less lonely. And soon, you’ll see there’s SO much to notice all the time. Suddenly, your world opens up beyond the corners of your brain, and you remember there’s a whole actual world out there.
Creativity needs to be given as many chances as possible to notice new inputs and gifts.
Try to find all the red items you can, or try to find 5 items related to all 5 senses. You make up the rules.
Just go for that damn walk. Even with gritted teeth. Just one step at a time.
Get Really Into Stamps
We (my bulldog and I) in this house love some good old-fashioned snail mail. And what’s better than a card or letter? A COOL STAMP ON THE ENVELOPE.
There is SO much attention to detail and feeling among the stamp lovers, and there’s a lot to learn from ‘em.
Buy five stamps purely because the art interests you, research one of the subjects depicted, or build a tiny visual collection around a theme.
(Poetic aside: Maybe if we all wrote more letters, we could slow down enough to get the right words out instead of the first words. Life moves SO quick these days.)
Cut Up a Magazine or Make a Collage
This is one of my favorite, tried and true, nostalgic, deeply fun, and healing coping mechanisms.
I need you to find your best local thrift shop and raid their magazine racks. Then, you’re going to grab a mix of all things. Cooking, Travel, Sports, etc.
When you get home with your newfound supplies, start cutting out every image, word, or tagline that sparks something inside you. Don’t think too hard about it. Just cut out everything that brings you joy or makes you feel something.
Then, you’re going to arrange all your favorite images into one imperfect, busy, yet uniquely you collage on poster board. Yes, I probably should have mentioned to get the poster board, glue, and scissors before this point, but sometimes alternate routes are more fun. :)I like to display my collages prominently in the living room like an art gallery, but you can also just snap a picture of the project with your phone and then donate it to a friend or local non-profit.
Transform Across Mediums
I cannot take the credit for this creative exercise either, but some of it goes back to my copywriting days.
Instead of converting a blog title to a video title, what would happen if you convert a paragraph into a lunch menu?
Or a text into a Frankenstein emoji (yeah yeah, it’s Frankenstein’s monster for the literary nerds, but creativity lives in the gray and nonsensical sometimes).
What if you transformed a title into a weather forecast?
Creativity needs non-linear, not one-to-one analogies, similes, and routes to explore, which naturally happens best through play. And playing is all about imagination, which is about…*cue Spongebob*…possibilities.
When Creativity Needs an Accountability Partner
Your ideal accountability partner might be your dog, life partner, neighbor, fictional character, or another part of you.
It could also be a team like ours.
Send your friend your fridge monster. Have your partner assign you a random object to write a poem about. Ask your kid to pick three magazine pages. Let your dog choose between two markers by sniffing one.
One of the most useful ways for fighting writer’s block is to acknowledge how hard you are trying and then stop trying so hard. It’s frustratingly that simple. Sorry! I wouldn’t believe me either!
But what I do know is that one thing that cannot be forced is creativity.
Creativity needs space to breathe, dance, and laugh, and then it will light up willingly. That’s when you get to channel the universe or whatever deity you believe in. (Yes, even famous writers agree that the best ideas seem to come from the ether, as though we all have antennas. One that comes to mind is Stephen King. More on that in other blog posts).
Now, lovingly, put the screens away and take 5 minutes to do ANY variation of the ideas in this post, even if you end up finding creative ways to be angry and annoyed the entire 5 minutes.
Do this for a week. Then report back.
