From Writer's Block To Creative Alcatraz – How To Find Inspiration | Alternative Fruit

​We've all been there, the blank page has so many possibilities yet they are all out of reach. Are we too tired or maybe too concerned? What's stopping you? Sometimes all the good ideas seem to be in other people's minds and we're left with re-runs of our own dilemmas to get in the way. How can we establish a thread when all our bobbins are spinning at once? Let's look at some tips that can help fuel and loosen creativity in all kinds of people.


Take Notes


A little hand-written note-book and pen are your best friends. In it you can jot down everything from the brilliant turn of phrase you heard in the shops to the story-line that made you wish you'd thought of it. Any good ideas that you have or you notice around you can all go in. When you have accumulated a few pages of randomness you will find that the moment has gone and the idea is no longer attached to what it was before. These bits and pieces can become foundations for novel and unique ways of telling a story or putting a point across. The thing you noticed in the coffee shop might be great when you apply it to the car, for example.


Relax Into Imagination


It's okay to wander off into day-dreams when you are actively on the lookout for inspiration. There is always a time and place where it's not going to impede on the rest of your day if you take an hour or two to disappear into your own self-created real-time adventure. It's in these realms of half truth and boundlessness that we are more able to piece together something truly worth writing down.


Do Something Creative


Okay so this is telling you to walk out of the door of the high security prison as cool as a breeze. Impossible? But what if you're a guard? Now it's in your power because you changed your uniform. This is imaginary and metaphorical, remember? Imagine you are blocked somehow with your story-line, but you take a look at your music keyboard and start writing a little ditty instead. Distracting yourself from the original task, your creativity has returned! It's just in a direction you didn't expect. Instead of fighting it, feeling frustrated, just allow the valve to open in a new direction and wait. Patience will reveal that your efforts will translate in the end.


Method Before Madness


So you don't know where to start. Let's look at the underlying principles of what you're trying to do. What is the outcome of your work? Which creative tools, ideas and rhetoric, will you choose to project the energy in a direction that provides your desired outcome? When we look at the mechanics and design of our ideas, then the way to bring them about will be easier to determine. We can begin crossing things off because they don't fit the plan. We can see the missing pieces rather than a blank page, a missing piece has a definite shape.


Research


Maybe we don't know enough about what we really want to achieve or we don't know how to convey this in the best way. Hit the books. Find out what you're doing and discover what other people have done with the same agenda you might have. All art is there as an example for you to bounce from, all inventions are your food for thought in designing new and better devices.


Exercise


Your body has a way of entering more dreamy and trance like states when undergoing endurance exercise. By going for a walk, run, swim, or some kind of light strain activity, after a while the mind will become loosened and more able to wander. The repetition and exertion all combine to provide a place for your active mind to address abstract and inventive thoughts.


Need More Help?


You can take this short online course designed to propel you up and over the wall of writer's block.