Creative Process and Overcoming Creative Blocks: A Simple Guide

By Mahinroop

It seems that creative block is an impossible hurdle to overcome for writers, artists and designers. There are a few proven methods for sparking inspiration and overcoming blocks in creative work. Suggestions for overcoming creative blocks include setting a routine, stepping away from work, taking a walk, changing up scenery and keeping a notebook. 

Setting a Routine 

Research reports indicate that those who wrote habitually showcased highest levels of creativity. Working within a routine increased the overall input of writers, artists and designers and it is helpful in generation of innovative ideas. It has been pointed out that writers who eagerly waited for inspiration or abstained from writing completely while blocked saw minor improvement in their constant struggle to create novel work. The best way to start is simply by just starting once we commit a specific timeframe for creative work. We can give ourselves permission to write badly and the ultimate goal should be getting something down on paper. Writer, artist or designer will have plenty of time to revise afterwards and creating something preliminary paves the way towards better ideas. 

Stepping Away from Work 

Taking a break from creative work can create magical wonders and stepping away from work is an elegant idea. There are four stages of the creative process including preparation, incubation, illumination and verification. We gather  all intellectual resources we will need to construct new ideas during the preparation stage. It is important to think about researching, planning and entering the right frame of mind and it is followed by unconscious processing. Luminaries like Alexander Graham Bell and Lewis Carroll stressed on the importance of incubation stage while dealing with creative block. 

Sleep is the vital component for processing new information acquired by brain and getting enough sleep is absolutely important in order to overcome creative block. Some of the excellent ways to overcome creative blocks include reading as much as we can, colour coding library, and surfing the web. 

Taking a Walk 

It has been scientifically proved that there is a link between walking and creativity and a Stanford study found that a creative output of a person increased by 60% when walking. It is a very well known fact that walking indoors and outdoors boosted creative inspiration and individuals who were sitting produced only half the amount of creative responses as those who were walking. 

Changing Up Scenery 

Change of scenery is good for creative flow and a new cafeteria, an exotic shared workspace or refresh park can be inspiring. Taking a foreign trip can improve creative thinking capacity and it makes seeing things from new perspectives easier. 

Keeping a Notebook 

Many successful authors use their notebook to remember moments that would  inspire their writing at a later stage. Authors, designers and artists can utilize their notebook to record interesting thoughts, observations and quotations. We can write books we have read, cinema we have seen and anything we find interesting in our lovely notebook. A notebook is often an arsenal of inspiration and writers, designers and artists stuck with creative blocks can keep a notebook in order to get their creative juices flowing.