When creativity sneaks out the window

Some days, you can step away and do something else. Take some time to go for a walk and do something totally different. Distracting your mind with a complex task or learning a new skill, giving your brain a break and a little bit of respite from the forced encouragement you’ve been giving it before. You can occupy yourself with something new until, suddenly, the ideas and the inspiration return, and you run back to your workspace as fast as you possibly can.

But, sometimes, you don’t have that time. You can’t give your creativity the afternoon off, you’ve got deadlines to meet, things to create and you just need to get the project done, and get it done now.

In her book Big Magic, Elizabeth Gilbert talks about the concept of seeing ideas as things. She shares:

“I believe that our planet is inhabited not only by animals and plants and bacteria and viruses, but also by ideas. Ideas are a disembodied, energetic life-form. They are completely separate from us, but capable of interacting with us—albeit strangely. Ideas have no material body, but they do have consciousness, and they most certainly have will. Ideas are driven by a single impulse: to be made manifest. And the only way an idea can be made manifest in our world is through collaboration with a human partner. It is only through a human’s efforts that an idea can be escorted out of the ether and into the realm of the actual.”

― Elizabeth Gilbert, Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear

I admit, the concept might be a little too ‘woo’ for many folks but isn’t it just so much more freeing to see an idea as something totally separate to you? Even if it’s not something you can wholeheartedly believe, just bringing that approach into your creative life can help ease the pressure that we so often place upon ourselves to create at an exceptionally high level all the time.

Sometimes, we need to get into a state that signals to creativity “hey, I’m here! I’m looking for inspiration, come over and join me”. It’s the metaphorical wave across the room.

Just like the metaphorical wave, it can feel a little awkward at first. That is, until you get into it and see creativity waving back.

Crafting inspiration

My (frustratingly) talented boyfriend recently made me a desk from some old oak planks he found up in the rafters of my dad’s garage (the planks my dad had been keeping for 20 odd years “just in case they’re useful one day”, I guess sometimes the lack of willingness to throw anything remotely useful away does pay off now and again!).

He’d never made a desk before, and when he asked me how I wanted it to look I had no idea. We didn’t know where to begin or how to design a desk. To be frank, we were a little bit stumped.

So, we looked online and looked around. After a few hours of research, we found a couple of different desks that we liked. These then acted as a guide for the style of the desk, which became a launchpad for our own creativity. We used the concept as our foundation but then created it in our very own way. Leaving me with a desk that I adore (and I still can’t believe that my other half actually made it) and my boyfriend with his sanity somewhat still intact.

The point here is, you don’t always have to start from scratch. When you’re struggling to find your creativity, take a look around you. Find an idea and reimagine it. Don’t copy it but rather use it as your inspiration, a spark for your own creation. Sometimes, simply looking at the work of others can inspire something totally different of your very own. It’s the little nudge that creativity needs to come and sit with you.

You don’t have to sit there, frustration brewing as you wonder why things aren’t flowing the way they did just the day before. Instead, you can invite the ideas in. You can go out and search for inspiration, whether it’s jumping online, browsing through Pinterest, exploring the work of creators you admire or simply going out and looking in person. 

Start handing out those invitations. Show creativity that you’re ready and waving across that metaphorical room so that it can come and sit with you and do the work together.

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