Creativity is not an infinite well...

...you can not draw from it forever without putting something back.

Over the past few months, I’ve seen more and more people in creative industries struggling to stay motivated.

Talk of writer’s block, of creative burnout, of feeling uninspired pop up again and again.

It’s not surprising given what we’ve all been through.

Life is hard for everyone at the moment.

You’re not alone.

Being creative in trying times seems like a luxury, like an unnecessary indulgence.

But it’s not.

We need your creativity more than ever.

We need imagination and humour and joy.

But refilling the creative well is challenging right now.

And when you pay your bills with something from your imagination, this adds another layer of pressure that doesn’t help you produce.

Creative people feed on the creativity of others.

They need to experience new things.

They need to feel in order to create.

I haven’t been to a concert, an exhibition, a play, visited a cinema, travelled abroad, or explored a castle since before the pandemic.

And this is where my ideas come from.

But when those experiences are limited, it can feel like you’re running on fumes, mining the past rather than drawing on the now for inspiration.

It feels dull, like a wax simulacra of something real.

It makes it harder to create.

But there are ways to improve this.

Try something else.

Another field of creativity.

A new project that isn’t for your business.

Get out of your comfort zone.

Experiment.

Play.

Find a way to inject surprise and randomness into your process.

Read a genre you’ve never read before.

Watch some comedy.

Listen to an album all the way through.

Try consuming as much as you’re creating.

Or, go for a walk in nature and allow yourself to daydream.

Talk to another creative person.

Collaborate.

They don’t have to be working the same field.

Perhaps it would be better if they weren’t.

What can you learn from them?

They’re just ideas and they might not work for you.

But we’ve got to try something.

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