How to overcome creative crisis. By the end of the bike ride, everything somehow gets better. How to get out of a creative crisis

Creative crisis can sometimes become a real scourge for copywriters, bloggers and, in general, everyone creative people regardless of nationality, age, gender and political views. Where does it come from? How to overcome it? And how can we make sure that it occurs as rarely as possible? Today's article will answer all these questions.

Where does creative crisis come from?

Creative crisis is a temporary condition in which creative process he falls into a stupor, ideas run out of his head like rats from a sinking ship, and he begins to be officially listed as missing.

This may be due to fatigue, stress, poor health, or banal symptoms. In the previous article, we considered such a negative concept as excessive motivation. It may also provoke creative crisis.

Creative crisis: ways to overcome it

Whatever the reasons lead to the development of mental dead ends, there are always several ways to put everything in its place, which we will consider further.

1. Good rest

One of the most harmless ways to overcome creative block is to have a good rest, fill your life with entertainment and do what gives you pleasure. If your conscience awakens, then let it rest with you. Iron “excuse”: every person needs rest, no matter how workaholic he may be.

2. Physical activity

Physical activity is another way to overcome creative block. Unlike relaxation, in this case pleasure and entertainment are not assumed, instead of them - severe tests physical exercise, horizontal bars, dumbbells and other equipment.

Physical activity is useful not only because it will save you from a creative crisis, but also because additional physical activity will keep you constantly in shape and will serve as a prevention of troubles that plague people with a constantly sedentary lifestyle.

3. Task switching

If creative crisis prevents you from making progress in some endeavor, put it aside for a while and do something else. For example, if you are a freelancer and work from home, do the cleaning, cook dinner, hang a picture, or wash all the dirty laundry. If you work in an office, switch to other tasks, do a couple of organizational things, learn something new, etc.

Thus, you will kill two birds with one stone:

1. Get rid of creative block
2. You will do those things that you would have to do sooner or later

4. Brainstorm

If a creative crisis leads to the fact that thoughts stubbornly do not want to come to your head or barely drag on one after another, getting lost on the way to your consciousness, you can speed them up. This is done with the help of so-called brainstorming.

The essence of the method is that you switch to the mode of generating ideas (and only generation). At this stage, you don't think good idea or bad. You can generate complete nonsense, the main thing is to record all your thoughts.

Then review what you came up with. The result obtained will lead you to new thoughts and ideas, and the work will begin to boil. In any case, by examining the fruits of the generation of your mind, you will be a little distracted, and if you’re lucky, you’ll have fun, so it certainly won’t be in vain.

5. Tips

If a creative crisis torments you and does not give you peace, then you can always ask friends and acquaintances for advice. All people are social beings, everyone has connections, no matter in real life or on the web.

In addition, you can always use tools such as ICQ, Twitter, social networks and other environments to get a whole bunch of advice and food for thought from people you may not even know.

6. Problems

A radical option to combat creative crisis. Artificially creating problems to create a sense of contrast. It is possible that by resorting to this method, you will get a sky full of diamonds, a headache, damaged relationships with people, extra financial expenses and total demoralization, but there will be no trace of a creative crisis. You can be sure that you will have something to say, something to describe, and you will be pierced by streams of violent feelings that you can throw out in your creativity.

This is the first phase. The second phase occurs when you deal with your problems and experience relief. After this, any creative crisis will not be worth a damn, and, therefore, as a problem, will cease to exist for you.

Main question: where to find problems? There is plenty of this goodness in Slavic countries. Flush the condom down the toilet from the upper floors, shout “Spartak champion!” in the locker room of Dynamo Kyiv, lean out of the window with a mop during events with the participation of senior officials under the windows - and problems will be guaranteed.

7. Revision and rework

If a creative crisis stubbornly prevents new ideas and thoughts from coming to you, you can use alternative approaches to work. One of these options is refining or reworking existing ideas.

It is physically impossible to always create something new. Whatever you do, there will always be people who have either already done something in this area or are doing something in this moment. And if so, there are no reasons preventing you from taking someone else’s idea and implementing it in your own way, making it better and finalizing it.

In this case, you:

1. First, you get rid of creative crisis
2. Secondly, develop a direction
3. Thirdly, you save a lot of time

Of course, conceptual novelty cannot be compared with any improvement, but, in many cases, this is relevant and justified. Take some ideas

I think every author (beginning or already quite famous) at least once in his life has encountered such an unpleasant phenomenon as creative crisis. Dealing with this can sometimes be very difficult. I want to try to figure out what it really is and draw the necessary conclusions.

So what is writer's block? The answer is simple - a state in which the author, composer, artist, poet simply cannot take up and do what he, in fact, always does. In order to somehow cope with this condition, you first need to know why it occurs. There may be several reasons for this.

The concept of "Creative crisis."

The roads leading to art are full of thorns, but they also yield beautiful flowers.. George Sand.

The concept of "Creative crisis" consists of two words.

Creativity is an activity that generates new values, ideas, and the person himself as a creator.

Crisis (from the Greek decision, turning point) is a revolution, a time of transition, a turning point, a state in which the existing means of achieving goals become inadequate, resulting in unpredictable situations and problems.
Let's consider such a thing as an existential crisis, simply psychological. This is a state of anxiety, a feeling of deep psychological discomfort when questioning the meaning of existence. Most common in cultures where basic needs for survival have already been met.

Result: a state of creative crisis, which means a certain inability to create, to express your thoughts through the type of creativity that you have chosen.

Some causes of creative crisis.

Any human creation, be it literature, music or painting, is always a self-portrait. Butler

The first and one of the most common: Having finished some of his work (usually midi or maxi), the author, who has invested soul, energy, talent and time into his creation, is literally “emptied” for some time. After this, he suddenly cannot write anything - his hands simply do not reach him, they give up after the first viewing of the “draft” of the new chapter.

Second: any failures in Everyday life(quarrels with parents, friends, not very good grades at school, comments from teachers, etc.). In this case, most often, unlike the previous one, there is not only no inspiration, but also no desire to do anything.

Third: fatigue. This often happens after important exams, tests, interviews, which you not only failed, but on the contrary, most likely received the assessment of your abilities that you yourself gave, or even higher. Although, there may be another reason for fatigue. In this case, you most likely do not have the strength to do anything.

Fourth: banal laziness. There is nothing to explain here.

Fifth: excessive motivation. Because of this, there is strong excitement, anxiety, and possible fear of failure.

Sixth: stress. Excessive psychological stress affects not only creativity, but also health. This could be caused by anything (even a negative rating or comment).
Because of this factor, creative crisis usually lasts the longest.

Several ways to get out of a creative crisis.

To have grounds for creativity, you need your life itself to be meaningful. Ibsen.

Good vacation- this method, I think, is more suitable for the first, third and sixth reasons. And in general, a good, useful (which is probably the most important) rest has never harmed anyone.

Switching tasks- if you can’t do what you love, why not switch to something else? If you write music, for drawing, for example, or for playing some kind of sport? After this, there is big chance for a surge of inspiration and creative strength.

Brainstorm- if you have good endurance and willpower, and you don’t have much time to fight a creative crisis (you never know, you’re writing a piece for a competition or at least school essay), then I think this option should suit you. The essence of the method is this: you start thinking about the idea itself (what it is, what’s wrong with it, maybe there’s something in it that’s significantly bothering you right now). Perhaps this will give you some ideas and speed up your thinking process. The only thing is that you need to firmly decide and commit to it. Otherwise, nothing may work out.

New images and impressions- I really don’t like creative crisis vivid impressions. This leads to some new ideas that you didn’t even know were possible. Of course, you can’t always afford a trip abroad or to another city, but you can take a different route from school, update your wardrobe, and try something new for you.

Rework and rework- searching for problems and snags in a work is a fairly successful way to get rid of a creative crisis. You look for errors and shortcomings in the texts and end up discovering a lot of new things (for example, an idea that you never really “bothered” about before). Of course, revision is a much less effective method than changing images and impressions, but this is often very relevant and justified.

How to do your work in case of creative crisis?

If you feel a loss of strength, inspiration, etc. similar symptoms creative crisis, try to do at least something. After all, it is known that appetite often comes while eating.

But, of course, there is no need to torture yourself by trying to do something for a very long time (this can simply lead to another reason for creative crisis). Then, try to do something that you usually just don’t get around to doing (learn the same geometry, for example).

Bottom line.

Art lies in finding the extraordinary in the ordinary and the ordinary in the extraordinary.. Diderot.

After we have understood this topic a little, we need to draw a conclusion.

Conclusion. Creative crisis is something like a disease. And almost any disease can be cured. You just need to understand in time what is happening to you, the cause of this condition and choose the right “medicine”.

Good luck in your creative endeavors!

Brandon Turner

Entrepreneur, investor, author of several books and Chief Editor social network specializing in real estate. Brandon developed his own algorithm, following which you can forever forget about what a creative crisis is. Using it, he was able to write 250,000 words in a year.

You firmly decided to write something, sat down to workplace, opened the laptop and text editor, but the inspiration suddenly disappeared somewhere insidiously. A good half hour has passed, and you continue to sit in front of a completely blank page.

It doesn't matter what you're trying to write: a book, a blog article, or anything else. Writer's block, or writer's block, is a very real thing that will slow down your work and be incredibly annoying.

It is unlikely that any of us can absolutely guarantee that every day, under any conditions and weather, we can easily issue one, or even several.

Inspiration is a capricious and fickle thing, so you need to be able to write without waiting for it. Below we will look at four simple advice, which should help in such a situation.

1. Use "kindergarten" tricks

Remember when you were a child, teachers probably asked you more than once to complete an assignment in which you had to fill in the blanks with missing words. Something like that:

My favorite color - ________.
My mother's name - ________.
When I grow up, I want to become ________ because ________.

It’s unlikely that you experienced any particular difficulties in completing this task then, right? There was no talk of any creative blocks. The reason for this simplicity is that the topic has already been determined in advance and all you have to do is simply enter the right words to suitable places.

This is why filling in the gaps in your work is considered the easiest way to overcome writer's block. A detailed action plan will help you. The more details and subtleties you can pre-think and mentally place in your still imaginary text, the easier it will ultimately be to write it.

Today, before answering letters to the right people, I spent five minutes outlining in general outline every thought that I would like to convey. Therefore, when it came time to write the letters themselves, all I had to do was just “fill in the gaps” for each specific letter, expanding each idea point by point. Writing letters did not take much time: it only took half an hour to sort out the mail. I only got through it so quickly because I didn't have to make any decisions. It wasn’t like I just sat there and thought, “Hmm, what should I write about today?”

Brandon Turner

The most difficult part of the job is the decision-making process. Therefore, if you cope with this task in advance, then much more. Don't complicate things: when you realize that you can't move from a dead point, just remember this naive kindergarten method.

2. Take cues from professional athletes

Have you ever seen a professional golfer getting ready to put a ball in the hole? Have you noticed how a basketball player shoots a free throw? Or how does a baseball pitcher throw a ball?

When athletes are about to perform a trick that they've done a million times before, they almost always stick to some kind of preset. For example, they take three steps to the right, spin the ball in their hand, or bounce it off the floor. They all have a little ritual that precedes the routine action.

Why do they need this? Having a pre-established routine helps you get in tune. correct execution actions and reinforces a kind of “success mindset”. The same rules apply to writers. It's time to come up with a couple of rituals for yourself.

When Brandon Turner wrote his first book, his daily routine was very simple:

Get up at 5:30.
Drink a glass of water.
Do a five-minute exercise.
Sit on the sofa for a while (always in the same place).
Open laptop.
Review your pre-planned action plan.
Start “filling in the blanks.”

Brandon says he followed this every day for a hundred days and never experienced writer's block. Thanks to a clear daily routine, he immediately began to work, limiting the impact of all distractions that could lead to loss of performance.

• Write in the same designated place.
• Write at the same time.
• Listen to the same song before work.
• Use the same text editor for writing.
• Write every day. Nothing kills routine faster than the weekend.

3. Add a little weirdness

This point may seem a little outlandish to you, but Brandon assures that this is one of the best ways overcome difficulties that may arise when writing.

First, decide who you are writing for. No, you don’t need to come up with an abstract character of some gender, age or profession. Find the real one, for real existing person, for which you will write.

Once you've found your lucky winner, print out their photo (yes, this is where things start to get weird). You shouldn’t print a huge portrait, limit yourself to a small photo card. Place it near your workplace (no need to stick needles into it).

Now all you have to do is write for that person. How would you explain the topic to him or her? How would you tell your story? It turns out that, instead of writing to some unknown reader, you are now writing for a specific person. Surprisingly, this little trick really works.

4. Write as much as possible

Often the cause of creative impasse is not a lack of inspiration, but a banal one. You start writing, then you re-read, and after a moment you are already overwhelmed with total dissatisfaction with yourself. The only question you are asking yourself at this moment is: “Who even wrote this damn thing?”

Instead, just slow down. Stop, take a break. You are now too unsettled to move on, doubts have crept into you about your writing skills. This is why you are stalling.

When I write, I just write. I don't edit, I don't look back, I don't try to double-check every sentence. If I feel stuck, I just write more. Even more. And then a little more. After I finish writing my daily quota, I may come back to tweak the text a little, but I never let self-criticism take over. Continuing to write is the best option for me.

Brandon Turner

If you feel like you can't write, don't panic. To overcome writer's block, try putting some of these tips into practice.

How to overcome creative crisis?

Inspiration and creative crisis are always nearby, but there is still a difference between them.

Inspiration, in my opinion, is a mood, an uplift of spirit, a special state of “lightness” of creativity, when everything works out, including difficult things. A creative crisis is precisely the loss of insight, conjecture, and ideas.

Writer's block is most often associated with a lack of ideas. It seems to me that this is not entirely true. Or rather, this is one of the reasons, but there are others. Eg:

– there are ideas, but there is no ability to implement them;

– a feeling of dissatisfaction with one’s own results;

– emptiness after completion great job;

– the inability to navigate the flow of information can also cause a crisis;

– dissatisfaction from transferring what is in the head onto paper (file) – the so-called “dumbness”;

– the feeling that everything has already been written, said;

– lack of readers and a feeling of uselessness of creativity, etc.

There are many reasons, and each writer has his own.

I tried to collect ways and techniques for getting out of creative impasse, voiced on the Internet (as is the case with inspiration). I noticed that often the same methods are offered to return inspiration and to get out of a creative crisis. That’s why I sorted them and highlighted those that are necessary (or called necessary) to overcome a creative crisis.

Once again, Tin and I experimented on ourselves and came to the conclusion that there are many ways, but the choice of them is more individual than the choice when inspiration returns.

Look at the table and how to work with it so that it can benefit you too, you already know.

After thinking and filling out the table, Tin and I came to the conclusion that quite simple things most often help to overcome a creative crisis:

1. Observations

2. Experiments

3. Self-development

4. Visualization

5. Routine daily work

I wonder if your opinion matches ours?

Eat good word"plow". Plow - in any case. Work and understand that creative work you yourself need...

And so I watched all these collected methods and techniques, I thought, and I was missing something. I would like to say one more thing: in my opinion, there are things that are either not mentioned or not explained in numerous articles about inspiration and creative impasse.

The important thing is author's emotional environment .

Imagine a writer is writing a novel. He gets used to the fate of the heroes and experiences a certain emotional state over and over again. Just like an actor on stage, it can be very difficult for him to switch it to something else, but the actor learns this!

We often dream of scenes from a future novel or story, we think about it all the time, we are sad or love together with our heroes.

You need to be able to get out of this state. And it's not that simple.

Sometimes it helps "cinema" reception , when the author, as it were, mentally edits the film, mixing different scenes of the future story and not allowing himself to be deeply immersed in the emotions of one scene.

Creative fun - also a good way out of their crisis. When an author shuffles the actions of his characters this way and that, like cards, it helps him find new ideas.

However, many do not know how to stop; they write series, not realizing that everything is already over.

And here we need new emotions and a long rest, perhaps switching to something else. It is known that L. Tolstoy, while “resting” from War and Peace, studied and learned some languages.

Finding and eliminating the cause.

It is important, in my opinion, to find pinpoint the cause loss of inspiration and creative crisis. And the reasons are different.

External reasons It’s quite easy to detect: troubles at work, at college, a rude salesman or bus driver, fatigue, family problems, everyday difficulties, lack of necessary resources for creativity, etc.

Personally, it’s difficult for me to create if I, say, have a quarrel with someone. And one day I discovered the cause of the crisis in - believe it or not - a broken kettle. Really: I couldn’t write normally, all the time being distracted by boiling water in a saucepan. Both serious and funny can be the reason.

All these reasons are not only negative. Quite positive things can also throw you out of a creative rut. For example, if I have a date in the evening, I think about the date, not about the next chapter of the novel.

Internal reasons not so easy to detect.

Lack of ideas is not a reason in itself. Why aren't there? That is the question.

And here, if you look for reasons, sometimes very interesting things happen. For example, you sketched out the plot of a story, but it doesn’t get written, you suffer and don’t understand that your inner “I” is struggling with all its might to resist the development and actions of the hero that you came up with. Or you simply lack the experience and knowledge to develop ideas. Or maybe the “scatter” of ideas does not give you the opportunity to put an end to it.

But! It is important not only to find the causes, but also to eliminate them. Otherwise nothing will work. And if in order to regain inspiration you need to make peace with someone, you will have to do it. And if new ideas require acquiring new knowledge, you will have to do it.

I’ll say more - even creativity brought people out of a state of grief. And I know those who wrote one book - a book of memory - but it brought them back to life. What can we say about a broken kettle, the very fact of whose existence just begs to be included in a pamphlet?

You and I understand that problems in our lives always exist: big or small, tragic or not, but, one way or another, we have to solve them.

That's true “...what do I care about Faust, an extravaganza of rockets gliding with Mephistopheles in the heavenly parquet! I know that the nail in my boot is worse than Goethe’s fantasy!”– wrote V. Mayakovsky.

What to do? But here, in my opinion, motivation will help.

Motivation as a way to overcome a creative crisis.

Strictly speaking, motivation in its most primitive meaning is an understanding of why (or for whom) you are doing something.

Even if this is so (superficially), the motive of creativity will still be present.

Often motivation appears spontaneously, from the external environment .

For example, there are people who support you. They are waiting for your creativity, they read you, they criticize you - in any case, they are not indifferent to you. There may be many such people, or it may be two close friends or a couple of relatives.

It is very difficult to write something completely alone. This is probably why a huge number of graphomaniacs, having found two or three fans of their graphomania, hold on to them as if they were a lifeline. And this is good. It's inspiring. Man creates - for them. Of course, it is advisable not to feel like a star and to study. Let's remember the famous lines: “...they accepted praise and slander with indifference...”

I am lucky in this regard: my work is supported by my family, friends and loved one. I have a circle of readers whose opinions I value and whom I respect and love. My loved one freezes and practically does not breathe when I do something there. And this is also one of the reasons now for love, and not just creativity.

Firstly, there is still readers, critics, there are communities (website) .

I think there is no need to be shy about asking for a review; on our website you can order a review, and directly contact the inquisitor with a request to read the work. There is no need to be afraid of this, on the contrary, whether they scold you or praise you, this is a community that will give you experience.

Secondly, there is no motive - create it yourself!

Let it be anything: from dreams that your story about how a shrew found the meaning of life will receive Nobel Prize in the field of literature to imagining how your friend or someone on the site will read it, that you yourself will be happy and satisfied.

The degree of your adequacy and perception is important here: it’s no secret that authors who suddenly found a couple of readers are starred as if they had already been published in a million copies on Mars.

Underestimation often creates conditions for creative crisis. However revaluation Same.

If you learn to stick to the “golden mean”, you will go oh so far.

I’ll tell you about myself: I most often underestimate myself, and this really bothers me.

As a result, I came to the following conclusions:

1. There are no universal methods, everything is individual for everyone. And here, oddly enough, you need to be inspired to find these very own ways and then use them.

2. Elementary laziness and lack of responsibility for one’s creativity are very often mistaken for a loss of inspiration and a creative crisis.

3. Inability to search, lack of knowledge lead to eternal rhetorical sob questions: how can I regain inspiration or overcome the crisis?

It’s clear how. But no one sees what you do. Any action is better than inaction.

This concerns my personal attitude to issues of this kind.

Earning money through mental labor becomes the path to the gradual development of the author and those who embrace creativity - reading a book, studying a painting, listening to music. An active flow of thoughts forms a work process that brings moral satisfaction to the author and public recognition. But what to do when all your brilliant ideas are gone and a creative crisis sets in?

What does creative crisis mean?

The temporary state of the author, in which he loses the ability to create projects, is that very crisis. Inspiration suddenly disappears, and with it disappears. The formulation of an idea that was simple and obvious yesterday becomes an impossible task today. Creative person With successful projects in the intellectual sphere, he knows what a creative crisis is, and how brilliant ideas suddenly disappear from one’s head. Diligent attempts to work during such a period will not bring the expected results; on the contrary, they will disappoint the author or employer.

Creative crisis - reasons

Intellectual stagnation or crisis of creativity is what some psychologists call ordinary laziness. But it is unlikely that a person will consciously want to suddenly stop at a certain stage of work if the result negatively affects him in the first place. Creativity knows no boundaries and cannot be made to order. It is very important to determine the causes of this condition.

1. Fatigue. Occurs if a person completely concentrates all his strength on work.
2. Completion of a successful project. Recognition of success and a decent income relaxes nervous system, less meaningful work becomes uninteresting.
3. Large scale of work - uncertainty in the initial stage of the project and the result - the fruits of the work, which should be expected for a long time.
4. A monotonous lifestyle - a measured work schedule, comfortable conditions and stable pay dulls the incentive to achieve high results.
5. Personal problems – here everyone may have an individual situation.
6. Lack of encouragement and biased assessment.

Creative crisis - what to do?

It is necessary to put in the first place a clear understanding that this period is a temporary phenomenon, after it comes new wave an active surge of creativity. What to do if a creative crisis befalls the author, and what methods to use to generate ideas:

1. They will turn their face to nature - go for a picnic, fishing, hunting, or just take a walk under the starry sky.
2. You need to rest; if it is not possible to postpone work for a certain period, take a day off. One day of proper rest can bring back inspiration.
3. Change your usual environment, find new acquaintances - sign up for a gym, swimming pool or cutting and sewing course. Do something unusual, occupy your head with new thoughts.
4. Get busy physical activity– increase blood oxygen saturation, which causes the brain to begin to work actively.
5. Change your diet - nourish your brain cells. Eating: nuts, figs, banana, strawberries, blueberries, cranberries, pineapple, lemon, avocado, carrots, onions, beets, spinach, shrimp will be beneficial.
6. Avoid energy drinks and stimulants. For several days you should avoid drinks containing caffeine and alcohol.
7. Chat with friends, ask for tips from an authoritative person. He will be able to show an unknown facet of the problem, after which a moment of enlightenment will come - the creative process will resume with renewed vigor.
8. Making a mistake means understanding what not to do. Even failures lead to experience; there is no need to sit back and become depressed.

How long does a creative crisis last?

The period in which the author experienced a creative decline can be characterized by different periods of time. The work process may be in full swing, but not bring obvious results, in addition, this work will cause negative criticism from others. Sometimes this condition can last for several months. This may be a reason to discover unknown talents in yourself and switch to another field of activity.

How to get out of a creative crisis?

From the biographies of creative people, one can understand that a creative crisis is always a step towards takeoff - a rethinking of creativity and a transition to new level. Tips for exit and crisis:

1. There is no need to squeeze an idea out of your brain if it is simply not there at a certain moment.
2. Give up trying to figure out the stunning success of a new project based on the old promoted version.
3. Completely switch over and throw the work process out of your head - you will miss what you love.
4. If you come to smart thoughts in separate parts, write them down on paper. After a while these short phrases can become the basis of the work.

How to overcome a creative crisis and keep yourself in good shape - give your brain logical questions to reason about. Doing mental exercises and solving puzzles will help you manifest non-standard approach to obvious tasks. Sometimes, associative comparison becomes the key, it will easily return creative ideas with a new charge of energy. The field of creativity bears good fruit for those who love to work in it.