7 Ways to Get You Going Again

“I’ve been stuck for a while now. How do I get back to creating?”

I hear a variation of this question from readers over and over again. I know the ones who speak up about being stuck are certainly not the only ones who are stuck.  They’re the ones who’re bold enough to admit it.

So for everyone who’s stuck, or who’s been stuck before or will get stuck sometime in their future creative journey, here are 7 ways to get you going again.

3 Ways to Get You No Longer Stuck

1. Start Small

Let’s be honest. Rome was not built in a day.  And your creative journey will not be either. So start small and do not despise your small beginnings because they will eventually accumulate into a sizable achievement. To get yourself unstuck, you really want to start small because taking small steps helps you do two things. It helps you overcome the inertia of being stuck, and it helps get you started and going again.

2. Don’t Wait to Be Ready

Let’s get real. You don’t need to wait to be ready before you create. Very often, we want all our ducks in a row before we start. Doing this can keep you stuck for a very, very long time. Start exactly where you are. Start even if you feel like you’re not ready. Because the truth is, you don’t need to know everything. You don’t need to have all the tools and supplies. And you certainly don’t need to have a well-fitted studio space. Many people start in their bedrooms, or in their dining rooms, or in a shared space.  It really doesn’t matter. All that matters, is that you start.

3. Choose the Right Time of Day

We all (myself included), self-sabotage ourselves when we try to create at times of the day which are not conducive to our creativity. For example, I know it’s hard for me to focus when I’m writing and my kids are running around the house playing. On the other hand, I can do the construction part of a textile project quite well during that time without getting distracted. Even if you say, “I don’t have distractions”, science shows that each of us has specific times of the day when we are most productive.  So, why don’t you take time to find out the best time of day for you to create? So that you can make sure you keep creating without getting stuck.

4 More Ways to Get You No Longer Stuck

4. Challenge Yourself Beyond Boredom

I like this one because it’s happened to me so many times. When you feel like your creative juices are drying up, it’s very likely that you’re bored with what you’re doing. Things may have become too simple for you. You probably know the process you’re using too well or you’ve used that technique too often. Boredom can stunt your creative growth. (I feel like writing that in all caps). Seriously, when you get bored, you want to challenge yourself and try something new and difficult and scary. I can personally credit a lot of my creative growth to challenging myself continuously. So, I’ll like to encourage you to do likewise. Take some risks and challenge yourself. Because you’ll be doing yourself a lot of creative good when you do.

5. Practice Consistently

Next, when you’re creating, consider it as practice. Because doing so takes the pressure off for you to create masterpieces. It allows you to keep creating while you’re getting better at it. And it helps you get your mediocre creations out of the way to make room for your masterpieces to come through.  When I challenged myself to use stitch exclusively, I practiced every single week. And that practice got me lots of results. When you practice continuously, you make progress continuously. And you’re not at a loss for what to create next. Aka, you don’t get stuck quite often.

6. Change Your Limiting View

You may find yourself stuck and unable to create because you’ve got a limiting view of what “real art” is.  A lot of people struggle with this without even knowing it.  Sometimes it’s because you’re comparing your art with some other person you know or some “masters of art” who are greatly admired. Stop trying to be like another artist. Be you. The best art you’ll ever create is the one that is the true expression of yourself, not of someone else’s story.

Conclusion

7. Make Self-Care your Priority

Finally, let’s face it. If you’re not taking care of yourself, you’ll not have the creative energy to keep going.  Your personal health and well-being play an important role in whether you’re creating or whether you’re stuck.  Take time to care for yourself. The better you feel about yourself, the more likely you are to create again. Learn to balance self-sacrifice to a larger dream with self-care so that you’ll live to see your creative dreams come true.

So there you have it, my dear friend – 7 ways to get yourself unstuck from a creative block. Write a comment below and let me know how these resonate with you personally.

Warmest Regards,

PS: The images in this post are coloring pages I designed and created by hand using continuous line drawing and then I colored them. 🙂

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There is Nothing Childish About  Visual Storytelling:
Doodling, Sketching & Coloring 

The other day, I came across this interesting piece of information and I thought to myself: who better to share this with than all of you here on the blog. This is what I discovered- Adult coloring books are on the rise!! Say what? Yes, adult coloring books are on the rise and two of the top ten selling books on Amazon (at the time of writing) are actually adult coloring books.

Let me just start by saying, I wasn’t even aware that there was a demand for adult drawing books. So to discover that they are so hot that bookstores can’t even keep up stocking their shelves was a surprise to me.

Most people are getting into doodling, coloring, drawing because it is relaxing and gets them to take a break from the electronics. Go figure!!

Doodling, drawing and creating all sorts of art is not for creatives only. They are very useful ways of keeping the brain active and sharp.  Putting pen or pencil to paper (whether drawing or writing) helps us think. It can make you become fully aware of ideas, concepts, and emotions. It is a great tool for enhancing creative thinking.

Looking back on how I learned to draw with the sewing machine, I see that doodling helped me a lot with practicing to stitch designs. I simulated stitching on a sewing machine, by doodling without picking up the pencil till the design was complete. Throughout his article, you’ll see some designs I doodled in my sketchbook and directly onto fabric.

Doodling Fosters Creative Thinking

Doodling, sketching, and coloring are different ways of creative thinking for adults and children alike. Sunni Brown is a  woman on a mission to get adults to do more of that. She leads a “revolution” (her word, not mine) to get people to communicate more visually. Get this! Her focus is not on creative types- No way! It’s in corporate America because we all (creatives and non-creatives) need to think creatively. She teaches that there are significant connections between doodling and thinking, sketching and problem solving, and visual language and creativity.

Sunni argues that as children, no one teaches us to doodle and draw – it’s inborn.  And then, when we go to school, we’re taught to forget that way of thinking to learn the new and unnatural way of thinking and communicating with alphabets and words.

Doesn’t she sound totally convincing? She does and so I’ve decided to embrace my doodling some more- not so much for creating art – just for thinking and expressing myself.

Your Turn

 Are you doodling, sketching or coloring? Share your thoughts in the comments section below. As always, I love to hear what you’ve got to say.

Warmest Regards