You’ve got to produce something fresh, new, and creative—and nothing is coming. Creativity can be difficult sometimes, but here are some ideas for sparking your imagination and keeping it alive:
- Limit yourself. Sometimes having a wide variety of tools at your fingertips can overwhelm your brain. Try building in a self-imposed obstacle: only painting with one color, for example, or applying ruthless, righteous alliteration to your writing.
- Stick to a schedule. Inspiration will find you more easily if it knows where to look. That means adhering to a routine—a regular time and place for your creative work so your mind gets used to searching for ideas on a predictable basis.
- Accept mistakes. Perfection is a worthy goal, but don't obsess over it. Give yourself permission to try things even if you’re not sure they’ll succeed. Often you’ll stumble across a different strategy or a better path along the way.
- Brainstorm. Try this technique: Define your problem in one sentence. Then go to a dictionary, open it at random, and point to a word. Look for solutions and approaches that incorporate that word somehow. You’ll focus your thinking more effectively.