Getting into the creative flow can be magical. You get lost in your work, forgetting all sense of time. Whether it’s brainstorming ideas or writing content, it’s great to visit that space. The one where your creative juices flow.
But getting started can be challenging.
Creatives dread the silent room or the blank page. That part where you can’t seem to write anything down or think of an idea. And when you do, it’s just gibberish. The infamous writer’s block, as people call it - or the creative block. It’s that place where no creative wants to find themselves. But when we break down the creative process, we can find that writer’s block - in itself - is a myth.
The world requires those that generate ideas to do so consistently, keeping businesses alive and evolving. Copywriters show up each day to write new and compelling content for their clients without fail. Creative Directors come up with leading propositions and big ideas at the drop of the hat. Which makes us wonder - how?
The answer is pretty simple. It’s perseverance.
As Cambridge Dictionary’s 2021 Word Of The Year, perseverance is defined as a "continued effort to do or achieve something, even when this is difficult or takes a long time."
So persevere through the silence.
Since the beginning of time, we’ve been storytellers. From cave paintings to myths and legends, passed down from generation to generation. We’re raised to follow the hero’s journey of recognising his or her faults, going through a catharsis and coming out better on the other side.
As humans, we’re trained to seek elements that make up a compelling narrative. In the modern-day, stories are everywhere we look. It’s in every genre of book, every Netflix show and every extensive Facebook post. Deep down, we’re all experts on what makes a good story.
Because of this, we’re able to transfer this inherent knowledge to brand storytelling and corporate writing.
If you were to take creative writing classes, you’d be encouraged to let your thoughts run free and to write whatever comes to mind. Apply this same teaching to painting, or brainstorming. It may be a waffling mess, and it might not all be good. In fact, we’re guaranteed that most of what we generate initially will be bad - almost every time.
But just like any learning experience, as we progress and keep at it, we become better. Being a creative person requires practice at the craft every day. Use it or lose it. Whether we’re aiming to improve on a particular tone of voice or chasing down a thought that we think has the potential to be groundbreaking, it needs to be practised to be perfected.
And so we need to keep thinking. Talking. Writing.
But as with anything, it doesn’t stay that simple.
The blank page might be a myth, but that doesn’t stop it from intimidating us. Tapping into our creative space can be daunting, and a lonely activity. But it can also be collaborative. A great example is bouncing ideas off others. Sometimes all it takes is a different perspective - a fresh view on the topic - where a single word or phrase uttered sparks an idea.
And so we run with it.
They say there is no such thing as an original idea; we’re all influenced by something. But take two unoriginal ideas and bring them together - and you might have something magical.
