Life Kit : NPR: Do you ever try to be creative but despite all your efforts, struggle to access that creative voice in your head? If you're anything like me, you may feel the pressure to immediately snap out of this creative rut — kind of like the artists we see in movies, who overcome their slumps by magically finding a new source of inspiration.
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In theory, staring at a wall for 15 minutes a day sounds great. After a semester of Carnegie Mellon University School of Drama, however, I’m not sure this would work well for me. I can imagine being very stressed about wasting 15 minutes staring at a wall might actually have negative effects on my creative process. That being said, you shouldn’t knock something until you try it. I would be interested in testing this strategy and seeing what happens. I find this strategy an interesting contrast to how creativity is normally portrayed, in which we almost always see people get inspiration from the outside world. Reading a book, watching a movie, seeing a particularly interesting juggling act, these are the kind of things that seem intuitively to me like they would spark creativity. A blank wall is quite the opposite. It’s certainly a novel concept that the inception of great things would come from nothing.
I think this is a fun little article with some great tips for leisurely creativity, however it strikes me as kind of a strange article to promote on a School of Drama newspage as the whole point of the School of Drama is that we make a lot of great art constantly with no breaks. Obviously professors have denied this and claimed that they prioritize our mental health, but it all adds up to the point that we are constantly working on at least a few pieces at any given moment. This, of course, is what I signed up for and I have found both success and challenges in producing art at such breakneck speeds, but I feel that this article just isn’t applicable to my experience so far in the school. If this is what we are supposed to have time to do in order to take care of ourselves, there are going to have to be some major changes in the college’s structure. There are ways to destress within the rapid world of the School of Drama, this article just isn’t them.
I think as an artist I have grown to realize that no one can understand my process and intention as well as I do, so no one can truly know the entire truth in my work. That being said, while sometimes it helps me to take breaks that depends on my mood to mood, and sometimes it takes just forcing myself to try something new even if I know it won’t be what I want. The beauty of creating art is that it is so unique to the individual because it's a form of expression, so giving broad rules just can’t work. Or at least, that's my perspective as an artist who makes art for myself. That is a good thing for working artists because if this article was entirely true it would be very difficult for any creatives as entrepreneurs, employees, freelancers, or anyone who depends on their art for financial support to get anything done. We rely on deadlines and assurances, so people are forced to find work arounds when relaxing is not an option.
See here's the thing, if other people zone out and do nothing, they create things, but when I zone out or I do nothing, then I feel like a failure and maybe that's a personal problem but like how do people just do nothing? Is it the catholic guilt that makes me feel like I should constantly be working on something? Or is it the workaholic in me that thinks if I have time do nothing then I have time to be making money or being productive? The culture around constantly grinding and running yourself into the ground feels really prevalent today and when I do nothing I feel like a waste of space and sad. Like intrusive thoughts always drive me to do things but then the fear of messing up prevents me from doing anything so maybe this is just a cycle I'll never break out of. Cool article though.
OPE this article was about fostering creativity and not feeling stuck and I FULLY did not start reading it until after I wrote that out. But hey, it felt good to get that off my chest, sorry if you're reading this.
Wait a second here's another quandary I have.
WHO decided that 15 minutes was the optimal amount of time for a break? And why couldn't it have been 35 minutes lmao.
For the most part this article gives solid tips for getting out of a creative rut. With that said, currently many of the ideas displayed throughout the article are things that aren’t possible when the industry prioritizes pumping out work instead of the artists’ health. When you take breaks you are actively putting yourself behind your peers. Before the pandemic I would work through entire runs of shows while so sick, no one batted an eye. Now, being sick is something that gets you sent home. But there are so many of us who work through shows while dealing with all of the things you can’t see. As the entertainment industry as a whole evolves I hope one of the things people prioritize changing is the stigma around taking a break. I think it would be a great step towards a more accessibility industry. I will be taking a lot of the tips in this article with me into the upcoming semester.
I found that the fifteen minute breaks of just blanking and zoning out suggested in this article to be mildly plausible and a little bit strange, but definitely not entirely suitable for the likes of the students in the School of Drama. The article does give a few convincing reasons as to why this is an effective method to try and remedy one’s lack of creative mind flow, and along with the legitimate research presented alongside them, I do see why it can be helpful in jogging some people’s imagination. It just wouldn’t work with my personal schedule though; it is true that I sometimes struggle with creative burnout but I really don’t see how staring into space for fifteen minute time periods would really help me both mentally and productivity-wise. And the process of attempting to force myself to try to think creatively in a new format (such as “writing a new joke” or “taking a one-day class”) doesn’t seem relevant to curing a personal creative block.
This article has some very useful advice on how to get out of a creative rut, but one point that I think needs some clarification is “Don’t force yourself to keep going.” The article is specifically talking about using this as a long-term solution, which will eventually lead to burnout. Of course, this would be a negative example of continuing to work. However, I find myself often stuff in between the ideas-phase and the execution-phase of creative work, where I have plenty of ideas, but lack the confidence to commit to them and see them through. When stuck in this spot, sometimes the best thing to do is to push yourself to choose an idea and just start working on the next step in realizing it, even if you’re not one hundred percent sure it’s the best option. By breaking through this barrier, suddenly real progress is being made and I’m once again being productive. Sometimes a creative rut is not for lack of creativity, but lack of confidence in the ideas that you’re having
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