Work today really took it out of me, so on my way home I called my friend Tony, who recently moved from LA to the ATL. I was loathe to prove his observation that his friends from L.A. only call him on their commutes correct, but I wanted to talk to him about how he deals with creativity droughts. He’s a musical composer and pretty damn good writer to boot, so I was curious if he had any tricks I could use to get inspired again.
Basically, I wanted the easy way out.
He didn’t have any tricks, but what he said was helpful. He said that when creative people go through a dry spell, there’s this fear – a fear that this is it, that the creativity is never going to come back. That lethargy can be so overwhelming that it feels useless to even try to do anything else, let alone power through the creative block. And when I get to that point, the easiest thing to do is to just feel bad about myself.
Creatives, huh?
But it was nice to hear another person who’s experienced the same thing express some solidarity. Part of the reason I’m so bleh is because I’ve fallen into a sort of routine lately, which has put a damper on my inspiration. I have a rule of writing about my experience, but if my experience is the same, day in and day out, of course I’m going to run out of interesting things to write about. Tony suggested a change of scenery, and I agree.
That’s why, effective immediately, I’m moving from my desk to my couch.
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