Creativity is a practice. After you’ve reignited your innate creativity by playing like a kid again and plumbed your own depths to understand your unique creative expression, you will still have moments when you aren’t feeling very creative. There are so many reasons why that happens, but you’ll recognize it when you start feeling blah and uninspired, just not in the mood to create. So, what to do when that happens? Invite inspiration in.
That’s simple, right? No, I know it’s not. There’s no Evite for inspiration that I know of. You can’t leave a window open and hope the breeze blows the Muse inside (though fresh air does undoubtedly help). The real secret is that you have to get out of your routine. If you do and see the same things every day, your mind will be filled with the same things as well.
Now, if you can take a vacation to some place you’ve never been before, that will do wonders for your inspiration, but it is possible to invite inspiration without that much added time and expense. Aim to do one new thing each week. That can be just trying a new recipe or walking a new route around the neighborhood and really noticing the details around you. What are the colors and designs of doors in your area? What different textures do you see? If doing something new is still too much of a stretch, aim to think about something new. That’s where a word prompt can help. Search for “random word generator” and explore the word it gives you. Think about what it means to you. Does that word conjure a particular smell or sound, maybe a taste? Let your musings inspire a sketch or two and maybe they will bring the Muse and a little inspiration.
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