Need for inspiration

Sometimes I sit down with a pen and paper or with a new document on my computer and just stare, as if I'm waiting for creativity to pour out of me. Whether it's an assignment, a passion project or even a blog post, the drive to create isn't always innate. As a creative type in a production-based field, I often feel like I should be able to be creative on demand, but it just doesn't work that way! Sometimes I have to push myself to find inspiration when it's seemingly gone.

There's no one set way that I do this, just like there's no one way to create art. When I need inspiration, I look at the world around me. For creative and positive texts or designs, I find inspiration in the beautiful things I see in life, like bodies of water at sunset or the chorus in my favorite songs. For more serious works, I look at personal stories others have shared. I ask myself, who else has been impacted by this? How can I convey my message in a way that honors or respects their story as well? For more intimate or self-reflective pieces, I look within myself.

If I need to open up about my own past experiences but I'm hitting a good ol' fashioned writer's block, I word vomit (as my queen Tina Fey wrote in Mean Girls) my thoughts on a blank page. By doing this, the pressure of writing eloquently is released and replaced with a desire to empty my mind. If you're writing about an experience you've had, first try just listing everything you can possible remember — activities, emotions, what you saw, ate, smelled, heard, thought. By listing all these details, you're opening a wide door to inspiration. Who's to say which small detail will spark a larger memory so vivid you can't stop writing?

A dear friend of mine gave me a little booklet entitled Letters to My Future Self. It's full of prompted letters that fold into their own envelope that you then seal and date for later reopening. This gift is such a treasure, in part because of the prompts it provides. Prompts like "A pep talk for the future me" or "It was an extraordinary day" get the creative wheels spinning without taking away artistic freedom.

Whether you're inspired by those around you, other art forms, the natural world or thought provoking prompts, it's okay to need that little push to get going. Not being able to create on demand doesn't make you uncreative, it makes you human.