Marika Mag of Creative Block and Dealing with It
Creative Crisis, or The Worst Nightmare of Artist
One day you try to work and realize your best art is a sandwich with cheese. The art block is now with you. Reasons, symptoms, creative exercises, and everything you should know to fight with a creative crisis is right down below.
Why Me?
You're an artist, and your job is to create. For a long time, your brain has been leading you on a path full of imaginary flowers and hard-working unicorns, but shit happens and you can't come up with anything.
Like rheumatism in doctors, the creative crisis is an occupational disease of artists. In fact, it's even suspicious if you haven't had it as a painter or writer. Among the symptoms of a creative crisis are dejection, loss of confidence in one's abilities, inability to concentrate, processing difficulties, and fear.
Search engines hardly give you solutions for it. Sport, Pinterest's boards, planning, or development of your visual taste are covering the consequences of an art block and won't help you. Unfortunately, there are no empowering pills, and only you can make things better. But in order to do it, you must face the reasons for your state, and amidst them are the following.
Like rheumatism in doctors, the creative crisis is an occupational disease of artists. In fact, it's even suspicious if you haven't had it as a painter or writer. Among the symptoms of a creative crisis are dejection, loss of confidence in one's abilities, inability to concentrate, processing difficulties, and fear.
Search engines hardly give you solutions for it. Sport, Pinterest's boards, planning, or development of your visual taste are covering the consequences of an art block and won't help you. Unfortunately, there are no empowering pills, and only you can make things better. But in order to do it, you must face the reasons for your state, and amidst them are the following.
Sense of futility
Rejection by the publisher, cancellation by the customer, or return of the product may knock you down. But if it were true, you wouldn't have so many followers, or all of your products would be returned. Analyze your work, ask for advice, and remember that your work doesn't have to be to everyone's liking. Even low-fit jeans have their fans.
Surrounding
As much as friends and colleagues may support you, they may just as well negatively influence your work. Perhaps you should say goodbye to toxic Karen, who always doesn't like your work, or get rid of the old table you work on.
Burnout
When was the last time you took a vacation? A creative crisis can pass when you relax and stop pressuring yourself.
Lack of reward
The brain can be fooled easily. Reward yourself after work. It could be a walk for ice cream or watching a movie after work.
Personal issues
Personal problems that affect each person individually cannot be ruled out. The main thing in such moments is to create when you feel bad, angry, or anxious. Let it all be in your work. In the creative world, sometimes the deepest feelings yield the greatest fruit.
Brainstorming and creative activities can both prevent a crisis and help get out of it. We've put together 15 exercises.
Rejection by the publisher, cancellation by the customer, or return of the product may knock you down. But if it were true, you wouldn't have so many followers, or all of your products would be returned. Analyze your work, ask for advice, and remember that your work doesn't have to be to everyone's liking. Even low-fit jeans have their fans.
Surrounding
As much as friends and colleagues may support you, they may just as well negatively influence your work. Perhaps you should say goodbye to toxic Karen, who always doesn't like your work, or get rid of the old table you work on.
Burnout
When was the last time you took a vacation? A creative crisis can pass when you relax and stop pressuring yourself.
Lack of reward
The brain can be fooled easily. Reward yourself after work. It could be a walk for ice cream or watching a movie after work.
Personal issues
Personal problems that affect each person individually cannot be ruled out. The main thing in such moments is to create when you feel bad, angry, or anxious. Let it all be in your work. In the creative world, sometimes the deepest feelings yield the greatest fruit.
Brainstorming and creative activities can both prevent a crisis and help get out of it. We've put together 15 exercises.
Photo Crisis
36 Shots
Imagine you have a film camera with only 36 shots. Take a photoshoot walk and take pictures as usual, but keep your limit in mind. With this limit, it will be a challenge to drop some shots in favor of really bright moments, and, step by step, you'll learn to be more selective and productive.
Unique Item
The idea is simple. Take different pictures of one item. Your photos should be unique. To make it more challenging, try smaller objects. Rumor has it that it's impossible to have even five unique shoots of a needle.
Color Training
Details matter, and this exercise will train your minor skills that will transform into one enormous photography skill, just like Michael Bay's transformer.
Choose a color and take pictures only of the chosen shade. Don't limit yourself to colors; put a ban on shapes or types of something. For example, take a challenge to shoot people with curly hair. The more concrete, the harder it is.
24 in 1
Grab a camera, go outside, choose a place, and stop. From now on, take 24 different pictures of your surroundings while standing in one place. You can turn, but no steps are allowed. About 15 shots will be simple to create, but your imagination will work harder when you get close to 20. Crowded places are level 1, and deserted, hidden places are the highest.
Imagine you have a film camera with only 36 shots. Take a photoshoot walk and take pictures as usual, but keep your limit in mind. With this limit, it will be a challenge to drop some shots in favor of really bright moments, and, step by step, you'll learn to be more selective and productive.
Unique Item
The idea is simple. Take different pictures of one item. Your photos should be unique. To make it more challenging, try smaller objects. Rumor has it that it's impossible to have even five unique shoots of a needle.
Color Training
Details matter, and this exercise will train your minor skills that will transform into one enormous photography skill, just like Michael Bay's transformer.
Choose a color and take pictures only of the chosen shade. Don't limit yourself to colors; put a ban on shapes or types of something. For example, take a challenge to shoot people with curly hair. The more concrete, the harder it is.
24 in 1
Grab a camera, go outside, choose a place, and stop. From now on, take 24 different pictures of your surroundings while standing in one place. You can turn, but no steps are allowed. About 15 shots will be simple to create, but your imagination will work harder when you get close to 20. Crowded places are level 1, and deserted, hidden places are the highest.
Word Crisis
You're so…
Nothing comes to your mind while writing? Look around or just pick the random thing nearby and compose an eulogy for it. Describe your warm feelings towards it, write about the day you first saw it, or explain why your life would be plain without it.
Biography
Forget about your phone when you're outside. Whether you are in a taxi, a metro, sitting in a cafe, or just walking around a city, pay attention to people. Look at a random man and catch up with his biography. Analyze his appearance, clothes, and the way he behaves. Just don't make it obvious. We don't want you to be mistaken for a stalker.
Explanation
Imagination is everything when you want your gray matter to work in a new way. Imagine you meet a gold miner from 1849. Describe to him how e-mail works. You can't use terms, and metaphorical language is your only weapon.
Free Writing
Let your brain relax and start writing everything for 5–10 minutes. The thoughts may be incoherent and silly, but your subconscious mind revolves around your topic and sooner or later gives out an interesting idea, with which you will start serious work.
Nothing comes to your mind while writing? Look around or just pick the random thing nearby and compose an eulogy for it. Describe your warm feelings towards it, write about the day you first saw it, or explain why your life would be plain without it.
Biography
Forget about your phone when you're outside. Whether you are in a taxi, a metro, sitting in a cafe, or just walking around a city, pay attention to people. Look at a random man and catch up with his biography. Analyze his appearance, clothes, and the way he behaves. Just don't make it obvious. We don't want you to be mistaken for a stalker.
Explanation
Imagination is everything when you want your gray matter to work in a new way. Imagine you meet a gold miner from 1849. Describe to him how e-mail works. You can't use terms, and metaphorical language is your only weapon.
Free Writing
Let your brain relax and start writing everything for 5–10 minutes. The thoughts may be incoherent and silly, but your subconscious mind revolves around your topic and sooner or later gives out an interesting idea, with which you will start serious work.
Business Crisis
Answers Are Found
When you have a problem at work, look into the future where it's solved, because sooner or later, these times will come. Think about or write down on paper how your life will change. What opportunities and prospects will open up? This will allow you to not get bogged down in negativity, to switch, to start thinking and acting more constructively. When the wave of the crisis wears off, you will not feel dizzy and you will know exactly how to act.
Little Things
A problem that wasn't noticed in time will soon turn into a crisis. The global financial crisis didn't arise last week or a month ago. It began with problems that have long been ignored. Pay attention to the little things.
Do employees spend five hours more on a project? Maybe it's better to figure out what help they need to avoid delays in the commissioning of a major project at a later date.
Final Discussion
A completed project is not the end. Even if you can't stand the same cow campaign you've been working on for three months and even if its statistics are breaking records, you should discuss it again with your team.
Analyze the process, the results, the difficulties, the new approaches, and, of course, the behavior of the cows during the filming. At the very least, you may decide not to cooperate with this farm anymore.
Three Guests
Think of three business guests who have come to help you with your project. They can be any business people you can think of, movie characters, or anyone else you can think of. Ask them for their advice and listen to what they say. Maybe the solution is already in your subconscious mind and you will see it thanks to this technique.
When you have a problem at work, look into the future where it's solved, because sooner or later, these times will come. Think about or write down on paper how your life will change. What opportunities and prospects will open up? This will allow you to not get bogged down in negativity, to switch, to start thinking and acting more constructively. When the wave of the crisis wears off, you will not feel dizzy and you will know exactly how to act.
Little Things
A problem that wasn't noticed in time will soon turn into a crisis. The global financial crisis didn't arise last week or a month ago. It began with problems that have long been ignored. Pay attention to the little things.
Do employees spend five hours more on a project? Maybe it's better to figure out what help they need to avoid delays in the commissioning of a major project at a later date.
Final Discussion
A completed project is not the end. Even if you can't stand the same cow campaign you've been working on for three months and even if its statistics are breaking records, you should discuss it again with your team.
Analyze the process, the results, the difficulties, the new approaches, and, of course, the behavior of the cows during the filming. At the very least, you may decide not to cooperate with this farm anymore.
Three Guests
Think of three business guests who have come to help you with your project. They can be any business people you can think of, movie characters, or anyone else you can think of. Ask them for their advice and listen to what they say. Maybe the solution is already in your subconscious mind and you will see it thanks to this technique.
Idea Crisis
Change the Chip
This expression, translated from Spanish, means a change of mind, an outside perspective. Favorite job rituals may become routine, indicating that some details should be changed. If you used to work at a table, try doing it in a cafe with a laptop. Instead of carbonara for dinner, order soup or a burger. While driving or walking home, explore a new road and street.
Deadline
In some cases, it's almost impossible to take on a creative project until there are no burning deadlines. Have a bet with a friend or colleague to stimulate your thoughts. You have a job that is probably taking a week to do? Set yourself a deadline of one day and see what happens.
Monitoring
Thanks to your parents, you may have had an impenetrable or barely working immune system. If the worst has happened with your discipline, you need monitoring. Ask your friends to check your work results or place bets that you will complete a portion of your work in a week.
Also, you can have a contract with yourself. Write down your responsibilities and introduce a system of punishments and rewards.
The Worst
Give yourself permission to come up with twenty bad ideas. The worse, the better. Sometimes we get caught in a dead end because of our own inflated expectations. Forget it and try to come up with as many bad ideas as possible on purpose.
This expression, translated from Spanish, means a change of mind, an outside perspective. Favorite job rituals may become routine, indicating that some details should be changed. If you used to work at a table, try doing it in a cafe with a laptop. Instead of carbonara for dinner, order soup or a burger. While driving or walking home, explore a new road and street.
Deadline
In some cases, it's almost impossible to take on a creative project until there are no burning deadlines. Have a bet with a friend or colleague to stimulate your thoughts. You have a job that is probably taking a week to do? Set yourself a deadline of one day and see what happens.
Monitoring
Thanks to your parents, you may have had an impenetrable or barely working immune system. If the worst has happened with your discipline, you need monitoring. Ask your friends to check your work results or place bets that you will complete a portion of your work in a week.
Also, you can have a contract with yourself. Write down your responsibilities and introduce a system of punishments and rewards.
The Worst
Give yourself permission to come up with twenty bad ideas. The worse, the better. Sometimes we get caught in a dead end because of our own inflated expectations. Forget it and try to come up with as many bad ideas as possible on purpose.
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