I Let My Creativity Drown (And It Didn’t Come Back to Haunt Me)

Have you guys listened to the Kubo and the Two Strings soundtrack? You should.

I had a thought of putting the “I don’t wanna” image up then just saying “so I didn’t” in this post. I’m not going to do that to you guys (but I coulda ….) That’s only going to mean something to people who are obsessed with Rio

Ok, anyway, I did write a blog post. Here it is ….

I just don’t wanna write.

We all have those moments where we just get stuck. Your creativity ends up in quicksand and it seems like all you can do is watch it go down.

How do you save it?

I guess you could try lending it a stick of words to haul itself out of the mud but rarely does that work.

I’ll admit I’ve tried that before, writing myself out of writer’s block. Most of the time I re-read what I’ve written and don’t feel at all satisfied with it. It sort of feels like you’re calling it in, “oh shit, my creativity’s drowning, send in the reserve.” Nobody tells you the reserve is full of back up minions who don’t really know what’s going on.

You sit there and plug away with the reserve creativity but instead of being the masterpiece you wish was swimming in your head it’s like your 5 year old’s super fun time clean up song. You just kind of wrinkle your nose and go “who wrote that? Did I write that?”

It gets the job done, occasionally, but you’re still left feeling blah about it.

Your creativity is still over there in the quicksand only now it’s surrounded by reserve minions singing the super fun time clean up song and you’re questioning if the battle is even worth it.

In times like those it’s best to just let your creativity drown.

That sounds mean, “but what if it never comes back!?”

It will and it’ll be better than ever. It’s just that we all need breaks in the creative flow. It sounds counter intuitive I guess but in reality you risk burn out if you try to pump out something life changing every day.

Who does that?

Nobody.

Sometimes I need to lay on my couch while staring at the ceiling fan and questioning who the first person was to decide to install super-fast flying blades of air flow into homes.

That’s not creative worthy but it gives me a brain break so I’ll take it.

And sometimes I spend all day in a daydream but when it comes time for me to write it down I just can’t.

Maybe it’s only meant as a dream then, something to inspire but not translate directly.

Either way, it’s ok to not write. Take time off, spend it outside taking photo’s instead, or doing something else creative that you like.

Maybe that will be what’s needed, you’ll find yourself enchanted and inspired again.

Or maybe you’ll just end up with really cool shots that will inspire somebody else. That’s ok too.