Creative starvation

Image by Gino Crescoli from Pixabay

The past weeks I have found it increasingly difficult to produce original content. It coincides with the fact that I am on a vacation and have all the time in the world to produce said content. Does this mean that I am running out of ideas? I do not think so. However, I do believe that constraints are the best possible way to increase creativity. The less options you have, the easier it is to choose a direction and get going. That is what my experience have told me over the years.

I have not felt this kind of resistance when writing blogs or recording daily videos since I started almost two years ago. However, when I look back at the entire process it feels somewhat like a funnel shape. I started to produce content in any direction. Whatever crossed my mind. That is perhaps the intellectual equivalent to using a shotgun as a long-distance sniper rifle. Sure, you might hit the target occasionally, but 99,9% of the pellets will hit nothing. But we all need to start somewhere, and maybe that’s a phase we all must go through. At least at the very beginning. Start throwing things around and see what sticks. And do more and more of that. That is precisely how my process has developed. I am by no means “finished” and now I have created a Youtube channel where most videos cover building acoustics and men’s fashion. And a lot of music. I guess sound is the common denominator. It would probably serve me well if I could narrow the content down a lot more.

So, back to the topic of creative starvation and what has caused it? My schedule is usually to produce an educational acoustics/style video during weekdays and then music themed videos during the weekend. That’s a pretty well-defined schedule. Now, during the vacation, I have simply dropped the schedule and gone back to where I started. To do the videos in the spur-of-the-moment with whatever crosses my mind. That implies that I now have unlimited options to choose from again. And that makes it much harder for me to choose.

Clearly, routine is crucial to maintain a habit. Routine and boundary conditions. Maybe the takeaway from this experiment is this: It is fine to have been treading water for a couple of weeks and I can now remember even more clearly the importance of routine and boundary conditions. As soon as vacay mode is disabled one week from now, I am confident that my current creative starvation will be restored back into creative abundance.

Isn’t it paradoxical that to stimulate the creative process, you need to increase the difficulty and make it harder for yourself? Time constraints are especially useful in this regard and works very well for me. I.e. unconditionally write and publish a blog post in 30 minutes max. Like I just did with this one. Whatever you do, do not choose the “When it’s done”-approach. Because if you choose that road, the probability increases that you will remain stationary.