Life is grand when you’re full of ideas and your music flows effortlessly — and it can feel hopeless when your creative well runs dry. How do you keep the creative process going when you feel like you’re out of ideas? How can you revive motivation to keep your projects moving? Creative types like musicians, designers, and writers wrestle with this challenge regularly — let’s look at some things that can help you maintain your creative momentum.
Clean and set up your instruments
At first this may sound like a cop-out, a way to avoid your struggles with the creative process. But it’s actually a great way to take some pressure off your results while reacquainting yourself with your creative tools, whether it’s a guitar, a DJ mixer and decks, or even the desk you sit at while writing lyrics or composing. Just as a carpenter needs sharp, clean tools to be ready for the next project, you need your creative tools to be ready to perform. And that time you spend in quiet contemplation while changing strings, removing dust and grime from hardware, and organizing items is time well spent — it’s essentially the incubation period that great thinkers refer to, the mental space you create for yourself to allow the next great idea to present itself. The bonus is that when you’re feeling creative again, your gear is in top-notch condition to perform.
Ask a friend to challenge you with a musical goal
When it comes to your own personal music projects, the lack of outside pressure to create can be as much a challenge as being under too much pressure. A while back, some friends and I made an agreement to challenge each other, with the goal of growing musically as well as becoming more comfortable with recording (overcoming the “red light” syndrome). Our challenge was to share a short video recording of an impromptu musical performance once a week — we live several thousand miles apart, so this was also the only way we could play music for each other. The idea was to play anything that came to mind, whether it be a song we’ve played often, or something completely new. And the rules were that we had to share the first take, no editing — mistakes and all. At the end of the week, we’d share our videos with each other and talk about how it went.
After a few months of this, it was clear that we were all growing musically, and learning quite a bit about ourselves in the process. I also became much more comfortable with creating on demand — the process of sitting down, hitting record, and playing something enjoyably musical became easier every time I did it. And after reviewing our recordings, it became clear that there were solid musical ideas that were worth exploring. We had created a space to have fun and be creative, while getting out of our heads about the process of it all — we’d just hit record with our instrument in hand and with a smile on our face. By exercising that process regularly, it became second nature to simply sit down and play, without waiting for inspiration.
Revisit your idea folder
Do you have a collection of ideas waiting to be explored? You should, whether it’s a folder of short audio recordings, a bulletin board on your wall, or a notepad with snippets of lyrics and poetry. Unfinished projects can be a gold mine of inspiration. If you don’t have a backlog of ideas to pull from, and you’re looking for inspiration, it’s actually the perfect time to begin collecting new ideas. Free yourself from the obligation to write a new song — look for a cool musical motif or interesting chord, capture it, file it into your idea folder, and move on. Instead of trying to write lyrics for a full song, challenge yourself to write one great line, then file it and move on. You’re moving the goalposts — instead of taking on a full project, you’re cultivating simple ideas that will likely bear fruit later on. And because the goal is to simply plant these seeds and move on, you’re likely to have more fun than you would stressing over a full project. Just remember to check your idea folder regularly — it’s surprising how long an idea can lay dormant before finally inspiring a work of art.
Assess your current skill set
If you want to be creative but aren’t feeling particularly inspired, it can be a good time to take stock of what you have to work with. What are your musical strengths and weaknesses? Take something you’re proficient with and give yourself some time to simply play with that skill and have some fun with it. Rejoice in the fact that you’ve developed that skill, and you’re bound to surprise yourself with new creative ideas eventually. In other words, when you’re having a hard time finding inspiration to create, it’s time to have some fun and remind yourself why you even play music or create art in the first place.
On the flip side, take stock of your weaknesses without being hard on yourself, and exercise them. If you struggle with getting songs started, challenge yourself to write an intro to a song in 10 minutes. Then challenge yourself to do it five more times. You could have six new song intros written in an hour — they may not be “good,” but that’s not the point. You’re exercising your capacity to make music, optimizing the process of creation itself without getting caught up in the contents of the actual music. Almost every successful musician I’ve asked about it has emphasized how many dozens of “bad” songs they’ve written for every good one. Most professional musicians have written more songs that are discarded and will never be heard by anyone than I will ever write in my life. But their process of finishing a song is so well exercised that when an inspiring riff or chord progression comes along, they’re able to turn it into a finished song out of habit.
In other words, a lack of inspiration is no excuse not to write music — it’s an opportunity to continue refining your music making process until your next burst of creative inspiration.
Get some exercise
Nothing personal — a healthy and energetic body promotes a healthy and energetic mind-set. Spending hours in front of a computer or hunched over your instrument of choice can wear you out both mentally and physically. Get up and go for a walk for a change of scenery. Do some jumping jacks to get your blood flowing. Even doing a set of basic stretching and breathing exercises can work wonders by increasing blood flow and oxygen supply to your brain. The trick is to forget about your creative frustrations while you’re doing it. You’ll feel refreshed when you return, and that’s a great starting point for creating something new.
Only you can stop you
If none of this gets your creativity flowing, maybe some tough love is in order — it’s all in your head. There’s no such thing as “writer’s block,” only a lack of action. The thing that is holding you back isn’t an inability to write music — it’s something in your subconscious mind that makes you hesitate instead of taking action. So don’t ask questions, and don’t doubt yourself — simply start playing notes, or putting words on the page. Don’t let up, and things will eventually start falling into place.