Dealing with creative slumps

AuthorAppleton on December 14, 2015

We creatives are strange creatures. We are writers and artists who live off of the ideas that populate in our brains. Let me stop beating around the bush. Tonight I am admitting I am having one of those moments… one of those days… one of those weeks.

My creative well has run dry. I smile as I think about it because I have been here before. It feels frustrating. I want to write some fantastic blog posts that will give you some great information and, hopefully, entertain you. Yet I stare at the screen and foolishly smile at myself.

I think we all hit these times. If we are writers, artists, or some other type of creative. Our brain works overtime when other people seem to relax. When I am thinking hard on a story idea, world-building, or publishing and writing in general, my hands literally get cold. I am not sure if this is the reason, but it seems to me my forehead always feels warm even when my hands are cold, as if my brain is firing too fast and all the blood runs to my head instead.

So what am I to do, and what should you do when you reach these moments? I have been in a creative slump for the past few weeks. This year I ran on burnout for too long and I think it simply caught up with me.

So what will I do?

I will relax. I will watch TV shows and a good science fiction movie, pick up a good book, listen to music. In short, I will refill my creative reservoir.

As far as keeping up with my blogging, I cannot let that fall behind… so I have written a blog post about my lack of creativity. 🙂 And you know what? It was fun! Sometimes the path to victory in these slumps is to admit you don’t have it so that you can fill your mind afresh.

Don’t think of these moments as defeat. Think of them as a time to reset, and recognize that you will come out stronger. Great art is not forced. It must be allowed to slowly grow.

Q: What do you do in creative slumps?

The interrupted writer

AuthorAppleton on November 2, 2015

A writer is an artist and as such when we are writing our creative process is subject to the same rules as any other artist. We can be interrupted, discouraged, and our creativity can be drained. Writing takes patience and time. If you’re a writer who has been interrupted, or if you are someone with a writer in your family… you need to read this.

Many times I have found that people who are close to me have the greatest difficulty in giving me that space to be creative. When I am sitting in front of my computer or a notebook for an hour or two and I have written nothing, I can understand why they approach me. I’m sure from their perspective it looks like I am either bored or being lazy. But the opposite is true.

These times of quiet are necessary to producing a great piece of writing. It is not dissimilar to a painter staring at the blank canvas, staring for hours, contemplating, envisioning what they can create. A writer needs that time just as much as the painter does.

Requests by family members to help with a chore or run an errand may seem insignificant, but they are not. The creativity that was flowing for that last hour, once interrupted, is difficult to recover. Portions of story that I was piecing together, conflicts of emotion that I was envisioning for my characters, all of that is put in jeopardy when I am interrupted.

To the observer the writer is a fragile, unpredictable creature. Once interrupted they might turn in anger, or they might respond sweetly to you. They might even seem to display profound sadness.

These reactions are true of me. When writing I am unpredictable. I am best left alone. The creative process drowns me in a universe of emotions that are unfulfilled and until the creative process has finished I am in the same emotional state that I am dwelling my mind upon.

When you interrupt the writer you do not know if you are speaking to the hero, the heroine, the weak, the strong, or even the villain. The writer is all of these things as they write. They become all things for their story so that their art is perfected.

Q: Are you the interrupted writer or the interrupting family member? How true is this for you?

Creative Conflict (an author’s meditation)

AuthorAppleton on August 17, 2015

Stories running deep as an ocean,
Ideas warring within the mind.
Where one thought arises another follows,
As a story solidifying, it raises new questions.

Conflict at the heart of a good story,
The force beginning to strengthen it.
One thought seen as an opportunity,
A moment in which to explore possibilities.

Story creation is full of conflict,
Some ideas falling to ruin.
Each idea discarded allows growth,
The best ideas remaining and growing.

Allowing the conflict to rage inside the mind,
Allowing it to eliminate the weaker ideas.
Favoring ideas with the greatest promise,
Conflict always exists in the writer’s mind.

The writer is at the heart of the conflict,
Sifting through the ideas,
Knowing that nothing great is created easily,
The writer embraces the conflict.

Chess, my Grandpa, and Creative Thinking

AuthorAppleton on June 22, 2015

“Do you want to play white, or do you want to be black?” My grandfather worked as a draftsman designing submarines. He has a keen understanding of math and strategy. When I was growing up he used to play chess with me all the time… and he would win usually within five moves.

One night (I think it was after one of our small family birthday parties) my grandfather had beat me best out of three games again. He has this great laugh that just made me smile when I lost and left me confounded as to how he always beat me. Being the reader I was I had started reading a biography on a famous chess master. It was a long time ago but I think the chess master was Bobby Fischer, and he had drawn a chess board on his ceiling. He would lie awake at night, strategizing how to improve his game.

That night as I lay awake in bed I could not get out of my mind how easily my grandfather had won those chess games, so I visualized a chess board on my ceiling. The mind is a powerful thing. If creatively utilized in quiet moments it can generate solutions to problems standard problem solving might miss. By visualizing the potential chess strategies and guessing at my grandfather’s counter moves I was able to figure out how he repeatedly won against me.

The next time I played chess… I won! We ended up having so many fun, competitive matches. Some of my best memories. My grandfather picked up a used trophy of a golden horse. Each time we played a chess game the trophy was at stake. We jotted down our matches in a little notebook, each time letting the winner take the trophy home.

Chess, my Grandpa, and creative thinking are all linked in my mind. Chess forced me to be creative. Chess forced me to contemplate the potential outcomes of each move before I made it.

Today I approach writing in much the same way. I sit back and contemplate scenarios, character development, and moral implications. It is important to think strategically. Often we desire to rush a creation when, instead, all that is needed is thoughtful strategy. Maybe instead of immediately attacking with the queen, we move out our knight and bishop to set up the field.

Question: How does strategy play into your creative thinking?

A good first draft?

AuthorAppleton on May 18, 2015

I cannot tell you how many times I have heard an editor, a writer, or an agent make this absolute statement: “There is no such thing as a good first draft!” While I understand the point they are trying to make, I disagree with this all-inclusive judgment on all manuscripts we writers write.

When I wrote my first novel Swords of the Six it was far different from the final draft. I wrote the first draft, polished it, sent it to my editor, chopped it in two and rewrote large sections, etc. The process was long and arduous. By the time I was done I had no desire to touch a page of it again. Then, when I wrote my second novel I worked only a few drafts before sending it to my editor.

But when I wrote Key of Living Fire it was my first draft. Ignoring the don’t-send-your-first-draft rule-of-thumb I sent in the manuscript. The edits that came back were simple, occupying a mere couple pages.

What made the difference? I did not rush the writing of that manuscript. I let my creative flow lead me. If an element of the story did not move me emotionally I did not write it. If a plot element did not fire my imagination I paused to consider how to exchange that idea for another. Also, when it came to basic elements such as grammar I did not ignore a correction.

Hammering out the first draft quickly can sound appealing. But writers are artists, stories are the masterpieces. Think of it like a painting and get those brush strokes right the first time! In practice this is not always possible. Often your first draft will not be your last. But by aiming for quality over quantity we improve our first efforts. Do not underestimate what you can create with your first draft.

Question: What do you think of a writer’s first draft?

3 Elements of Creative Thinking

AuthorAppleton on January 19, 2015

Often the best things in life cannot be forced into existence. It is not easy to think creatively. Sometimes the creation flows, bringing us endless smiles. Other times we are hanging on a thin rope over the edge of a black chasm, groping helplessly for that sliver of light that will bring our creativity back.

Creative thinking is composed of three key elements:

  1. Absorption
  2. Reflection
  3. Inspiration

We start by absorbing books, music, movies, conversations with friends, and activities with family. Thinking of ourselves as a large pool, absorption is the process of filling up with so many ideas or concepts that our creative reservoir reaches maximum potential.

With all the new ideas, considerations, and dilemmas flowing through our mind we are ready to sit back and reflect. Meditation frees the mind to examine how best to use our creativity. Process it before we move forward on a particular creative path, whether that be writing a blog post, drafting a novel, painting a picture. The possibilities of creativity are endless.

Inspiration at last kicks in. Our brain is overflowing with ideas. Some good and some not, yet we can move forward. The reservoir is full and ready to take pen to paper, plan to the drawing board, hands to the loom.

Question: What have you done to break into creative thinking?