13 Unconventional Ways To Unlock Creativity Before A Writing Session

Most articles about unlocking creativity suck. They’re full of the same tired, regurgitated platitudes that mean nothing and help nobody. Clichéd crap like “have a ritual”, “become inspired”, and “stop being a perfectionist”. 

Umm… okay. That stuff kinda works, I guess. But what if you already have a ritual? What if you don’t know how to get inspired? What if you already believe that pobody’s nerfect? How do you unlock creativity then?

That’s another thing. I hate that phrase: “unlock creativity”. Like creativity is trapped somewhere and you just need some kindly stranger lazily throwing exhausted aphorisms at your feet to rescue it. Screw that. Let’s kick the damn door in and hoist creativity over our shoulder like a big burly lumberjack. Then we’ll bring creativity to our writing desk, wrap it around our face, and take a great big inhale. 

Here are 13 unconventional, down and dirty, practical tips for unlocking creativity before a writing session, speaking engagement, or whatever it is you need to do. 

If you can’t get over writer’s block, these tips might break you free. Just don’t blame me if you get dysentery or a bullet in the head during the process. Of course, if they work and you end up having a lot of fun and getting the creative juices flowing, I will have to take the credit. 

Now, the tips!

 

i. Grab the crayons and go colouring crazy

Adult colouring books are still crazily popular. 

You might scoff at the idea of doing some colouring in as an adult. After all, isn’t it just one step away from sucking on a pacifier or worse… once again drinking milk directly out of your mother’s teat? 

Scoff all you like but these colouring books are fantastic fun. They are super calming. They are great for beating stress. There’s a really beautiful meditative quality to just taking 10 minutes out of your day, returning to childhood, and appreciating the tactile pleasure of a pencil and paper as you make art (however rudimentary).

Many of these colouring books are directly aimed at adults in an effort to promote “mindfulness”. You can read more about that over at The Huffington Post. I’m more interested in how writers can use these books in order to be more creative.

For me, these books are perfect for clearing your mind 10-20 minutes before you have a writing session. 

Most writer’s block or stilted creativity is due to fear. You’re too wrapped up in your own head. You’re indulging your crazy thoughts too much and worrying about what people will think of your work before you’ve even written it. 

The solution? Do some colouring in while listening to some soothing music and enjoying a cup of tea before you have to write.

This is just like having a creativity colonic. All the bunk jamming up your brain is removed and you can access the flow state much quicker and more easily. It’s like warming up before a sprint.

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I recommend the following adult colouring books:

• Secret Garden by Johanna Basford 
• Animal Kingdom by Millie Marotta
• Color Me Calm by Lacy Mucklow and Angela Porter

Spending just 10-20 minutes gently colouring in is like turning on the creativity tap for me. 

 

ii. Consume 10 different types of wildly different art back to back

Creativity is basically just having a bunch of crazy different influences and ideas bouncing around your head and colliding into each other.

So, if you’re suffering from a lack of creativity, wouldn’t it make sense to just up the amount of creative input you get? 

It takes artists years – their whole lives – to build up reservoirs of creativity from everything they consume. But, if you’ve got a writing session scheduled in an hour, you can have a crash course in creativity by quickly running through 10 different art forms. 

You could stuff your brain with a rap song, a silent movie, a weird Japanese short story, a terrifying painting, a badass short film, a disgusting American short story, a beautiful song, a documentary on a topic you know nothing about, a playable graphic novel, and a classic photograph binge.

Need a jump-start? Okay, here is my line-up to get the ball rolling.

1 – Ill Mind of Hospin 5

 

2 – “Safety Last” with Harold Lloyd

 

3 – “The Second Bakery Attack” by Haruki Murakami

 

4 – “Three Studies for the Portrait of Henrietta Moraes” by Francis Bacon (1963)

 

5 – “The Gift” – directed by Carl E. Rinsch (2011)

 

6 – “Guts” by Chuck Palahniuk

 

7 – “Songbird” by Fleetwood Mac

 

8 – “Ikebana Flower Arrangement” 

 

9 – Photography of Robert Capa

 

10 – “Valiant Heart” Playable Graphic Novel

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You think after you’ve jammed all that stuff in your head you’ll be able to be more creative? Definitely.

 

iii. Play Russian Roulette

For some reason, I always feel way more creative whenever two things happen:

1. I get out of breath
2. I get scared/angry

Now, you could be super boring and hop on a treadmill for 20 minutes. Or you could wait around until someone or something scares the crap out of you. But those two things are just miniature versions of what you could get if you play the most badass game known to man…

Russian Roulette.

But not with guns. Oh no, that’s too wimpy. Let’s up the ante and make Russian Roulette even scarier. 

We’re gonna play this Lightning Reaction Shock Game. 

 

Oh, I hear you laughing but I don’t see you playing. You wanna play, tough guy? Come on. Let’s do it!!!

Go find someone who also needs a burst or creativity (as long as they aren’t frail or an infant) and get ready for a burst of more creativity that you know what to do with.

You saw The Deer Hunter scene, right?

Well what you didn’t see was what they did AFTER that game. De Niro’s character immediately had a fantastic idea for a children’s book and basically wrote half of the first draft in one sitting.

Now that’s creativity.

 

iv. Sit down with a famous mentor

I recently signed up to Aaron Sorkin’s Screenwriting Masterclass (affiliate link). 

I wrote about it here and here and here and here (yes, I’m a fan). 

I originally signed up because I wanted to learn more about dialogue and how I can improve my novel’s dialogue. Who better to teach that than the writer of The West Wing, The Social Network, A Few Good Men, and countless more?

The course certainly helped me with that and I’ve learned a lot. But the Masterclass was also great for another reason. Whenever I was feeling low on creativity or I was having trouble getting started writing, I would take one of the modules and it would feel like Aaron Sorkin was talking straight to me about the craft of writing.

I got this huge burst of creativity and a surge of great ideas. When I sat down to write, the words poured out of me.

 

v. Exercise while listening to the Nobel Prize Podcast

This is a new addition to my “creativity stack”. 

Blood flow to the brain + lots of happy feel good chemicals like endorphins + words of wisdom from the smartest, most creative people in the world = YOU BEING SUPER CREATIVE

It’s always a good idea to get some cardio in before a writing session. I’ve typically favoured long walks around the city. I like to look at buildings and watch people without them knowing. Sometimes I’ll listen to music.

But recently, I’ve just gone to the gym, hopped on the treadmill or stationary bike and got nice and sweaty while listening to a Nobel Prize laureate in my ear. 

When I’m done, I grab myself a protein shake, come home, have a cold shower, and sit down for an avalanche of awesomeness.

If you’ve read my article about reading a Nobel Prize winner’s work every month, you’ll know I’m a big fan of the institution. 

Here are a few recommendations for great Nobel Prize Podcast episodes:

• Alice Munro – “Bewildering But Very Pleasant” (my favourite)
• Eric Kandel – “The Artist Is A Scientist.”
• May Britt-Moser – “In Love With Science”

Check out the Nobel Prize Podcast here.

 

vi. Stretch, breathe, and listen to Indian flute music

I specifically like to do a style of breathing and stretching that I learned from Wim Hof. 

Just say you want to stretch your legs. Sit down with one leg in front of you. Take a big deep breath. Hold it. Then stretch as far as you can and try to touch your toes. When you can’t stretch any further, let go of your breath and stretch more (you’ll be able to). Hold it with no air in your lungs. Then repeat.

You can do this, plus a wide variety of stretches and yoga moves, while listening to binaural beats or classical music or, my favourite, Indian flute music.

Let’s face it. You can’t play Russian Roulette every day. Sometimes the key to unlocking creativity (ugh…) is just really unwinding. Relax your mind and relax your body. The good stuff will flow. 

I like to mix my stretch, flute, breathing sessions up into 1 of 2 ways:

1. I think of absolutely nothing. Just enjoy my breath.
2. I work through the problems of my current work-in-progress and think about different ways forward.

Use both and see which one works for you.

 

vii. Copy out writers you admire by hand

If you’re really suffering from a lack of creativity and inspiration just isn’t coming, try copying out some of your favourite passages from other writers. Do it by hand to really access the rhythm of the language and get into their psyche.

I don’t do this one often. It’s kind of like a last resort thing but, I’m telling you, it always works incredibly well. I only need to spend a few minutes doing this and then I’m bursting to actually do my own work. 

Writers I like to do this exercise with include:

• Tom Wolfe
• Joseph Conrad
• Anton Chekhov
• Flannery O’Conner
• Ray Bradbury (of course) 

 

viii. Have a culture week

If the creativity really isn’t coming – it’s skirting death no matter how furiously you pump its chest and perform mouth-to-mouth – you might need to take a more drastic measure.

You need serious creative input.

An hour of creative input (as outlined above) just isn’t gonna cut it.

If you’ve got the budget and the time, this is what you’re going to do… Heck, even if you haven’t got the budget or the time, do this anyway. Your creative life is dying, damn it. Max out the credit cards. Steal from your child’s college fund (they can do something else). Tell your boss he’s a damn fool and you’re hightailing it outta there. Beg, steal, lie… and then do this:

Have a culture week. You’re going to give yourself massive creative input on each day of the week. The you’re going to try and connect all these disparate ideas together.

• Day 1 – Go see a play. Broadway, community theatre, Shakespeare, Pinter, Mamet, Brecht, whatever.
• Day 2 – Go see a movie. French and pretentious, Hollywood action pulp, talking animated animals, anything.
• Day 3 – Read a book from cover-to-cover. Heart of Darkness, One Day, The Sorrows of Young Werther, etc.
• Day 4 – Listen to a record from start to finish. Do nothing else. Just absorb. Vinyl is best but getting a pair of slamming headphones and listening to digital is also fine.
• Day 5 – Go to a concert. Classical, jazz, pop, rock, it’s all good man.
• Day 6 – Go to an art gallery. I really don’t recommend the Tate Modern in London… but, hey, if it’s all you got, I guess that’ll do.
• Day 7 – Go to a sporting event. Preferably one where you’re gonna see some blood. MMA, boxing, rugby, ice hockey are good ones. 

Now, if you can’t get your creativity flowing after a week like that, I don’t know what to suggest… Actually I do know what to suggest. Lucky you! We still have 5 more tips to go. Don’t lose hope yet!

 

ix. Give yourself a journalistic assignment

Pretend you’re an investigative journalist.

Big boss man has just come out of his office, chomping on a burnt-out cigar, and slammed his fists down on your table. He knocks over your coffee mug but doesn’t give a shit. There are more important things to worry about.

He barks your last name. The whole office looks over in fear. Uh-oh – you’re about to get fired. But wait! He has an important assignment for you. The paper’s top investigative journalist is unavailable. Some bullshit about the Pulitzer going to his head. Do you want to take over? Yes or no? You’ve got two seconds to decide.

But what IS the assignment?

That’s up to you to decide. It can be your current work-in-progress or it can be a pure passion project.

If you’re suffering from a lack of inspiration, it might be that you’re not excited enough about your current work. The best way to get excited is to simply learn more about the subject. If you’re writing werewolf romance fiction, you might be in a creativity coma because you feel like a hack chasing a trend. But if you really research the genre and learn as much as you can about the history of werewolves, something might just spark.

Or sometimes you need to get away from your work-in-progress. You might be doing something that isn’t right for you. If someone told me to go do an investigative piece right now, I would interview the people of Japan and put together a cultural photo essay utilising a style similar to Svetlana Alexievich (in fact, I actually am doing that). What’s your true passion? Go find out everything you can about it.

 

x. Travel somewhere different/crazy/exotic

If you’re creativity is really dying – it’s hooked up to a heart monitor and it’s close to flatlining – you gotta get real drastic. 

If you’ve got the time and the means, I suggest booking a trip to somewhere on the other side of the world. Go to a place where culture shock is going to stick it’s massive dong in your face. Japan, Vietnam, and Thailand are three places that worked for me.

If you haven’t got the time or the means, you can go somewhere crazy in your own city or hometown.

If you’re straight and you don’t drink, try going to a gay bar. I did that in Arizona. Twice. I got roofied. Twice. Bam! Inspiration.

Or you could try one of those isolation tanks. That’s on my to-do list. What else? I dunno. Volunteer at the puppy pound? Go to a international meet-up. Something different. 

 

xi. List 10 different ways to do something

If you wanna be masochistic and you don’t want to leave your house, you could simply try to sweat the creativity out.

If you’re stuck on a scene in your novel, get a blank pad of paper and list 10 ways you could move things forward. Be crazy. The idea isn’t to be perfect here. It’s simply to get something down. You might like one of the ideas. But even if you don’t, after sweating out 10 ideas, you’ll have opened the floodgates. 

I got this practice from James Altucher, who recommends going to a cafe before you list your ideas. He says he used to sit down with three books on different subjects and read for a bit. Then he would list the ideas. 

This one tip might not be as sexy as the others, but it’s actually my personal favourite. Try it. You’ll be surprised. 

 

xii. Give yourself a challenge

A lot of the time, we don’t feel creative because we’re simply not challenging ourselves. We’re not doing enough cool shit that pushes us out of our comfort zone. 

You think if you asked a supermodel out on a date and he/she shot you down you’d have something to write about?

You think if you signed up at a boxing class and got your ass kicked you’d have something to write about?

What if you dressed up in a Pikachu outfit and ran through Tokyo while everyone was playing Pokémon Go? Funny story: I actually did this. Video coming soon.

Get yourself out of your comfort zone.

Have a “discomfort day”.

You know how we like to pamper our bodies with massages and vegetable juices and other comforts? Well, let’s pamper our creativity with discomfort. Let’s get the sweat and adrenaline flowing. Then we’ll have something to write about.

Ideas about how you can get uncomfortable and creative:

• Ask 10 people out on a date.
• Take an improv comedy class. Then try out your material and get booed off stage.
• Do something super weird in public (e.g. do a little jig, start singing a Katy Perry song).

 

xiii. Find your muse

This is the deepest piece of advice on this list. For some people, it’s going to be the hardest one. This is the sort of thing that can take years and is constantly changing.

A lot of writers just aren’t conscious of having a particular “muse”. People write from a place of inner motivation and inspiration. But, if you don’t understand why you’re writing, what happens when the creativity dries up? You just sit around and wait for it to strike.

But if you have concrete reasons for writing, you can return to those reasons and spark your creativity all over again.

I have three muses and recommend you find three muses of the following types too:

• A muse place
• A muse topic
• A muse person

Find a place that never ceases to move you, that never ceases to inspire you, that makes you always want to write.

Find a topic that you’re endlessly fascinated by, that you want to conquer, that you want to be a servant to.

Find a person that you want to make proud, you want to make laugh, you want to make cry and cringe. 

When you have those muses in place, you’ll rarely have to use any of the other tips on the list. You’ll be able to confidently spark creativity 99% of the time.

Now – go claim your creativity.