I watch a lot of thefrugalcrafter videos on youtube, and a week or two ago she posted a video about getting unstuck and creativity, and it got me thinking about what I can do to be more creative. Her blog post about getting unstuck is here.
In her video, Lindsay (thefrugalcrafter) talked about setting specific limits on what you’ll use, and the time you use. I am primarily a writer, so what I use to be creative doesn’t change much, but I could benefit from setting up designated times for writing. I have actually know this for a while, at least one of my creative writing professors talked about this, but it was good to have a reminder. Writing this blog post is also serving as a reminder to actually set writing goals every day, because I noted that I should start doing that when I first watched the video, but have not yet done it.
What really got me thinking though, was a video that Lindsay mentioned, and linked to, of John Cleese talking about creativity. At first I wasn’t going to also watch his video, but I went ahead and watched, which was a good idea.
The thing that John Cleese talked about that stood out for me was when he talked about how he once lost a script he had written, so he rewrote it from memory, and when he found the original script later, he noticed the rewrite was better. He pointed out that the unconscious brain is thinking about something, even when the conscious brain has moved on. So when he went back to that script, his subconscious had already been thinking about it and that helped make it better when he rewrote the script.
That phenomenon is probably the reason it’s a good idea to walk away from something for a while, even if you didn’t lose it as he did. When you come back to the work, you have been thinking, but not too focused on what you were working on, so it seems fresh.
Going back to the frugal crafter video, Lindsay talked about how it’s easier to be creative with structure, hence the choice of what materials to use, and for how much time. If you give yourself no limits, you’re less likely to actually do something creative.
That’s exactly why I wrote more while I was still in school, but barely write now, almost five years after graduating. I often do better in November, when I am participating in NaNoWriMo, because that is imposing structure on myself. While in school, the professors imposed deadlines, and the goal of writing fifty-thousand words in one month imposes structure on me when I participate in NaNo. I need to set deadlines for myself during the rest of the year too. Hopefully, this blog will help with that.
Axlaru 