How to Crawl Out of Creative Doldrums

A recipe for getting unstuck.

Have you ever had the feeling of being creatively stuck?

In 2012 or so, it finally became clear to me that the business I’d started in 1997 had failed. I tried “reinventing” the business. I tried working harder. I tried working smarter. But, the fact I couldn’t escape was that it my business had long since stopped working for me. Instead, it was nothing but a lot of unpaid work for me to do.

In hindsight, I should have saved myself a lot of heartache and loss and shut it down several years earlier, after the “Great Recession” hit us. By the time I finally had no choice but to pull the plug, I was deeply in debt, we had lost our house, the business’s building had been foreclosed on, and I had gone through having shingles, insomnia, and every other stress-related thing you can imagine.

Once it was finally done, I looked back and decided that the biggest problem was that I was stubborn and I couldn’t think of anything else to do but run the business I’d been running for more than ten years. I ended up hurting myself and others far worse by refusing to give up on something that couldn’t be saved.

As a result of that experience, I worked to become a “creative” person again. It scared me that I’d become so stuck in my ways. I picked up my saxophone again (for the first time in 10 years), I tried hypnosis, I read more books than I had in a long time, and I became interested in different kinds of music and art. But, there was one thing in particular that changed everything for me.

I mentioned to a filmmaker friend of mine that I hadn’t written any fiction since college (where I was a creative writing major). She immediately recommended that I read “The Artist’s Way” by Julia Cameron. The subtitle of the book mentions spirituality, so I was skeptical. But I bought it and started reading it anyway.

Honestly, I didn’t read the whole thing. Perhaps I should someday. But, near the beginning, Cameron talks about journaling. As I recall, she says to write three pages per day of whatever comes to mind, and to not share it with anyone.

I started writing three pages, with a pencil, every morning. Within several months, I’d started writing my first novel (not in my journal), and I finished the first draft of in three months. My technical writing became easier, and I became a better teacher. I felt like I could generate new ideas again. I finally had the tool I’d been needing, and I was on fire!

I haven’t been journaling as much for the last few years. My average is probably three page every week or so. But, my life is simpler these days and I’m comfortably not concerned with whether I’m feeling creative or not. However, when I do face a roadblock, or when I’m stressed, or when I feel like I’m at a loss for what to do next, I always return to journaling to help me sort things out.