Royane Real

By Royane Real

Author of  How You Can Be Smarter - Use Your Brain to Learn Faster, Remember Better and Be More Creative

Every creative person occasionally goes through periods when they have a hard time thinking of new ideas.

For a person who is already working in a creative field, the thought that their creativity may be gone can be terrifying.

For a person who simply dreams of being creative, the apparent lack of ideas can convince them they have no creativity at all.  This lack of confidence can keep these people from developing their potential talents.

If you are a creative person, or if you want to be creative, what should you do if it seems like you don't have any creative ideas?  

First of all, don’t panic.  You may need to step back and try something different than what you have been doing lately.

Many techniques have been developed to help people generate creative ideas, even when they are going through a dry spell.  It's important to know that not every idea to boost creativity is going to work for every person.  You may have to experiment a little to see which approaches will work for you. You may even invent your own system for generating creativity.

Here is one approach you may want to try:  whatever you have been doing, if it no longer seems to be working, why not try doing the opposite? 

If you have been working very hard in a creative field, and now you find that new ideas are no longer coming, take a break.  Take a mental vacation. Or take a real vacation.  For a specified period of time, tell yourself you refuse to be creative at all. 

Make a point of changing your routine.  Spend time with different people.  Read different books than you usually do.  Change your exercise patterns.  Eat different food.  Change your sleeping patterns.  Explore different neighborhoods.

You may even find it beneficial to try a different form of creativie outlet for a while.  If you’re a visual artist, try taking singing lessons. Spend time with musicians.  If you’re a writer, go to an acting class or do some drawing.  Give up your standards.  Allow yourself to be untalented and amateurish.  Be playful.  

If you have not been working very hard at your creativity, then doing the opposite would require you to do something very different.  If you usually wait for inspiration to strike you, try the opposite.  Don’t just wait around for inspiration.  Don’t be satisfied with coming up with one creative idea once in a while. 

To boost your creativity, why not force yourself to come up with a dozen new ideas?  Why not try to come up with a hundred new creative ideas?

You might think that forcing yourself to come up with a huge number of creative ideas will be drudgery for you, but why not make it into a game?  Do it to have fun! 

Create some categories for creating really crazy ideas.  Decide to develop some ideas that will cost absolutely nothing.  Develop some ideas that will cost a lot of money, but pretend that you will receive any money you ask for. 

Think of several ideas that you can do alone.  Think of a lot of ideas that will involve the help of others.

These kinds of mental exercises can free up your mind to come up with many more creative ideas than you had before. 

You can structure these exercises whatever way you want.

Keep a notebook handy.  As soon as you have any ideas, or even a hint of an idea, write it down.  Flesh it out as much as you can.  You can decide to develop it further if you want.  Or, you can leave this idea waiting for further attention.

Once again, try acting in the opposite manner than you usually do.  If you are a person who jots down their creative ideas right away, and then never acts to develop them, make a commitment to carry out a creative project from start to finish, even if it’s a very tiny project.  This will give you the confidence to keep going.

On the other hand, if you have a good track record of carrying out creative projects, why not take time to concentrate on having more ideas.

Very often, taking a break from your regular routine and trying something very different can be enough to jolt you back into increased creativity.

This article was written by Royane Real, author of the popular book How You Can Be Smarter - Use Your Brain to Learn Faster, Remember Better and Be More Creative  Learn more ways to use your brain creatively.  Download this book today at  http://www.lulu.com/real 

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