Tips to find creativity # 4: Don't force your creativity to flow

Out of all the tips that I have thought up to find creativity and how to maintain one's creativity, I think this is, by far the most difficult, at least for me.

There have been several moments when I have been on social media that I have seen people talking about the power of powering through a creative project, like writing a book, for example. It is often mentioned how it is important to write a little bit every day to continuously improve and to not lose the rhythm of things. And while I believe that type of advice has its place and can be quite meritorious for some people, I don't think it works for everybody.

I am in example of someone who doesn't work well with my creativity when I am pressured. As somebody who has been writing for a long time, there have been many times that external pressures stopped me from continuing a story. For example, I often used to bring up ideas to my friends to hear their feedback on stories I was working on. It was an amazing experience to be able to talk about different projects I was passionate about with people who were like minded, and at the time, I thought there was nothing wrong with it. However, something I realized was that the more people expected an update on a story they liked from me, the harder it became for me to continuously write it. It often ended up with me having to stop writing because of creative blocks or lack of ideas and put a lot of stories in a never ending hiatus, and yet I never seemed to connect the dots. At the time, I just thought I didn't have the will power to follow through any creative projects. A fact that became more prominent as I entered university, and heard the pressure some of my friends went through, trying to force their creativity to flow for a class.

It wasn't until years later that I discovered the truth. I don't recall the exact day it happened, but I do recall one event that led to the realization. I was re watching an old favorite of mine, "Kiki's Delivery Service" and at some point, one of the characters was talking about how she had moments that she couldn't paint a thing. I remember feeling so hurt when I saw this part of the movie, because I could relate to it so much. As someone who loved (and still does) being creative, it pained me that I had been stuck in a rut for so long, with no way to get my ideas out. I had begun to lose hope I would ever finish a big project, like a book or an entire comic. But then, that's when I heard the second part that the character (Who is named Ursula, apparently) said. She said (These are not her exact words but this is how I remember): "Then don't even think about flying. Go for walks, do something fun, and before you know it, you'll be doing what you love again". And at that moment, it felt like a switch flipped in my brain.

I realized that the problem all along wasn't the fact that I couldn't do it, but it was the fact that I had been forcing myself to work on projects when I didn't have the motivation to do so. So many projects left unfinished, projects I had once loved. While it made me sad to never finish them, it definitely gave me a resolve. A resolve to only be creative when I had the motivation to. And honestly, it's worked out well for me. Since giving myself the freedom to work on projects when I want to instead of by forcing them out, I've seen quite a large difference in not only the quality of the projects I've been working on, but also the length of those projects, as well. Heck, I've been able to write a 100K book in less than two years because of that mentality.

There are lots of benefits of allowing one's creativity to flow naturally: such as the ability to think more clearly about ideas when one is in one's zone and inspired to work on what one wants to work on that I feel some people don't recognize. Of course, I also understand that there are some people who need to force one's creativity because of their work or studies, but even in those cases, I think it's important to also create projects that don't require you to force it.

So, if you're ever having trouble and you feel stuck with a creative block, my recommendation is to try to do something else. Go for walk, take a nap, play a game you really like, or a movie you've been dying to watch. Don't push yourself. It'll all be okay. Your creativity will resurface and when it does, I am sure it will be better than ever. That's at least what I tell myself when I am in this loop too.

Stay tuned for the next creativity finding tip!

-Ruby Rose