How to Break Out of a Creative Rut
Photo by Priscilla Du Preez 🇨🇦 on Unsplash
We all fall into them from time to time. They can take a variety of forms:
Always exploring the same themes in our work
In writing, relying on the same phrases, words, or style
Being afraid to let the writing flow and discover what you want to say. All creative work is a balance of letting creativity flow, and then taming it into a shape for consumption by an audience. Fear of letting it get “out of control” can make your work rigid and uninspired.
How do you know when you’re in a rut?
Sometimes you just know. You’re aware, but don’t really know how to break out of it. Another sure sign is boredom. You’re bored with what you’re doing. You don’t look forward to your writing sessions, because they aren’t that interesting to you.
What are the causes of being in a creative rut?
Habits – doing the same thing every day, in the same way.
Writing about the same things – themes, characters, places, worlds
Fear – of doing things differently (what if the magic doesn’t work this time?) or tackling new topics or forms of writing (I’m a novelist. I can’t write poetry! Or a personal essay!) or of what people will think of a new idea
Always approaching the work in the same way – you always write a detailed outline, and now it feels like a straitjacket. Or you always make it up as you go, but now you don’t know what to write next so you keep rewriting the same scene over and over, hoping for inspiration.
Depression – this can cause a rut, or be caused by one. If it’s clinical depression, obviously, you need to deal with that professionally, with therapy and/or medication
How to get out of a creative rut?
Let’s be clear: sometimes habits and routines are our friends. Having a regular writing schedule, or deadlines by which we send work to our friends, book coach, or beta readers can be the best way to keep us productive. But if you’re feeling stuck, try some of these ideas to jolt you out of your creative rut:
Write at a different time of day, or in a different place.
Take an Artist Date – go somewhere new (new neighborhood, town, museum, state park...). Do something new (learn a new skill, try a new hobby or art form).
If you’re feeling super-resistant to sitting down and doing the work, take a walk instead. Do not listen to podcasts or music. You may well find yourself ruminating on your story, poem, or creative idea, and find inspiration to keep going. Or it may simply clear your head, and allow new ideas to flow the next time you start a session.
Often a rut in creative output is due to a rut in creative input. Read books in a genre you don’t usually read, or by an author you don’t know (librarians and booksellers are great for suggestions). Watch a documentary on a person or topic you don’t know anything about. Stream a playlist of music you don’t usually listen to. You get the idea.
Buy or create story dice, where you assign random elements to a number, and then create a story from whatever you roll. You can also use magnetic poetry kits for this, or simply create a list of ten nouns, ten verbs, and ten situations, then pick one from each category and write for 15 minutes. Or pick a random line from a book or newspaper article and create a poem or story from it.
Write something in the style of a particular author who writes very differently than you do. Short, terse sentences, or long, flowing ones? Lots of lush description, or vivid, crackling dialogue? This can be a really fun exercise. Don’t worry that your own voice will be squashed by another’s. This will merely give you a new sense of what’s possible, and break you out of old habits you’re probably unconscious of even following.
The point is, there are lots of ways to break out of a writing rut. If you feel like it’s time to shake things up a bit, or move past old habits or fears, start with some of these - or create your own!
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