Saturday 4 February 2012

New Perspectives on Creative Stuckness

I want to try a bit of an experiment.

Every writer, director and actor that I know; they all suffer blocks which render them creatively impotent from time to time. Inner criticism, money issues, sinking passion, lack of clarity, etc. It happens to everyone. I've had five friends this week sharing such problems.

I am asking you, the reader, if perhaps you may want to share some of your current issues which are affecting you're creativity, either by leaving a comment here or by emailing me.

I'm hoping that two things will happen. 1) We will realise how similar we all are, how these disturbances are a common element of living a creative life, and 2) That either myself, or other readers, will be able to help give you a new perspective on your work or the things troubling you, that will help you in some way.

If it's too personal, feel free to contact me anonymously. I'm certain we all have more in common than we realise. Are you struggling to focus on your writing? Are you making excuses to avoid auditions? Did you lose the confidence of the actors on your set? Whatever it is, please share!

Care to share?

7 comments:

  1. For me, it's just family, the mommy-gig, getting in the way finding time to write and keeping up my momentum on writing projects. On the other hand, the pressure of having only a few hours a week to write definitely moves me forward. I don't waste those hours.

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    1. I'm getting more ideas lately for things to write about but I have a problem with getting distracted. If I can just finish this level on a game I'm playing. If I can finish this movie I started watching last night.

      The real problem is I need to commit to sitting down to write more often and I'd like an editor to go over my work. I'm too wordy and I need help getting my point out in a shorter fashion. HELP!

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  2. Ok, for me it's that I've got loads of writing, which I really WANT to do and am doing, but I also feel I OUGHT to be making short films (which I don't feel passionate about doing right now). So I am worried that if I just carry on with the writing and don't do any directing for a bit, I'll 'miss out' on some directing practice.

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  3. Oh wow, there's a lot. I think all artists go through dry spells, not sure there's any real "cure" for that, other than time, patience and willpower. For me it's lack of focus and my own insecurities. When I finally do sit down and write, I keep going back over it tweaking and trying to make it better until I convince myself it's not good at all.

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    1. Donna, you are spot on about time, patience and willpower. Do you have a way of reaching a point with your writing where you say 'right, no more tweaks' and get some feedback/other opinions?
      I really relate to what you say about tweaking and insecurity. At university I used to spend ages going over and over individual paragraphs of my essays, writing, deleting and rewriting and deleting, to the point where I couldn't finish an essay on time. Then I got some support and encouragement which helped. A similar thing has happened with my creative writing.

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  4. I used to get writer's block a lot more than I have lately. I think it was mostly just that I had too many projects going at the same time. Now, I give myself a routine, a schedule, deadlines; it's the only way I can get things done.

    If for some reason, I'm not feeling inspired, I'll open a new word document and spit out a stream-of-consciousness thing--whatever comes to my head. I never use this writing for anything, but it usually helps to kick-start the motor, get the creative juices flowing.

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  5. Hey all, I've continued this here: http://www.kidinthefrontrow.com/2012/02/creative-stuckness-continued.html

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