Strut through the rut

Now that you’ve said hello to the world, it’s time to introduce yourself. Your first blog post is a chance to tell readers who you are with a short bio, as well as share what your blog is about and why you are blogging. You can include something personal or funny, or add a photo of yourself or your business. Give your readers an idea of what to expect in upcoming blog posts.

Even if you have a good lead up time it doesn’t always click straight away. Maybe you’ve been working on a loyal client for the last year or two, so your approach is subconsciously tunnelled. Perhaps it is a brand or subject that is seemingly quite dry so you’re struggling to push beyond to a more exciting outcome. Maybe you’re just having a bit of a bad day or week; the neighbours kept you up ‘til 2am, you have four projects to be completed by Friday or you’re simply having a hump day.

“Routine kills creative thought.” — Scarlett Thomas

The worst actions you can take in this situation are to panic, blame yourself or stare at a screen blankly hoping a glittering spark of genius will flitter into your brain unannounced. You need to get those neurons firing, to become excited and enthusiastic rather than burrow into negativity. Some of my initial go tos would be to change setting, get away from the screen entirely and to chat with other people about the project in order to get things moving.

On some occasions that isn’t enough. Added to that, those options aren’t particularly feasible with the current remote working situation for the majority of people either. You need a few new things to jump start that body engine and rev it into a higher creative gear. There will be many more techniques I’m sure, these are just a few I’ve garnered from colleagues and creative workshops (such as at D&AD) over the years.

Freewrite

“Creativity involves breaking out of expected patterns in order to look at things in a different way.” — Edward de Bono

Freewriting is a great way to stop you thinking too hard about a subject, stop editing yourself and just letting your subconscious take over. It isn’t going to give you solid ideas by any stretch, but it is the perfect way to free your mind a little and take you down paths you may have missed. Set yourself a short timer – I’d suggest a minute – and continuously write on the brand, product or topic in question.

DO NOT stop writing. It is important to keep that pen flowing, the point being that it’ll start to reveal strange and wonderful associations you wouldn’t consciously propose if you overthink or edit yourself. If you start writing about trainers and end up writing the word ‘seagulls’ then fantastic. It isn’t about being ‘correct’, rather finding new pathways of thinking that can then be built on to form ideas. And the best thing, it’s quick.

Change discipline

“To practice any art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow. So do it.” — Kurt Vonnegut

You’re a copywriter and you just can’t get beyond the more mundane words? Doodle around the brand in mind. You’re a Designer and getting bogged down in positioning, colour or stuck in the same old style? Write about it. Express what you’d like to portray in words.

By shifting your mind’s focus to a different discipline, you can start to explore the project instead of being temporarily trapped by the craft you’re ultimately working in. The quality doesn’t have to be great, it’s about finding alternative ways to route around your brain to get to what you want to achieve.

Be boring

“All profound distraction opens certain doors. You have to allow yourself to be distracted when you are unable to concentrate.” — Julio Cortázar

Don’t feel like you need to be glued to your screen – Googling images, watching videos, reading articles, looking busy – in order to find some inspiration. These are great practices to build your ideas once you have them, not so much for initial inspiration. It doesn’t broaden your thinking (in fact it frequently narrows it) and can often be frustrating when nothing ticks the boxes.

Instead go and do something boring. Really boring. Go and hand sand your fence, put the clothes washing away, finally sort out the pile of bills and paperwork into a folder. Don’t actively try and think about the project you’re involved in, let your mind wander. Consider what you’ll be having for dinner for the week or that conversation you had with Rafael last Saturday. You’ll find that you own stream of thought will find its way back around and this time, with some new ideas. I’ve frequently found my best ideas coming sat on the tube staring into space (when I was in London) or taking some luxury private time in the toilet. Whereas it appears I get ideas when being sat down, in general the key is to give your brain nothing to do – it’ll find its own source of entertainment.

Brainstorm cards

“The difficulty lies not so much in developing new ideas as in escaping from old ones.” — John Maynard Keynes

A number of companies now make brainstorm cards, designed to help you in a creative rut. You pick one, it challenges you to think of your project in a certain way, you jot down some ideas, take another and repeat. The decks aren’t the cheapest, but why not make your own set to get your mind moving? If you can afford them then I’d say go for it though, mostly because there will be some suggestions you won’t have thought of yourself.

Some examples:

• What if it was an experience?

• What if you created something fake?

• What if it had no ending?

• What if your idea was a how-to manual?

• What if you send the opposite message?

• What if the solution was a secret?

• What if magic existed?

• What if your idea was a protest against something?

• What if you told your story backwards?

• What if the design was incomplete?

• What if it made no grammatical/design sense?

Mind maps

“Imagination is only intelligence having fun.” — George Scialabbe

Most people are familiar with mind maps, putting the main subject matter or brand in the middle of the page and making a scrawling web outward of words, areas and ideas associated with the central theme.

What I’d suggest here is make a huge one. Take each new word you write as a singular thought in itself. Keep going and going on each spidery branch until what you end up with has little or no association with the central theme. Similar to the freewriting, this will help take you on seemingly unrelated pathways that you can either consider the middle of (where there is some resemblance to the core thought) or the end and find a way to relate it back to the initial word(s).

Highlight the negatives

“Creativity is that marvellous capacity to grasp mutually distinct realities and draw a spark from their juxtaposition.” — Max Ernst

The last is one of my favourite activities I was taught on a writing workshop. Write down all the negative things about the subject and then create a piece that treats them as if they are the best things ever, that you actually have the opposing opinion to what you do in reality.

Often this can create quite dry and comedic ideas, with a brilliant sense of sarcasm or irony. Alternatively, it can help you frame what could be seen as negative aspects into positives. One I’ve touched on before is Guinness’ “Good things come to those who wait” which is a more serious focus. Or it could end up like Volkswagen’s very funny Cross Up advert, that plays on the idea that you’ll be busting for the toilet because it’s much more economical.

To potentially use this in your arsenal, why not try the exercise I was given? You have 3 minutes to write a poem about something you hate as if you love it. You can take a minute or two beforehand just to jot bullet points of things you hate to give you a starting point.

Before I leave you with my attempt, remember the creative block is only temporary. Soon enough you’ll grasp that new interesting thought. Much like trying to force yourself to sleep, concentrating too hard actually hinders you. Have confidence in yourself, you’ll think of something and your mind will follow, so strut through that rut.

Here is my unedited poem (except formatting – it was scrawled over a notepad page) from the exercise above:

Tumbling dreams, cascading screens

The moment the light rays beaming from the sun

Come bouncing off the 8-inch screen

As it slowly reveals its metallic frame from the depths of their pocket

My heart stops.

My eyes bulge.

My palms go sweaty.

This is my moment of anticipation

Knowing that the most wonderful experience

Is about to collide with my life

It is like slow motion

As I realise it is too late to stop

And I’m glad

I might have questioned it otherwise

Joy gleams over my face

As I smash symphonically

Into the person in front of me

Bodies intertwined

The instrument of my pleasure

Drops

Cinematically

To

The

Floor

Thank you.

Oh, walking phone user…

THANK YOU.