4 Types of Creative Block and How to Break Out of Them
For some time now, I’m facing a creative block.
It’s a bit disconcerting. Because it’s not writer’s block. If only I had more spare time I could write at least a dozen pages a day, adding a few more hundred words to my next fantasy novel.
I have a creative block regarding advertising… the creative part of advertising. To better understand what this block is and how I could overcome it, I started on an exploratory and rediscovery journey of the creativity principles in advertising.
My first step was to clarify what kind of creative block I’m facing. As I’ve discovered there is more than one type. There’s the illusory total creative block. The contextual creative block. The emotional creative block.
And what I’m facing is the vertical creative block. That’s what I’m calling it. I promise it makes sense. But until we get to what I’m trying to overcome and my temporary lack of creative capacity, let’s get the other three out of our way by getting to know them better and the way they manifest.
The Total Creative Block
Let’s start off with the truth, because only the truth can free us: there’s no such thing as a total creative block. It’s an illusion. A sad fantasy by which people are deluded. No one, ever, has a total creative block.
When you can’t write a single word on your interior design blog, no matter how hard you’re squeezing ideas out of your brain; when words start failing you and your novel or poem or rap song; when your mind is as blank as the white piece of paper in front of you, even in these circumstances you’re not facing a total creative block. Because there’s always something else you could be writing about. That’s why a lot of professional fiction writers work on simultaneous projects all the time. Or there’s something else you could try. Like starting a podcast, or interviewing someone on creativity, or you could try and doodle something, do origami, create paper planes.
You can do so many other creative things that were in the background, until you hit this wall that blocks your creative road on this specific path. Well, when you hit this wall that doesn’t come down through sheer will power, nor through hours of forced creativity, try going around it, or climbing it. Look for a different entrance in the land of creativity — sometimes it might be a door, other times a wardrobe, and sometimes even another brick wall in a train station in London with a metal placard on it that reads 9 ¾.
The Contextual Creative Block
Here, I stumbled upon two subtypes.
Type A is in direct correlation with the domain of activity.
Type B is related with the physical place you’re working in.
The solution is the same for both of these types. Change the context. Change the domain you’re working in, or simply move your office, change the setting you spent most of your time in when creating. Go out of the place that inhibits your creativity. There’s a reason why traveling is recommended as a creativity boost. Also don’t let yourself get caught in the sad game of self-pity.
Even if that place was an inspiration and creativity source for you before this moment, even you had it good until just a few months ago, if you’re stagnating, if you’re unable to generate good to great ideas and copy… if all you can manage is sufficient to keep people from firing you, but unimpressive… you’re going through a contextual creative block. As said before, you need to change the context. At least for a day. Maybe a day is all you need to restart your creative engine. You don’t need to fly to London or Tokyo. Sometimes a short drive to a place nearby that you’ve never visited before is enough. Do a weekend crash-course in IT, or creative poetry, or pottery, or typography. Change the context. Get inspired by other people, other places, other domains.
The Emotional Creative Block
Here as well I’ve discovered there are 2 types of emotional creative blocks. One that’s about the people you’re surrounded by now and one that’s strongly anchored in the past.
A. This category is a bit more delicate because it’s related directly to the people you’ve surrounded yourself with. Some are simply energy-vacuums. Others suffocate you with their over-excitement. Others have a certain inhibiting quality. And some are just aloof and you don’t manage to create any kind of connection with them. Few are those that really stir you to create something better, something great, to bring you in a positive and optimist mood; few are inspiring people around us.
The main idea here is that if you’re surrounded by people in the categories stated above, except the last one, it’s extremely difficult to develop (creatively or professionally, or even emotionally). You’ll never feel free to be vulnerable before them, to make mistakes, to fail. And these 3 things are essential ingredients for anyone working in creative fields, for anyone who wants to get better in his craft.
If you find yourself in this type of emotional creative block I think you already know the solution: surround yourself with other people. There’s a saying: if you’re the smartest person in the room, you’re in the wrong room.
Warning: then again, you might be that person that sucks creativity out of people, that inhibits others. What can you do to stop being like that?
B. There’s one more aspect of the emotional creative block that’s not related to those around you. It might be that your co-workers and friends and collaborators are encouraging and inspiring, helping you get better at what you do. You might be in an amazing work environment, loving what you do, still there’s something stopping you from reaching the next level. This is because your emotional creative block is generated by something that happened to you in the past. Maybe a shocking experience you buried deep inside, a public failure, or shaming you went through years ago and now it came back to bite your ass.
Through your life you meet al sorts of people, some you get to admire, some to get to work with, but they might just be indifferent towards those around them, arrogant and condescending, they kill ideas by the dozens because they know better. They put out fires, rather than kindling them. In short, one way or another they made you feel less and years after that incident you still get stuck. Emotionally. When an opportunity arises your stomach aches, you panic, you start breathing heavily, your chest hurts as if a boulder is pressing your ribcage. Your mind goes all foggy and the cogs in your brain instantly rust and slow down. You feel like giving up before even starting. Maybe you’re not good enough after all. You’ll fail, so why bother.
Your reaction to that should be: so what? You fail worse if you simply give up. So what? At least you have tried. At least you faced your fears. At least you took control of your life and emotions. And who knows? Things might even work out.
One more thing, a side note if you will: choose your friends wisely. Don’t let them hold you down.
These being said, let’s get to my problem.
The Vertical Creative Block
What’s this about?
I am in the right context, doing the things that I like doing (which involved coming up with communication ideas for brands and writing copy), I’m surrounded by professionals from which I still have quite a lot to learn and most of the time they are ready to chip in, to help me out, all I need to do is ask. Still I feel like there’s this creative block hovering above my head. I know it’s not an emotional creative block. I know what I’m capable of, I have a clear understanding of who I am, what my perspective on life is (which helps me have a healthy approach on hardships in general — everything comes to pass — so I’m not that affected if one or other things don’t actually go as planned). I tried to figure out if it’s not something in my past that inhibits me, or if my introverted nature is to blame. I couldn’t find anyone in my past to blame. There were people that didn’t necessary help me, but if I’m being honest they didn’t stop me from getting where I wanted to be.
So I came to the conclusion that my creative block is a vertical one.
Vertical creative block = the lack of capacity (momentary, I hope) to understand different thought patterns, creative structures and their impact on short and long term.
It sounds quite scientific, but the idea is that I don’t understand how other creatives think, how they generate provoking, unexpected, challenging ideas that change businesses and that win competitions. Something is just outside of my reach. It’s like I know the door I’m suppose to go through, but when I get to it the door slams into my face and it gets locked. And I don’t have the slightest clue how to find the right key.
Until now my creative leaps were more of a continuous trial and error session. I realize now that in order to break this vertical creative block 1 of 2 things needs to happen:
- First: I accelerate my trial and error method of doings things
- Second: I get to better understand these thought patterns that run through the minds of high-performant creative people.
I’ll try and do both. If I manage to break this creative block it’ll be something I’ll take advantage of not just in copywriting, but in everything else I do. I think I’ll be a better human being, a better writer and, of course, a better creative.
The end solution, like in sports, is to train harder. You want to break a record, to reach the next level, step beyond your boundaries? Train harder. For us, copywriters, the game we play is called creativity and our game court is imagination. So, let’s get on the field and play.
Playing in a team is better than playing alone. So, I was thinking I’ll be documenting my process. I’ll keep writing here a series of articles about how to generate creative ideas, about creative people and what you can learn from them. I hope I’ll be able to provide some quite practical and tested tools. I’ll start with 20+ methods of generating ideas.
This sounds helpful, right?
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Thank you for reading this far. If you liked this article feel free to follow me, clap, comment and share. Share it with your team or your friends, or someone you know is facing creative block. It might help them. They might find themselves encouraged and feel just a bit less alone in their fight.
If you wish to connect with me you can find me on Instagram or LinkedIn.
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Article initially posted on the Romanian Copywriters blog.
Illustration kindly provided by Elena Tzara.
