A simple prescription for defeating a creative block is to face whatever media we work with and simply make a start. Writing is my fondest medium, so I began with A. I do not typically encounter the condition of block, nor the related issue of boredom. Still, I recognize both can be problems for some.

Reading can be a preventative measure against boredom and can dispel block when inspirational material is read. I do not rule out any content that one fancies. We find our inspirations in what we love.

Sometimes creative work with materials used in childhood or similar to those can be the catalyst for a product that is hugely satisfying. I think this is one of the reasons journals are so appealing to me. Writing by hand was how my early stories and poems were done.

Construction paper, pipe cleaners, and glue can be used to make more sophisticated work now that we are grown up, but those materials bring our child out to play. Often when I create art, I go back to early beginnings and use colored pencils. The smell of shavings is very evocative of efforts made before the critic became hyperactive.

If your early days included film, simply remember the feeling of beginner’s mind and get out and take the shot. The idea here is to leave the agonizing behind and simply fall in love with capturing the subject, any subject, now.

A cause of boredom and block is our tendency to overthink. If we become engrossed in the doing, the being, we can escape the critical tendency to be overtly adult.

Some people say think outside the box; my thought is to consider the box lost in another dimension and explore that territory. No answer you discover can possibly be wrong.

Okay, sorry, this was free-form, and as with much free-writing should you disagree, just take what you can use and disregard all else.

I have not written explicitly about creativity in a while, and this is Haphazard Creative. I hope you are graced by intense creativity in whatever you choose to do.

© Jo Ann J. A. Jordan