I define myself almost entirely as a writer. For a living, I want to write ads. I write songs. I write these things. I’ve written first chapters of, like, five novels.
But sometimes I’m just not capable of it. On my fall break, I’ve sat down to crank out an article, like, three times. And I’ve hated every draft of it. I’ve started a few songs, and I’ve hated every chord combo and every word I’ve tried to sing to it. It’s been painful cranking out sentences for school projects. (Now I know how other people must feel all the time.)
It straight-up sucks. When you’re a writer who isn’t writing, or a singer who isn’t singing, or an athlete who isn’t athleting (please don’t let that word catch on), who the heck are you?
You’re a person, you silly goose.
Before you’re a creative, or you’re anything else, you are a person. A daughter or son, a sibling maybe. You’re someone’s best friend. You’re someone’s worst enemy. You’re someone’s favorite baseball player, and you’re someone’s accountant. You are someone’s Jimmy John’s delivery driver.
You have to take care of yourself.
Take a break from creating and watch some TV. Watch a comedy and focus on the kinds of jokes that make you laugh out loud. Watch a reality show and study shallow people’s behavior. Watch the news and have a good old cathartic cry. Figure out what makes you angry, and why. Then, later, use it.
Take a break from creating and let yourself make a few mistakes. Put fabric softener in the detergent section of the washing machine. Forget to pick up your friend for dinner and realize it only after you’ve been sitting in the restaurant for ten minutes. Accidentally put the wrong person’s name on your cover letter. I’ve made all three of those mistakes in the past two weeks. And you’re crazy if you don’t think they’re gonna pop up in something I write.
Take a break from creating and look at the world around you. Figure out what you think is pretty on the street you live on. If it’s nothing, wonder what would make it look better. Rearrange your bedroom. Try something new with makeup. Break a rule. Blue eyeshadow. Two different earrings. Bra on the outside of your t-shirt. Look how people react. Study strangers you perceive as “weird” and look at the rules they’re breaking. (You can do this easily on a trip to Wal-Mart around 10:00 pm.)
Take a break from creating and live life. Call your mom. Hang out with your friends and ask them about what’s going on in their lives, what they care about, what’s bothering them lately. Go see a new city. Do adult stuff like paying bills, looking for jobs, voting in the midterm election. (PLEASE vote in the midterm election.) Eat new food. Take public transportation. Before you can write, you have to find something to write about.
Take a break from creating and give yourself some credit. Stay hungry for inspiration, but remind yourself that you’ve created great things before and you’re more than capable of doing it again. Everyone has slumps. Everyone takes breaks. Abandon a few ideas. Journal every day. Try a new form of expression. Paint. Write crappy poetry. Dance interpretively and badly and without abandon.
Consume. Observe. Mess up. Enjoy. Relax.
Someday there will be a cool little idea inside you. But it hasn’t started forming yet. Give it time. It will.