Unlock Your Creativity: Change Up Your Routine

 Is your life in a rut? Are you feeling stuck on a problem? Working on a project that’s going nowhere? In writing we call this “being blocked” and it is definitely a problem that most everyone has to deal with at some point. Here are some ideas that might help you get through it:

•  Set your project aside for a couple of weeks and work on something else. Sometimes, like a watched pot that never boils, ideas don’t come when we are fretting over a problem. In my experience, the best ideas for my stories often arrive when I am thinking about something else — walking my dog, cooking dinner, browsing a farmer’s market.
•  Sometimes I get blocked when I am at a “fork in the road” in my life: there are multiple routes I could take, and I’m not sure which one is the “right” one. If you suspect this is the case for your subconscious, I would try just picking one route – one small thing you could do today to make a positive change – and do that. Small positive changes can add up to amazing results.
•  Change up your routine. Walk or bicycle rather than drive to work or school. Take a different route home. Wake up early and watch the sunrise. Eat dinner outside to take advantage of the last remnants of warmth before winter. Instead of watching TV in the evenings, go dancing. Listen to music. Read a good book. When you slow down your daily trip or switch up your routine, things like hummingbirds, squirrels, and the unique hue of the sky on a particular day stand out with beautiful acuity. Take a notebook with you to jot down notes when you feel inspired. 

Here’s a creativity prompt to try: 

Go outside and spend ten minutes jotting down descriptions of your surroundings. Don’t censor yourself. Pay attention to details. What do you see? Smell? Hear? Touch? Nothing is too small to write down. Then, sift through your list of descriptions and circle your favorite words and phrases. Weave them together into a poem. 

About the Author:
Dallas Woodburn is the author of two collections of short stories and a forthcoming novel. She has written more than 80 articles for national publications including Family Circle, Writer’s Digest, CO-ED, Justine, and The Los Angeles Times, and she writes a regular column for Listen magazine. Dallas is the founder of the nonprofit organization “Write On! For Literacy” that has donated nearly 11,000 new books to disadvantaged children. Her latest endeavor is starting a publishing company, Write On! Books, that publishes the work of young writers. In addition, she hosts frequent writing contests, teaches writing camps for kids, and is coordinator of the Young Writers Program at the Santa Barbara Writers Conference. Dallas graduated this past May from the University of Southern California with a B.A. in Creative Writing and Entrepreneurship. Contact her at her website www.writeonbooks.org or blog http://dallaswoodburn.blogspot.com. 

© 2009. This article was excerpted with permission from Dallas Woodburn. All reprints must state, “Reprinted with permission by Dallas Woodburn from www.writeonbooks.org. Originally published in www.WomensOnlineMagazineLosAngeles.com, October, 2009″. 

DISCLAIMER: The information and opinions reflected in this article are solely those of the author and do not reflect on the publisher, editor, or editorial staff of Women’s Online Magazine Los Angeles. This article has been written and reviewed by the author. Any errors should be brought to the attention of the author.

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