Creating while uninspired

15 Nov 2011 1 Comment

by That Game Girl in Ramblings

Sometimes, inspiration can slam into you like a giant semi-truck from two lanes over and forty feet back that accelerates suddenly just to spite you. And, sometimes, it’s the kind of truck where you look in your rear-view mirror and see it; then, suddenly, when you go to merge, it’s not there.

…Okay, that’s a really crappy analogy. Can you tell who isn’t inspired right now? I guess that comes from sleep deprivation — although, admittedly, I’ve written my best when I’ve been on 0 hours of sleep and several liters’ worth of caffeine. At any rate, my point is that sometimes, inspiration just isn’t there — but, we have to create anyway.

Now, if you’re like me, this is tough, because I’m a perfectionist and if I come up with something that’s crap, I have this urge to black line it with ink and throw it away. But, not everything we sit down to write has to be a masterpiece. Our masterpieces often come from our minds’ random thoughts, the kind that leave in a fleeting moment if we don’t take a second to put it down on paper.

I have long advocated stream of consciousness writing. I have performed small exercises of this in my panel and have made mention of its techniques and uses before. Truth be told, there isn’t much technique — what it amounts to is simply taking whatever thoughts are swirling around in our heads and writing them down. Do it for 1 or 2 minutes, and don’t stop – just keep writing. Words, sentences, sentence fragments, thoughts, paragraphs, anything — just write it out! Don’t stop, don’t think, just write what comes to the tip of your mind. If you think it over too much, it won’t work.

Yes, there will be some things that you’ll just have to throw out. But one of those words might spark an incredible idea, or even just one really fantastic line of dialogue to use in a story or a campaign. So much of our ideas are wasted because we don’t pause to reach out and catch them as they float by. Don’t dismiss them so easily!

Doing stream of consciousness activities once or twice a week can really help get your creative motor running. While it won’t always spark an inspiration, at some point or another, one idea is bound to catch on. When it does, run with it! Don’t just watch it roll away.

Advertisement