Stumped?

Jonah Lehrer gave an interview on creativity where he talked about something Bob Dylan experienced. Dylan had a creative block and was tired of being type casted in his music so he decided to spend some time at a cabin writing a novel. Then something mysterious happened. Here’s how he explains it:

[I]t came at his darkest moment. It came when he quit, it came when he hit the wall, when he had no idea what else to do, and then it came out of the blue and when it arrived, it felt like a revelation. It came attached with this feeling of certainty and those are both defining features of this very particular creative moment called a moment of insight and the defining features of this moment as defined by psychologists over the last few decades are one, the answer comes out of the blue. The answer comes when we least expect it. The answer comes often after we’ve been stumped, after we’ve been blocked, after we’ve basically given up, and then once it arrives, it feels like the answer. We don’t have to double check the math or reread the lyrics. We know this is what we’ve been waiting for.

Do you need to get away and do something different for awhile?

PIC-OF-THE-WEEK

I rented a 10mm lens to get some architectural shots next week. It arrived early and I took this shot of my daughters flowers. Turns out it's a pretty good macro lens too.

RAW

COOKED

Hitting the wall

Marathon runners sometimes talk about “hitting the wall” when their body wants to shut down at a certain point. This can also happen in a creative pursuit where the canvas/page/computer monitor/music staff seem to be staring back at you with nothing new to offer. In times like these I try to do one of two things:

1. Start doing something – anything, that has to do with your assignment. For example, if you’re writing on a topic and nothing is gelling, start writing about how it feels to be the topic. Type anything. How would it feel? What color is it? How much would it cost? How big is it? Does it have friends? How old is it? Just think of random questions that are associated with the topic at hand. Or…
2. If you hit a wall, temporarily find another wall. In other words, put the current project away and go do something totally unrelated. Watch a cartoon or read a scientific journal or run a half mile or buy some Vanilla Wafers at the grocery store. Do anything that gets your mind totally and completely off your creative assignment. But remember to specify the amount of time you’re taking off so you come back to it at some point.

PIC-OF-THE-WEEK

Almost every time I go by this tree I photograph it. Something about it intrigues me.