Building creative readiness – Part 2: Your creative mindset

In my last post, I talked about the concept of creative readiness and what that means in terms of your physical environment: your writing space, your writing tools and technology, and the things you need around you to be your best creative self.

But your physical environment is only one part of the picture. Your mindset plays a huge role when it comes to being focused, productive, and creative.

For many writers, feeling inspired and “in the mood” to write is the challenge. But as Jack London famously said, “You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.”

(Actually, he wrote, “Don’t loaf and invite inspiration; light out after it with a club, and if you don’t get it you will nonetheless get something that looks remarkably like it,” which I think is much more poetic.)

This echoes that quote from Ivan Coyote in my previous post, about being “actively engaged in the creative practice.” For them, lighting out after inspiration and creativity involves self-discipline, walks, and hot showers.

As a writer with a day job, I don’t have the luxury of waiting around for my muse to make an appearance. I need her to show up in those 30-minute increments I have cleared out of my day to write. Like, at the snap of my fingers.

Basically, I have to be my own muse, or write without one.

Real picture of me and my Muse collaborating on a story.

Creative readiness, when it comes to mindset, looks like this:

• maintaining a full creative well that you can draw from;
• being resilient and able to overcome creative challenges like writer’s block or burnout; and
• having the skills to step into creative mode when it’s time to write.

I asked the other Restless Writers how they refill their creative wells.

For Beckie, connection nourishes creativity. She builds creative energy by “spending time with other creatives, like my Restless Writers.” In addition to our meetings and retreats, Beckie says that when she needs some help getting creative, she looks up. “The night sky is an inspiration.”

Andrea too finds that connecting with other artists and writers helps. Besides the inspiration she gets from the Restless Writers, she engages with creative works to get her ideas going. She says she will “read a great book. Go to the theatre to see a play or musical. Watch a great actor in a movie.” Andrea has a performance background (plus she’s an amazing trainer and facilitator), so it’s no surprise that theatre, singing, and dance parties with her daughters keep her feeling her creative best.

“Reading a lot of fiction is great,” echoed Sharon. “I get little pieces of inspiration from that—whether it’s from a piece of dialogue or an interesting story choice.”

For me, connecting with the Restless Writers (and other writers and creatives) and pushing myself out of the inertia of routine with challenges makes me feel pumped about writing. Beyond writing, I enjoy making digital art and taking photos of things that strike me as visually interesting. When I’m doing something like building out graphics for social media, I get to engage a different part of my creative brain. There are usually words involved, so the interplay of language and graphic arts intrigues me as well.

Whether or not you believe writer’s block is a thing, the struggle to write well—or even to get started—is something that hits us all at some point. My struggle is usually with writer’s jam. That’s when I have so many projects on the go, I pinball between priorities and can’t make meaningful progress on any of them, so I avoid my writing altogether. It’s brutal. I know focus and monotasking is the way to go, and that’s something I have been working on recently with pomodoros, co-writing sprints, and allowing myself to go as slowly as possible without actually stopping.

Andrea’s approach to tackling writer’s block starts with mindfulness. “I start by just breathing in and releasing tension, and then I free write—what I see/hear/smell, what’s in my head, what’s in my heart, with no judgment. Just words on a page. And I wait for my muse to return. She doesn’t always, and I’m left with captured random thoughts. When she does return, I welcome her in and try to open to the gifts she is offering.”

Sharon addresses writer’s block by switching things up. “In the last few months, I’ve been trying something new where I dictate a first draft of a chapter into my computer or phone. I try to go through it in one go, even if I am tripping over my words. The dialogue is choppy and a lot of the words are misspelled but it helps me get the structure of the chapter down. It takes the pressure off of staring at a blank page.” (I’m definitely going to try this, Sharon!)

Burnout can also affect creative readiness. Beckie says she experiences burnout “usually after completing a large project. Or even in the months prior to completion. It can feel like such a grind to get to the end, while, in reality, there is no end.” She focuses on other creative projects to help with recovery—things like painting, gardening, reading, or astrophotography.

Andrea says she can get “mind burnout,” where she’s overwhelmed and can’t do any kind of work, including writing. When this happens, she says she tries “to take time to ‘not do’ and just be. It could be days, weeks, or months, but my need to create always returns.”

I’ve had this experience too. I can be “away” from my writing for long stretches, but something—a Restless Writers meeting, a prompt, a new idea, a fresh take on an old story, or just the urge to bring something to life on paper—brings me back.

I wish I had a cheat code that I could apply to instantly switch to creative mode when I sit down to write. But I know there is no hack. It comes down to cultivating a regular creative habit, nurturing your creative self, and filling your creative well so you can step into writing mode as easily as possible.

In many ways, writing sets up a self-sustaining feedback loop. The act of writing itself is what kickstarts creativity and keeps the momentum going.

Once you start writing, you are creating the mindset and conditions to…keep writing.

As Beckie told me, “For me, creative readiness generally happens after I start a project and not before.”

Luckily, the Restless Writers support each other in sticking to our writing projects and nurturing our creative abilities. “They cheer me on,” said Andrea. “They offer smaller goals to help motivate me; remind me that my writing matters to them. I am grateful for them and their patience and acceptance.”

Thanks to my restless crew for sharing their thoughts on creative readiness and mindset. It’s been interesting to see how each of us approach our work and keep moving forward.

We’d love to hear from our readers too! What does your creative mindset look like? How do you stay resilient in the face of writer’s block and burnout? What habits help you “light out after inspiration”?

Maria