GETTING OVER YOUR CREATIVE BLOCK: WHAT ISOLATION AND LONELINESS HAVE TAUGHT ME ABOUT CREATIVITY
Every creative knows the dreaded creative blocks that haunt our work. There are many self-help books that preach about exercises to get over such creative blocks, and although some may find success in these patented techniques, I've found this didn't work for me. Despite their inability to help me, I've managed to find a creative awakening of sorts, which caused me to erupt freely with new projects, and relish in the joy of creating without previous barriers that I set for myself.
Since I've debuted these new works, I've had both positive and negative responses. Whether it be negative comments from confused critics, or positive feedback from fellow creatives, my newfound creativity sparked conversation. With these conversations, I’ve had some people ask—what has inspired me? While gathering my response, I've realized that it didn't involve a complex formula or break-through self-help book. Simply, my very own life path has inspired me, as I’ve shifted through the illusion, and found myself in the company of solitude.
So, you want to get over your creative block and create freely, too? Here's how I found myself in this rabbit hole filled with loneliness and unfiltered creativity...
Well, first, lose your self-confidence, exploit your soul to its death, burn almost all of your bridges, remove all social filters, and extinguish any trace left of a social life with copious amounts of self sabotage, impatience, and stubbornness. Quit drinking, stop celebrating, quit your job, toss out your television, ditch your addictions, and negative relationships. Ignore all advice from family members, especially when regarding anything relating to “normalcy”. Live in your head, flourish in fallacious dreams, and embrace insanity. Remain passionate about your chosen desires, and as you run through life’s thorny branches in a bloody fury, refuse to change your mind.
As you run out of resources, don't panic -- rather, empty your bank account to invest into more art supplies, and learn to live off rolled change, ‘changeling’. Let your car break down, knowing that you can’t afford to fix it [even with rolled quarters], and embrace the undeniable madness coming your way with an unstable embrace from your eternally-broken heart. Trust no one, beware the poisonous opinions of critics, take the punches with a shout, never let your voice become quiet, and find comfort in the music you find yourself playing—it’s all you have now. Now, let yourself fall down the rabbit hole you’ve finally uncovered.
As days turn to weeks, and weeks into months, remember to dwell in your pain and ignore your phone calls; debt collectors are the only ones calling anyways and you only need your music—forget your soul, let your heart bleed out, and remain sleepless in the trauma bed you’ve made for yourself as memories taunt you into another nightmare.
In a fight for what seems like your life, dive into those albums left on-repeat, or sit in silence and mope through a lifetime of internalized past pains while enjoying the last of the lingering psychosis. These carefully crafted delusions were more reliable than anyone from your past, and you’re realizing those will soon leave you, too.
As old collaborators spit venom, intensify the fire to burn bridges that can’t support your weight on this creative path. You let it all f*cking burn to the ground to keep your integrity. Let it all burn down, and start again with the heat of the fire’s flame burning furiously in your mind.
You are alone. You are misunderstood. You are empty. Keep walking these crossroads of broken glass on bare feet, or turn back to a life promising the grave.
You are all you have, and in this loneliness you are given the choice—create or waste the blood you’ve shed. Choose to live, choose to start again, choose to create a new world for yourself—Don’t let the blood spill uselessly, don’t let the flames fury in vain. When you see you have nothing, empty veins collapse, and you must create, create, create...
When there is nothing left to destroy, there is everything left to build.