Are you staring at a blank page, cursor blinking mockingly at you? Writer’s block is frustrating, but it doesn’t have to stop you in your tracks. Here are 7 research-backed strategies to get your creative juices flowing again.
1. Move Your Body Numerous studies show that aerobic exercise boosts creativity by increasing blood flow to the brain. Going for a walk, jog, or bike ride can be enough to break through a mental logjam. The brain’s creative powerhouse, the frontal lobe, becomes more active after just 30 minutes of exercise.
2. Take a Break When you’ve been straining for too long, sometimes the best move is to walk away. Taking a break gives your brain’s focused mode networks a chance to reset while dispersed brain regions make new associations in the background. After a break, you’ll return to the task refreshed with new ideas.
3. Try Freewriting Julia Cameron’s Morning Pages technique is used by many bestselling authors to warm up their brain before a writing session. Simply write whatever comes to mind without stopping for a set period of time (e.g. 10-20 minutes). Don’t censor yourself – just get those neurons firing.
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4. Change Your Environment Sometimes getting unstuck is as simple as shaking up your physical surroundings. Work from a different room, take your laptop outside, or visit a cafe. Novel environments light up brain regions associated with creative thinking and insightful problem solving.
5. Sleep on It Having trouble solving a difficult creative problem? There’s scientific evidence that your brain keeps working on it while you sleep. Sleep helps solidify memories and forge new neural connections. Often the answer becomes clear after getting a good night’s rest.
6. Daydream Allowing your mind to wander taps into the brain’s default mode network, a set of regions involved in spontaneous thinking and imagination. Taking a casual stroll without specific focus can activate this daydreaming mode and lead to unexpected insights.
7. Talk It Out Vocalizing your thoughts by talking to a friend or even just verbalizing ideas aloud to yourself can be enough to kickstart new momentum. Putting your ideas into words fires up different neural pathways that may help you see the project from a fresh angle.
By understanding the cognitive science behind creative flow, you have a whole toolkit for overcoming writer’s block.
Which of these proven techniques will you try the next time you feel stuck?
References:
Colzato et al. (2013) Aerobic Fitness Is Associated With Greater Hippocampal Cerebral Blood Flow in Children. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience.
Baird et al. (2012) Inspired by Distraction: Mind Wandering Facilitates Creative Incubation. Psychological Science.
Sio & Ormerod (2009) Does Incubation Enhance Problem Solving? A Meta-Analytic Review. Psychological Bulletin.
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