How to: jumpstart stalled creativity (Part Two)

Welcome to Part Two of our ten tips on getting ourselves unstuck.  When we're creatively stalled.  Because it happens :)

6.  Ask questions.

Remember that we're the conduits for the creative things that want to flow through us.  Respect your work by asking it questions.  For instance, ask your main character, "And then what did you do?"  Ask your painting which color it would like you to use next.  Ask your song what key it wants to be sung in.  And listen to the answers.  It goes way better this way.

7.  Tweet away.
Get on Twitter.  Follow what funny and smart people are saying, and start tweeting right along.  Composing 140-character tweets exercises your creativity and writing muscles.  It's a challenge to find ways to be funny, pithy and relevant in a very brief (both in time, and in word-length) space.  Plus it's just darned FUN.

8.  Log off.

On-line sometimes can be too much -- input, stimulation, procrastination.  Set daily internet time limits for yourself, and experiment with a whole day (or even two!) a week off-line.  Give your creativity the chance to push its "reset" button, and give your ideas and visions time to sink in and marinate without on-line distraction.  Just like in the olden days :)  Read more about such wonderful blending of on-line and off-line time and life in this terrific book, Hamlet's Blackberry, by Bean Up The Nose Art's own Twitter friend, William Powers.  

9.  Commit to "pages."

Draw.  Write.  Paint.  Commit to doing a page a day of this for a week.  Or a month.  Or longer.  Get your brain into this creativity commitment.  To shake things up even more, try operating in a different artistic mode than you're used to.  Paint if you're a writer.  Write songs if you usually draw.  Don't judge the product.  Committing to your daily experiment is the point.

10.  Change up your giving time.

If you spend a lot of your time doing things for others -- family, friends, those in need -- try giving yourself a little more of that time.  If you don't do much caretaking, try volunteering some of your time.  Changing the pattern of your giving will shake things up inside -- affording you more time in which to create, or a new perspective from which to do so.

Hoping that some of these ten posted tips from Parts One and Two will strike your fancy and help you on the way the next time you're stuck.  Would love folks to keep posting comments with their own tips for getting unstuck.  As always, THANKS FOR PLAYING!!!  Rock on!!!!