Start working and inspiration will come to you

What if I told you that you are in control of your own creativity? How often have you put aside your creative tasks just because you didn’t feel inspired? I hear this all the time, “I need to wait for the inspiration to come.” What other profession could you just wait around until you “feel like dong something” before you get the work done? If I have learned anything from the past year and eight months of writing and releasing song a week and writing 650 blog posts, it is the fact that if you really want to get something remarkable done, you need to turn up and do the work!

Now don’t get me wrong, I do have days when I stare at a clean page and wonder what on earth am I going to write about. And the temptation to walk away and come back to it is overwhelming. Staring at a white page not being able to write anything is like someone reminding you constantly that you are failing. And if you can’t break past that initial few lines, your self-doubt starts to play havoc on your mind, and the rabbit hole just gets deeper by the minute. In other words, it’s a surefire way to jump head first deep in to depression.

And those of you who look artists from the outside wondering how volatile and moody we can be, well the above is very much the reason behind it. Don’t ever underestimate how difficult it can be.

But I still believe that you are in charge of your own creativity. The trick is to trigger it. I know you need to, or want to write about specific subject, but sometimes you need to go off the rails to get started. So if you are stuck, try this:

Choose one of the subjects below and if you are a songwriter try to write something about it in a song format (rhythm and rhyme), if you are a blogger, or any other kind of writer try to write about it in as descriptive way as possible. Describe the surroundings, sounds, smells, feelings. It’s a simple trick, but I find it to be surprisingly powerful. Don’t worry if what you write does not stand up to your usually high critical standard. I am giving you a permission to write rubbish here! What we want to do is just break past that mental barrier we have created in our mind.

So write me about:

– What you had for breakfast.
– What happened when you went for a coffee on your own in your local coffee shop? (Beer in a    pub will do as well)
– Pick up an item in your surroundings, for example pen, TV remote, phone charger… It can be
anything. Imagine it becoming alive while you are away. Now write about it’s adventure
around your house.

As you can see I picked three everyday scenarios, with different levels of imagination required for every one of them. So just get writing, don’t overthink. Remember no one needs to see it anyway. It’s just an exercise for you to break through your creative block, and take control of your own creativity.

J.P.

The author J.P. Kallio is a singer songwriter
To get EIGHT of his songs for free go HERE