Dear Huma: where do you look to for inspiration when you feel a little stuck?

Dear Huma,

I've recently been experiencing a creative slump. Ideas just don't seem to come to me like they used to; it feels as though my creative eye is closed and I can't take the usual inspiration from life and the world around me, etc. I wonder, what do you do if/when you experience these episodes? Do you actively have to force your way out of them or do you take a step back and wait for them to pass? I suppose I'm asking: where do you look to for inspiration when you feel a little stuck with your writing?

Thank you,

N

Dear N,

It made me smile how you ask so sweetly what I do ‘if/when’ I experience these episodes. As you can probably guess from the above, it’s definitely a case of when, not if. I think there’ll be plenty of other people who feel the same way.

In The Artist’s Way, Julia Cameron writes that ‘In order to create, we draw from our inner well.’ From what you’ve said, I think it’s clear your well has run low, or dry and that you need to spend some lovely time filling it.

What do I do, to fill my well? It depends how uninspired/ blocked I am. If I’m just feeling a little stuck, then reading is the first thing that I turn to. But not just any old thing. In my short story course Miniature Worlds, I talk about this idea of having a few books that are like touchstones, north stars, that kind of keep you aspiring to something. Tessa Hadley once spoke of having books that are like her ‘guides’ and I love that idea, of turning to those you so admire, letting them show you the way so to speak. Usually this works.

If it doesn’t, then I know I need a little heavier creative distraction. Sometimes I gift myself ‘creative days’ either when I’m stuck, or pre-emptively. While my children are at school, I’ll browse gorgeous design magazines, visit bookshops, take myself to the Everyman to watch a film. Watching films (ideally on my own) are a huge part of my creative process and this is what always helps me the most when I’m really truly uninspired. I almost always come away out of the dark of the cinema, ideas flowing. It fills me right back up again. Have you ever given yourself a ‘creative day’ doing something you really love that still somehow connects you to your writing? Ask yourself, what would your ‘creative day’ look like? Can you plan one for this month?

Something else that helps me is quite simply having a change of scene. I don’t think it’s ‘well-filling’ necessarily, but it’s maybe like, I don’t know, buying a new bucket with which to fill the well (huh? I think I might have exhausted this analogy but stick with me). For instance, it’s funny how sometimes a scene I might have been in knots over at home works itself out when I’m writing in a café, say (this happens a lot with me). And even when the writing is just not happening, it still helps me to be there, to take me out of myself. Just watching people come and go, catching snippets of conversations, smiling if ever I accidentally catch someone’s eye; it clears my head. Often it surprises me how much better I feel afterwards.

Try not to force yourself through unless you absolutely have to because, say, you have a deadline that can’t be pushed. But if you must force yourself, then please only do it in a way that is kind. Don’t punish yourself, blinking back tears of disappointment as you stare at your computer screen for hours (sound familiar to anyone else?). If something must be written then trick your brain into believing it’s going to be quick, painless, easy. I use a sand timer for times like these (I have this one incidentally) and make a promise to write for just fifteen minutes. It’s easy, because it’s only fifteen minutes. Do it in little bursts, then it’s a whole lot less daunting. Sometimes I’ll break up two hours of writing in this way.

There’s other things too: morning pages, free writing (although it’s been a while since I’ve done these things personally). But I’m guessing you’ll have tried all of these things anyway. So all I’ve got left to say is what I guess you probably already know: the harder you try to force creativity, the less likely it will magically appear.

So if nothing I’ve said is helpful, if nothing you’ve already tried is working, then it’s your body’s way of telling you to stop. Rest. Take a complete break from writing. Don’t be too hard on yourself. It’s natural to have these ebbs and flows. Remember that it’ll pass, because it must, because it always does. And while you wait for it to be over, surround yourself with all the things you love, the people you love. Eat well. Remember that so much of writing doesn’t happen in front of notepads or screens. It happens when we’re doing other things, even when those things are as entirely ordinary as boiling the kettle, making dinner, washing your hair. Sometimes, it’s those tiny ordinary things that end up filling our wells.

Please note, I write this for myself, as much as for you.

I hope this helps us both, and anyone else who might need it.

x