What to do when a creative dip emerges?

My experience of a creative slump

At the beginning of this summer and at the start of my holidays, I found myself in a creative slump.

• I had no ideas for new work.
• Little desire to start something new.
• Lots of to-do lists, both at home and in my studio.
• I avoided my studio and when I did go there, I spent most of my time behind the computer instead of picking up needle and thread.

What was going on? Was I suffering from low energy, a creative block or was I just too busy doing other things and not getting around to making anything?

Either way, it didn’t feel good, but I decided to wait a while, because, it was a busy time for me and maybe my inspiration would come back on its own once I went on a holiday.

Now, in September, summer is almost over and I am back to work, both in my job, and in my studio. Looking back on that period before the holidays, I don’t think I was suffering from a creative block, but rather a dip. Not that it really matters how you call your creative down phases but sometimes it’s nice to know what scale of misery you are on.

Creative block is not uncommon

Many artists experience a block at one time or another, sometimes big and long-lasting and sometimes small and short-term. What happens when you experience a creative block and what are the causes? And, not unimportantly, what can you do when you are no longer naturally in touch with your creative self.

If, like me, you enjoy listening to podcasts about art (making) and also like to read books or blogs about creativity, you can find a lot of different situations that can cause a creative block. Here’s a list of possible causes I found.

• Self doubt/fear(of failure)/perfectionism/imposter syndrome/criticism/rejection
• Lack of direction/lack of goals
• Emotional overload/too much thinking/too much work
• Physical and mental fatigue
• Major changes in your life

These causes sound quite general and they include situations that reinforce each other. Your creative blockage can become a difficult chicken-and-egg situation to solve.

What caused my creative dip?

When I compared my own situation with the list above, I realized that I was looking at some similarities.

• I had just completed a series of works so I didn’t clearly know what I wanted to do next (lack of goals)
• I had completed the 100-day project but wanted to add another twist to it and didn’t really know what I was going to do (lack of direction)
• Things were happening outside of me that made me angry (emotional overload)
• Right before the summer holiday is the busiest time at my job (working a lot)
• I had long to-do lists, both at home and in my studio (even more work)
• I was writing an artist statement and I didn’t find that very easy (too much thinking/anxiety/imposter syndrome/perfectionism)

Looking at it this way, I met quite a few of the risk factors and it was actually not very surprising that I suffered from a creative dip. After the summer holiday, I was at least well rested, but I could still use some tips to get going again. I don’t know if I was suffering from just a dip or a real creative block, but it doesn’t really matter.

How to deal with creative block?

If you are looking for a way to deal with your creative low, these tips may help you.

• Acknowledge that you are stuck (somewhere)
• Try something new
• Do, do, do, go do something. It can take you out of your thinking.
• Keep expectations low
• Determine what creative phase you are in
• Change something about your environment
• Connect with others and talk about it.

It helped me enormously to lower my expectations and to try new things that were easy and accessible. It helped me to clean up my studio and to establish that I am in the beginning phase of creating new work, which comes with a lot of uncertainty. I cannot yet say that I have completely overcome my dip, but at least I have regained confidence that I will continue to make new art in the future.

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