the sally sisson blog

Thanks to readers for responding to my last blog post:

March Madness: Celebrating creativity and the (sometimes maddening) creative process

Tracy Graves, digital + social media consultant @ B4South

When I’m stuck, the world easily descends into a maelstrom of despair. And then, to re-jigger myself, I spend oodles of time looking at other people’s work. I try and take the pressure off and create something for myself instead of for a client. I read something utterly escapist and don’t worry about whether I’m intellectually furthering myself. And most importantly, I accept the fact that I need to get at least 5 crappy versions of something out of the way, and then something will emerge worth keeping.

Christopher Harting, photographer + philosopher @ Christopher Harting Studio

Go to Manhattan. Walk around and look at stuff. Drink coffee. Walk around some more. But you know the truth? I never have that problem. Never, ever, ever.

John DiCocco, creative director/writer/editor (and underground reporter for the Tiny Mind Gazette)

I’m pretty fortunate in that I have rarely suffered this dreaded event, except when writing ad copy. And when that occurs, I have a standby tactic. I start asking outlandish questions:

“What if the whole thing was blue?” “What if your parents spoke two different languages and you didn’t understand either one?” “What if you knew everything that was going to happen one hour ahead of time?” What’s the worst that could happen—I mean, really, the WORST? Okay, backtrack from there. “What if it/he/the nation were twice/half as big/small/loud/dense/bright etc?”

Michael Calienes, creative director + copywriter @ Transplant

Self-induced water boarding.

Cuban music in the background.

Freedom.

Kelley Rugg, producer, director, writer + videographer @ Rowboat Productions

Creativity is not about making or forcing but about allowing and trusting, and so what I do when I feel any type of block is understand that I am causing it by trying too hard… so then I let go, get out of the way, and absolutely keep going.

Trebor Healey, poet + novelist @ treborhealey.com

I think it’s best to shift your surroundings, take a trip, small or big, spend time in nature…go to museums, dance performances, concerts…other creative ventures will inspire your own, will put you in the creative reality. If all else fails, revisit your favorite writers’ or artists’ work like a bee dropping in on the hive of honey and you will once again know how to get to the flowers you seek.

Doug Eymer, creative director + designer @ EYMER Design Laboratories + Think Tank

Procrastination is such a negative term. I prefer to think of it as getting all of your ducks in a row. Here’s the real dear, you awake from hibernation in a cranky mood. Your immediate reaction to EVERYTHing is: “I’m right, the LOSERS that have been grinding their teeth all winter are WRONG!”

So, because you have been asleep and avoiding the family check book, you stand at the very end of the protective barriers and say, “So What! I have been dead for the last couple of months, what is the difference in a few eternal centuries more?”

The Mysterious Dr. F, linguist, world traveler + underground reporter @ Tiny Mind Gazette

My true method of overcoming creative block used to be:

1) Put on blue clown wig; 2) put Boomtown Rats’ “Tell Me Why I Don’t Like Mondays” on at maximum volume on the Walkman; 3) draw random shapes all over the paper until the creative fairies inspired me (without getting swatted out of the air by the eraser dust brush).

But, the wig used to scare the cleaning lady.

So, now I only limit my creative sessions to the foggy span of time at the mid-point of a 50 mile business drive, of a four-hour “creative” slide presentation (by someone else, of course), or during the five-hour Easter vigil mass. Then the janitor in my head starts screaming, “OOO! Mr. Kotter! Mr. Kotter!” and I have to rush to fish out my mini composition book to pour out the golden flow of inspiration (somewhat like a potty training two-year-old on a drive to grandma’s—gotta go NOW, Mommy!)

Yes, it’s a crazy sight, especially for the guy in the second lane, the guy sitting next to me in a meeting, or Father O’Reilly; but hey, I didn’t make the rules of creation!

Doug Williams, writer @Writeous Outrage and head of FUSE5

Here’s one from the director I worked with in NY during my playwriting days.

She said the best way to beat block was to find famous quotes on the subjects (or themes) you’re writing about, and then make them your own. The quotes serve as idea factories that 1) give you another perspective; 2) take you in a direction you’d likely have never found yourself; and 3) reinvigorate the internal creative process by making you think about something familiar in a completely different way.

I’ve been doing that for years – in screenplays, novels, speeches, PR/marketing, online writing, et al – and it’s never failed me once.

 

David Game

Terence Rattigan, UK playwright, was advised to join the RAF [Royal Air Force] to cure writer’s block.

 

Joe Lee @ joelee.me

When in doubt or stuck, I doodle. Doodling to me is active so it literally gets me going. It’s my physical technique to kick start a mental stream of consciousness. Since my doodles are not even worthy of being called a sketch, they are uninhibited and uncensored. Also, I use scraps of paper, napkins, recycled printed sheets, anything that has no feeling of preciousness whatsoever, not even post-its or sketchbooks. (Think about how many artists who like to flaunt and show off their “sketchbooks.”) Start here, there, or anywhere – JUST DOODLE IT. As Bucky Fuller once said, “How often I found where I should be going only by setting out for somewhere else.”

Get inspired

Anyone else out there been in a slump this winter? Here’s a great collection of video clips from 99% to shake the cobwebs from the cranium. Check it out:

10 Awesome Videos on Idea Execution + The Creative Process

Spring forward

This coming week I’ll be covering creativity in my blog and would love folks to contribute thoughts, ideas, doodles, random musings or guest blog posts. Whatever you like.

Battling creative block

Last spring I posted the following three pieces to give myself a kick-start:

Here Comes the Sun: Overcoming creative block (part 1 of many)

Overcoming Creative Block (part 2): Writing, procrastination + keeping a sense of humor

Overcoming Creative Block (part 3): Elizabeth Gilbert on nurturing creativity

Tell me:

When it’s cold and gray (or when it’s hard to come up with something creative to draw, design, write or say), where do you look for inspiration? How do you break out of a slump and get back in gear? If you’re stuck in a long and tedious project, how do flex your creative muscles on the side? I’d love to read your comments below. Thanks!

A: You’ve got to be prepared for both.

When a client needs web content, sometimes it’s just a home page or a few headlines. Sometimes it’s the whole thing – 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd level pages plus links and special features.

Light to moderate to heavy

For the Ready Classroom website, Discovery Education needed the whole package: research and writing for a dozen categories of extreme weather and natural disasters, customized content for each of the 50 states, copy to cross-reference it all, and creative standards-based lesson plans for different grades ranges for K-12.

On top of that there were different strands for three different audiences. All content had to be run through Discovery Education as well as the Ad Council and FEMA (the Federal Emergency Management Agency), their partners for this particular project.

Stock up. Hunker down.

Web writing involves a range of skills: research, writing (both copywriting and long-form content), editing, organization, planning, critical thinking. It also takes time, especially a job of this size. It can be enjoyable to dive deep into a topic and stay holed up for a while. The key is to be be prepared (clear your schedule, line up childcare), stock up on supplies (decent snacks, decent coffee, case of coffee filters), and prepare for a couple all-nighters. Note that it’s good to come up for air every once in a while, whatever the weather.

Toolkits, checklists and survival skills.

We’re getting pretty hard hit with winter weather this year, some parts of the country worse than others. Just this morning I consulted Ready Classroom to check my own family’s state of preparedness for this week’s monster storm. According to FEMA, the Red Cross and my own trusty tips, we still have another trip or two to the hardware store before ticking all the boxes on our Disaster Preparedness Checklist.

Check out the site and see how you stack up. Are YOU prepared?

The calm after the storm

Judging by the broken flashlight and half-empty box of kitchen matches by my side, I would not win many Girl Scout badges for preparedness. However, the content I developed did score some points: Ready Classroom won a 2010 BESSIE (Best Educational Software Award), which made those days and nights in my underground bunker all the more worthwhile. Read more here.