Creative Process: How to Stay Creative During Difficult Times

If being creative is a part of your job (photography, videography, design, music, etc), at times you need to force it slightly to stay consistent (and paid). It’s my reality – I’m a photographer, videographer, and blogger – I create content everyday, even when I’m not feeling it. Today let’s talk about creative process, what it consists of and how to make sure you stay creative even during difficult times.

Are you not feeling creative? Here’s how to ditch “I’m not creative” excuse!

In difficult times such as lockdown, it gets even more challenging to stay creative. The lack of change and everyday sameness of the hermit-crab lifestyle negatively affects creativity. Scientists say new experiences enhance our creative, out-of-the-box thinking, that’s exactly what most of us are missing these days, so we need to find an alternative.

Creativity isn’t luck or incident, you just need to learn to understand yourself and your process, and then develop repeatability.

Creative Process & How to Stay Creative During Difficult Times

Did you know that creative process is a process that you can rinse and repeat. Similarly to any other process creativity can be broken into steps:

Get Inspired!

Inspiration always comes first. Think about your inspiration as a foundation that you will build from. The best way to get inspiration is to expose yourself to new situations and experiences. It’s not always easy to add novelty while staying home – though you can do this by watching unconventional films and tv series, try virtual reality games to break up the monotony.

For me as a photographer for example, an inspiration source can be an image on Pinterest, or historical dramas on Netflix – detailing a director’s excellent use of colours. As a writer, I speak to people to see what their pain points are, or research what people are searching for on Google. These give me ideas on what to write about.

What’s the foundation? Make a note of it so you can go back to it.

What is it that you’re drawn to?

Here’s a great exercise: sit down and analyse your inspiration source. Ask yourself ‘why’ and really think about it.

For example, if it’s a specific image that you are drawn to, what is it about it that captivates you? Is it lighting, editing, styling or a model? Be honest with yourself.

Do this several times and you will start noticing patterns.

Do your research.

I don’t want to ruin the excitement but let’s be real, chances are are someone has already done something similar to what you’re trying to do. So, check out what has been done already, what others in your industry are doing. Don’t feel pressured to create something new, you don’t need to invent the wheel – get inspired by your findings and add something new and unique to you.

How can you incorporate your style?

As creativity generally comes from novelty, chances are your inspiration is coming from a different artistic area altogether (different photography genre, film, illustration, etc).

Now the trick is to figure out how to combine your style and artistic vision with the newly found inspiration. Slow down now. Try stepping back, letting the idea sink in, slowly simmer, and then getting back to it with a fresh and clear mind. Aha!.. And just like out of thin air, the solution will present itself!

The key to staying creative even during difficult times is to understand and study yourself: what gives you inspiration; why do you feel inspired by this particular thing; read and research it, then step back to let it sink in.

This is all for this week’s blog. How do you stay creative during difficult times like this?