It’s a new day. You’re excited to draw, but your mind is stubbornly blank. After a few minutes of doodles, you take a break, jumping on youtube. Maybe you’ll get inspired after. Hopefully.

Whether you’re an artist, writer, or other creator, you’ve probably felt that creative block before. Unfortunately, inspiration is a fickle mistress, so how can we find ideas when they seem to be escaping us?

Well, we can cultivate moments where we disconnect and think! Nowadays, with almost unlimited distractions available, we don’t let our minds wander. Here’s how you can start doing that.

Table of Contents

1. Turn on airplane mode and go for a walk
2. What do you want to see?
3. Build on previous ideas
4. Write it down

Turn On Airplane Mode and Go For a Walk

There’s no need to be drastic and turn the wifi off for half the day. Instead, what are the moments where you’re physically busy?  Take advantage of these moments to disconnect. Because your body is occupied, your mind goes into a free-flow mode.

My moments are when I jog and shower. I’m careful to turn my data off and purposely keep from checking social media. Because I have nothing else to do in that moment, I start to day dream and come up with ideas and connections.

There are some days when even if I’m disconnected and physically moving, the ideas don’t come. But that’s ok! Our goal here is to be bored and invite ideation.

What Do You Want to See?

Though I only draw NSFW, I like to think that there’s still creativity that goes into my works. By asking myself what I want to see happen to this character, or what would turn me on in this situation, I start to generate my own ideas.

Sounds obvious, but I often find myself depending on other people to come up with ideas. I’d tweet “What do you guys want to see?”, rather than tackling the creative process.

As an example, I apply this when writing for Monsume Possession. If an organization had to conduct sexual research, how would they do it ethically? What problems would they run into? How would the monster gals react? Because I’m into philosophy and ethics, these are the questions I’d like explored.

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Although people are more than happy to share ideas, remember that you are still the artist and creator. It’s important that we exercise our ideation muscles, to create content that’s uniquely ours.

Build on Previous Ideas

In one of his lectures on creative writing, Brandon Sanderson shared that it’s not a single great idea that makes a unique work, but a combination of ideas. That’s why you shouldn’t discount ideas you’ve explored before. Rather, let them interact with the new ideas you’re having.

This concept is important because it often takes iterations before an idea gets to a point where it feels like a good, unique idea.

For example, how is Monsume Possession any different from Monster Girl Encylopedia? Well, at first, it wasn’t really. It started as huge monster girls inhabiting a fantasy world.

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But then, while I was in the shower one day, I thought, “what if monster gals could ‘fuse’ with humans?” Alright, not super original (terraformars and killing bites for example), but definitely getting there. It was a neat idea that I explored in a short story.

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Then, a week later while showering, I thought “what if monster spirits were possessing gals in the modern world?” Bingo! Not only did it feel like I was exploring new territory, I was also personally interested in the idea. 

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By building on your previous ideas, and making new combinations, you’ll be able to come up with new ideas that feel unique and fun to explore. As Sanderson pointed out for his novel Mistborn, he didn’t have a unique singular idea, but a unique combination of ideas.

Write It Down

Make sure you have a way to note your ideas!

Remember, we’re encouraging moments of disconnect. By the time you get on your laptop to write down ideas, there’ll have been a shift in environment and mindset, and your hard-earned ideas might escape you. 

Personally, I note all my ideas on my phone (which I keep disconnected from wifi, so no dangers of being distracted). 

If you’re a visual thinker, you might want to get a small notebook you can carry around easily. On the flip side, there are authors who dictate notes while walking, while others prefer sitting down and free writing.

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In the end, there’s no one way of doing things. Just remember, the goal is to encourage creativity through boredom and activity. By controlling distractions and allowing your thoughts to wander, ideas will start flowing in.

Thank you for reading! How do you encourage creativity?