In order for writers to create anything, we must draw from our inner creative well.

In a perfect world, this creative well would have water brimming near to the top and ready to overflow. An abundance of creative ideas and inspiration to write would be the result.

To be in a place where we’re brimming over with ideas and inspiration, is the best place to be as writers.

But the sad truth is, too many writers(this is me too), forget that they must pay attention and keep filling their creative well. If we don’t continue to do this, we will be left with dry well.

For writers, a dry creative well means we have become depleted, dispassionate and uninspired to write.

We must do whatever it takes to refill our creative resources so that we can draw from the well again.

But how do we do we refill our creative well?

Read on to learn how to refill your creative well and be inspired to write again…

 

How Writers Can Refill their Creative Well…

To refill your creative well as a writer, it’s important to be alert and notice when you’re feeling uninspired. Notice when you’re feeling listless. Notice when you’re feeling passionless.

When you feel draggy and disconnected about whatever your writing project is at the time, it could be a sign that you need to refill your creative well.

You see, creativity and inspiration comes from your attention to noticing the details of images, movement and mysteries around you. It’s these images you see in your mind’s eye that stays with you and becomes art.

Art’s wordless language – images, movement and mysteries – is one of passion and felt experience.

As a writer when you work at your craft, writing the stories you love, you dip into the well of your personal experience and shovel out the images that are found there. So, because we are withdrawing from our creative well, it’s equally important that we are conscious to put the images back.

For the writer, this means it’s critical to become self-nourishing to the artist inside of you.

How can writers fill their creative well?

As I’ve been writing the fairytale romance for my pen name, I’ve realized that those moments when I’ve felt uninspired about the story, there are usually three ways to bring the inspiration back.

3 Ways Writers Can Find Inspiration to Fill their Creative Well:

1.Feed your creative-self with images: Images bring the magic back to our creativity. Let your inner artist be triggered by amazing sensory sights, sounds, smells, tastes and touches. When you need inspiration and a resurgence of your creative inner child, think of what delights you. Think about what is fun. Think about what interests you. Do you best not to focus on duty or what you should do, because for your inner artist that is dull, boring and can bring on feelings self-criticism and overwhelm. Focus on what’s fun, playful and magical and you’ll soon find yourself brimming over with creative ideas.

2.Feed your creative-self with mystery: Mysteries, draw us in and lure us to keep following them. We follow our sense of the mysterious to fill our creative well. Following a mystery, is really quite simple. It can be the feeling you have when you come home to the smells of of bread baking. This scent can bring with them wholesome images of family get togethers,or memories from long ago and it feeds our inner artist. A mystery can also be driving down a road where you’ve never been. The new sights and sounds you see help you become refocused in new ways, on the visible world around you. Seeing the new brings new insight.

3.Feed your creative-self with repetitive action: Pretty much any regular and repeated action stimulates your creativity. Something as simple as cutting up veggies for supper, reaches your artist brain through rhythm. Or how about something like knitting, crochet, cross stitch or any type of mending or needlework, this is also regular and repetitive  which soothes and simulates your inner creative. We even find creative solutions show up as we drive on the freeway. For example, Steven Spielberg says that his very best ideas have come to him as he was driving the freeway. All the images that the artist-brain is immersed in when you are in the flow of traffic, trigger the artists brain. And all these images fill your creative well.

Learning to focus your attention is critical to filling is crucial to filling your creative well. Pay attention to the details of your life experiences.

I encourage you to find time for creative play. Let your imagination play and you’ll see your creative well filled quickly. I’ve been experimenting with all of the above ways to inspire creativity and it really does make a huge difference 😉

 

How do you fill your creative well?  Please do share your ideas and tips in the comments below… I’d love to hear from you!