mariospants

Everyone one must have had that one idea. The one that either woke them up in the middle of the night or just happened to pop up when they were at their most vulnerable state between awake and unconscious. If you are a creative type and in the middle of the night, when most of your brain cells are devoted to shutting down, you think to yourself "this is an amazing idea, it is an emotional paean to the soul, but a righteous shooter, as well" you will likely fight between the urge to write the idea down on something with anything that can mark paper or bedding ("if I bite my finger, I can write it on my bed sheets with my blood, right?") and the urge to fall back asleep, assuring yourself that - come morning - you will remember every vivid, world-changing detail.

But our brains don't work like that: we always forget. Heck, we forget within seconds. So if you do jot down a few lines to remind you of that insanely immersive Pirate-slash-rainbow-pony-political-sex-thriller, your morning reading will usually consist of a "what? is that a sentence? did I write that in Cyrillic Braille?" and the idea is lost forever.

So what is it about that detached, undevoted part of ourselves that reaches out to areas we dare not otherwise look, and pull out impossible, creative ideas? There's a famous story about a scientist who tried to figure out why a particular chemical reaction was happening the way it did, when one night he dreamed of a snake biting its tail. When he woke up, he realized that the molecule in question must be circular. And that's how we discovered IKEA meatballs. No, sorry, that wasn't right... so how do we become our most creative? How do we surprise ourselves, and create great works or come up with creative solutions to problems?

Well, everyone is different and there's no easy answer to that question. The End.

Maybe.

You see, there is something, a way to loosen up those brainular muscles, it's not just fiction. In movies, writer's block always happens when the protagonist is compelled to create; being put "on the spot" as it were. It seems that there's a problem when we concentrate: it's harder to think up new ideas and creative approaches when you must. Of course, if you've practiced a creative endeavor enough times, designing a brand new super action hero with muscles isn't all that difficult, but even then, breaking the mold means letting go of the directed nature of your thoughts.

Artists have used drugs, starvation, distraction, alcohol, and many more methods to induce a state of lucidity or "altered consciousness" and it's hard to argue that the results weren't worth the toll on body and mind in the case of those who have gone on to redefine their art.

But I'm not espousing drug or alcohol use or deprivation: that's a decision only you can make, and unless you're both insanely talented already and mature enough to handle the potentially deadly consequence, don't do it.

So barring psychedelic enzymes, we need some safe tips and techniques. Here are some:

1. Distract yourself. If you ever find yourself falling asleep in a meeting or a lecture, try sketching. The people around you HATE when you do this because they think you're not paying attention, but for those of us who find that listening to other people prattle on is boring, try drawing. Even if it's crappy, the reason this works is that your brain is easily able to handle listening to someone else talk because you're programmed to by design and by years of listening to people. You don't draw space octopuses every day, so your brain will love doing that, but there is still a substantial portion available to pay attention to the speaker. I once got caught out doing this and I looked up from my drawing and repeated every word that had been said in the previous 2 minutes. The drawing helped me remember each word in sequence, kind of like a mnemonic, and it was clear that I had better retention while drawing than while staring attentively at the speaker and CONCENTRATING like an SOB. All that to say: listen to music, do something else completely different, take a cold shower, take a hot shower, eat a hot pepper. Do something that consumes and attracts your brain in some way that sitting with a task lamp focused on the blob of clay in front of you does not. Think about something else completely different. Sex helps. The trick is to try and distract your brain and break that block or open up some new paths.
   
   
2. Copy something. Straight up plagiarize. I don't mean pass someone else's work off as your own, I mean, take something you admire and try to copy or emulate it just to break your ice. Concentrating on replicating something can take you off trying to figure out what to create and move it back onto "circle, bigger circle, cross-hatch, cross-hatch, cross-hatch." It can also give you a sense of completion or fulfillment, and potentially a little "happy boost" as a result.
   
   
3. Be stupid. Sing a dumb song out loud. Do a funny walk or weird-ass dance. Write something or draw something D-U-M-B. Free form rap the dumbest, lamest lyrics you can. If you can do this while trying to draw/sculpt/write, then go for it. Just don't realize what you're doing may actually be helping. Self-awareness can be a deal killer.
   
   
4. Contemplative meditation and disassociation. OK, this one's hard, because it's almost pure B.S. but not quite. The trick is to blank your mind, blank your feelings, blank your thoughts and perceptions. Holding your breathing can sometimes help, but the key is to eventually try to FEEL your circulation, your heartbeat, the way your body moves in that way that is super-exaggerated in video games when a character is standing still. If you're good at it, it can make you feel like you're 10 feet tall or floating slightly outside your body. Why is this good? Because blanking your mind can often lead to esoteric and strange ideas. Feeling disassociated makes you lose sense of time and space and you can project any century, millennium or location on yourself. You're not Steve Northcarolinian sitting in his den, you're a 128 year old scribe, 1,024 light years away from Earth, writing about your people's history in the year 4096.
   
   
5. Change. Change is GOOD. Change is GREAT. NEVER be afraid of change unless it's the tumor getting larger. Fight that change all you want. But I encourage you to: rearrange your office, your computer, your desktop, your desk; clean that sucker up, mess it up; get naked or change your clothes, heck, wear a costume; and change your persona by adopting an accent, changing the pitch of your voice, your mannerisms, whatever. Life and interaction is an act. Try something new. In this day and age of Shomi and Netflix, you've been exposed to everything. Try it.

Anyway, I don't expect that you might become the next Van Gogh without first having his upbringing, training, a weird disease, and inability to see all colors, but trying some of these tips might help. If they don't, well, my parting piece of advice is to Always Keep a Pen and Notebook at your Bedside (AKPaNB).