4 Fun Creativity Hacks to Inspire a Writer’s Imagination

Writers rely on their creativity all the time.

Usually, our imaginations are like good friends who are always there for us, but then there are those times when we need a new idea or want to get into that “flow” and we run up against a wall.

We can’t write a good scene to save ourselves, or whatever we do come up with sounds bland and cliché.

Whenever you’re in one of those creative slumps, you need something to help you out of it. Try these four creativity hacks to get your imagination going again.

1. To Get More Creative, Gain Some Distance

When we’re facing a problem, usually we need a creative answer, but we’re just too close to it to come up with one.

Let’s say you are in the middle of your novel and you’re stuck. You don’t know how to get from there to the great climax you have planned, and though you’ve tried a few options, you feel like you’re banging your head against a wall.

In this sort of situation, you need some psychological distance—like you might have with a friend, for instance. If one of your writing friends came to you with this problem, you could probably help her work through it, but when you’re trying to help yourself, it’s not so easy.

You can always talk to friends, but if no one’s around, try gaining some distance from the problem by imagining it’s not your story at all, but someone else’s. According to a 2009 study, imagining the problem as existing far away from you can increase your ability to come up with solutions.

Break the problem—in this case, the story—down to its simplest elements. What has happened so far?

Write down no more than three sentences summarizing what you know. For example, if you’re writing a romance story:

• Boy has met girl, and sparks flew.
• Problem is present—characters live in different states, and both are dedicated to their careers. Each thinks the other should compromise.
• How are you going to bring them together for the big finale?

Now pretend that a friend from Sweden (yes, physical distance helps too) asked you for help with this issue, and come up with at least three creative solutions. What would tell your friend?

You can use this exercise for any sort of writing-related problem. Remove yourself from it, and imagine the issue as belonging to someone else from far away, and see what happens.

2. To Solve a Creative Problem, Lie Down

You probably already know that when brain waves slow down, creativity improves. You can encourage that to happen by simply lying down and relaxing.

Researchers reported in 2009 that when participants were lying down, the heartbeat slowed down, and the brain released less of the neurotransmitter noradrenaline, which can impair mental processes like creativity.

They also found that the participants were able to solve word anagrams more quickly when lying down than when standing, writing “insight may be influenced by body posture.”

This one is really easy to try. If you’ve just finished a frustrating writing period where your ideas just weren’t flowing, or if you’ve got a marketing problem you haven’t been able to solve, take about 20 minutes to lie down and relax. Breathe deeply and allow your creative mind to work for a while.

You may not find the solution the first time, but if you practice a 20-minute lie-down regularly, you’re likely to help your brain relax into a higher state of creativity.

3. To Encourage the Imagination, Get Happy

Usually, when we’re facing a writing-related problem, we’re not happy. We feel frustrated, discouraged, and at a loss.

Good luck trying to find a solution in that state!

Yet that’s what we too often try to do—get creative when we’re in a negative frame of mind.

It probably won’t work for you. Studies show that creativity is more likely to be associated with positive moods. In 2010, researchers reported that happy volunteers were better coming up with creative solutions than sad or neutral volunteers.

The researchers used music and video clips to help stimulate both the happy and sad moods and suggested that watching funny videos while at work could be just as effective.

A later 2015 study found similar results—participants primed with a happy video were significantly better at generating creative solutions to a problem than those primed with a neutral video.

So before you attempt to engage the creative brain, go do something that makes you happy. Play a game, take a walk, see a movie, head out with friends—anything that’s likely to get you in a better mood. Then try tackling your problem again and see what you come up with.

4. To Jolt Creativity Out of Hiding, Challenge Yourself

Many of our most classic stories were created out of challenges. Frankenstein emerged from a “ghost story challenge” suggested by Lord Byron at the Villa Diodati (a mansion in Switzerland where many authors had gathered).

Dr. Seuss’s Green Eggs and Ham came about because of a challenge from the author’s publisher. According to Vintage News, “In 1960, Bennett Cerf, the head of the Random House and Dr. Seuss’ main publisher, challenged Dr. Seuss to write a best-selling children’s book that would contain fewer than 100 unique words. Although Cerf argued that such an endeavor was impossible, Dr. Seuss accepted the challenge and decided to set the limit to only 50 unique words.”

The result was one of the author’s most beloved books.

You can create similar challenges for yourself with either time or word limits. Give yourself 10 minutes to come up with a 100-word synopsis for the rest of your unfinished novel, for example. Or brainstorm 10 new ways you can market your books in five minutes.

Or press yourself to write an entirely different story using no more than 50 words. This could be completely unrelated to your current novel, but the exercise itself could set your imagination free so that when you do return to your novel, you’ll find the solutions you’re looking for.

How do you get your creativity working again?

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Sources
Buzwell, G. (2014, May 15). Mary Shelley, Frankenstein and the Villa Diodati. Retrieved from https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/mary-shelley-frankenstein-and-the-villa-diodati

Jia, L., Hirt, E. R., & Karpen, S. C. (2009). Lessons from a Faraway land: The effect of spatial distance on creative cognition. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 45(5), 1127-1131. doi:10.1016/j.jesp.2009.05.015

Lipnicki, D. M., & Byrne, D. G. (2005). Thinking on your back: Solving anagrams faster when supine than when standing. Cognitive Brain Research, 24(3), 719-722. doi:10.1016/j.cogbrainres.2005.03.003

Nadler, R. T., Rabi, R., & Minda, J. P. (2010). Better Mood and Better Performance. Psychological Science, 21(12), 1770-1776. doi:10.1177/0956797610387441

Politis, J., & Houtz, J. C. (2015). Effects of Positive Mood on Generative and Evaluative Thinking in Creative Problem Solving. SAGE Open, 5(2), 215824401559267. doi:10.1177/2158244015592679

Valjak, D. (2017, November 21). “Green Eggs and Ham” and the bet Dr. Seuss won that he couldn’t write a book of 50 words. Retrieved from https://www.thevintagenews.com/2017/07/09/green-eggs-and-ham-and-the-bet-dr-seuss-won-that-he-couldnt-write-a-book-of-50-words/