Open thread: What do you do when you’re out of inspiration?
by Bogdan
Filed under Freelance Advice
This doesn’t usually happen to me, but tonight it did. Perhaps there are some of you who have hit the brick wall before. What am I referring to? I am referring to those moments when you’re in the middle of a project, but you hit a dead end.
You may have been extremly excited when you first started it, but as you go deeper and deeper, you feel like the outcome is… well… crap.
My best solution is to get away from the project for at least 12 hours and then get back to it. The thing is that when I get back to it I have new, fresh, better ideas and there’s a big chance I might start the project from scrap again.
So, let us know how often do you hit that wall, and how do you get passed it? Or how to you bring it down!
One way is to just say that the first (crappy) time around was a “pilot” project to pave the way for the “real” project, now that we have gathered some valuable lessons learned. I find that the “real” project usually goes much faster and better than the first.
The problem is when that wall comes again, this time coming the second time around. I find that looking at competitors’ projects helps you to gauge how crappy your project is going – or at least realize that the competitors results may be just as crappy.
Subscribing to a bunch of freelancer RSS feeds works too.
Just continue working, making new and new attempts.
Sometimes you do create something good even when you think you may produce only crap (the reversed is always true of course).
Just sketching out sevaral mockups and if possible sleep with them, deciding on the morning if there is at least one a bit usable out of them which can be developed further.
Try doing something completely unrelated during a few hours. I mean, COMPLETELY, not just another project.
I found it works faster than a rest.
Well, actually I’m on this problem right now. I use to visit a lot of websites of different subjects. Just navigating. I found this website on Screenfluent, navigatinf for inspiration actually.
Search references. That is my trick.
@Cesar: That seems to do the trick almost all the times. However, I think that inspiring to much in the online could produce unwanted copies. You could end with a site that resembles 3 other sites. Header from one, content from another and so on.
I recently started to get inspired offline, out in the city, and the outcome is much much better than previous projects.
In the morning, I’ll exercise (mostly bicycling) and listen to podcasts about unrelated subjects. Midday, go for a walk with a cup of coffee and some tunes. At night, I usually just give it a rest and try to get some extra sleep for some early morning creative energy.
I look at clouds, there’s not enough paper for the stuff i come up with while watching those lumpy masses
i give myselfself a break. get enough rest. i try to listen to nice music or maybe a good converstion to a friend. I look for colors, a collection of different arts. I do benchmark for best websites. and that work for me.
so, i make beats for fun. hopefully planning to eventually make a career out of it. and this brick wall thing happens to me quite a bit. im 17 by the way. but yes the brickwall, well i will have so much excitement when i get that urge to drop a new track and then plop. where did it go? well, my technique is simply this, come back to the track or your work for whatever it is you do and have a new empty canvas to work with. what i think of is that your mind is a desk, so when this desk is clean of any messy-ness, when its organized, is when it is the best time to get the ball rollin again. so the track is there and its like the best thing ive heard in a long time and coming back to it with fresh ears is very very helpful cause then it’ll be like “wow…i cant believe i thought that was good” so getting back to work with a clean desk and having fresh ears is good, for getting back your inspiration on work. (and for the record- making one track can take weeks of preparation before finally being cut out to be introduced to the industry, so nothing comes over night, and nothing gets done well with rushing).
@Tallbird
Have you ever tried to mix a few tracks when you get stuck? It used to work for me a couple of years ago.
PS: I ended up where I am because when I was a kid, even younger than you are now, I used to produce electronic music.
Hitting a wall is the absolute worst. Especially 4 hours into a project that looked so great after your first couple cups of coffee. Then the afternoon rolls around, and you’re sick of looking at it. I usually try and move onto a new project if time permits, and not think about it. Open it up later after a short brain nap, and see where I’m at. Usually just one or two little tweaks can bring it back to life. Inspiration comes from standing outside and walking around with my pugs, or surfing the net for sites that have great creativity and design. Colors are a huge influence on my direction, and so scanning my swatch book sometimes sparks something as well.
Also, Pink Floyd can help you in so many ways as well
I usually go to sleep for a while. My brain rests and when I wake up things seems to be easier than before.