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The question

What do you do when you feel creatively stuck?

Originally asked

The Creative Independent, to working artists, its interview series

A recurring Creative Independent question whose wording distinguishes a lasting block from a temporary impasse.

You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.

KT
Katie Tupper

Canadian singer-songwriter

Recorded said elsewhere, not written here
I think I get writer’s block all the time in every session that I do. There are always going to be blocks that happen. You should treat yourself cyclically, you’re going to go through periods where you just need to be intaking.

Hannah Harlacher, The Creative Independent interview source ↗

Others on this question

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J'Kerian Morgan Musician and producer, recording as Lotic
I stop, but I don’t throw anything away. I don’t put pressure on myself to finish anything. I usually just think, “Okay I had this idea for a reason, but it’s just not working right now. Let me go take a walk.” I can only do like 20, 30-minute intervals, because I’m so fast. If I have an idea, I can get it down quickly. Once it’s down, it’s down. I don’t have to make a whole album out of it. I’ll literally just go outside for a walk for 20 more minutes and then come back. It depends on what the deadline is, but usually I’ll just write it down, make a little something, think about it for five or six days, and then go back to it.
Recorded T. Cole Rachel, The Creative Independent, 24 September 2018 source ↗
Tyler Bates American musician, producer, and composer
It’s lame to say, “Well, there’s this book,” but I would only mention this book—The War of Art by Steven Pressfield—because it is a super-easy, fast read. And it really is written for artists and entrepreneurs. One of the concepts that he lays out is, it’s a matter of us not brushing over the things that are important or giving ourselves excuses to not do the work that we don’t want to do.
Recorded J. Bennett, The Creative Independent interview source ↗
Brian Jungen Canadian artist
You can move on, or if something gets overworked and you can put it down, cover it up, or something, and then come back to it and take it back to a place where you were still excited about it. I’m excited about having that opportunity again. I’m probably going to buy some land, but I don’t want to have agriculture be such a huge part of my life. As much as I believe in agriculture—and I think it’s very important that people know how to grow their own food—it’s another thing to take it on as another business and try do that at the same time as having an art career. I would not recommend it.
Recorded Brandon Stosuy, The Creative Independent interview source ↗
Zaldy Goco Fashion and costume designer
You just have to remember that you’re a creator and not a machine. You just have to know when you’ve got to step aside and either move onto something else or just stop until the moment feels right again.
Recorded T. Cole Rachel, The Creative Independent, 20 April 2017 source ↗

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