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Forcing yourself to be creative often feels like the definition of oxymoron. Creativity is something that just is. Perhaps it is a beautiful muse sitting behind you waiting to whisper poetry into your ears. Perhaps it is reaching into the ether and pulling out some aspect of the collective unconscious and putting it on paper, or perhaps it is just the random firing of neurons in the human brain, but whatever it is it can't be pushed. Or so it seems. The truth is that creativity is a skill, and just like any other it can be improved and used and while it can sometimes be random in these cases you must remember that "chance favors the prepared mind." So how do you prepare or even jump start the creative process.

One of the first steps in moving the creative process forward is to give yourself the correct environment to be creative. There are three factors that play into this. Location, time and you. Location is important because of the detrimental effect that distractions have on the creative process. It is nearly impossible to be creative while the phone is ringing, the TV is running, kids are yelling and the dog is barking so you must find a way to get away from that. Next is the importance of time. You can make the creative process happen faster, but it still takes time, give yourself at least a half hour and preferably more. Third you need to prepare yourself. Find the wonder in the world around you, look at the people in the store and imagine their lives, allow yourself to daydream. Also important is to be physically prepared though. Get a good nights sleep and eat a good meal, it will help.

Sometimes though no amount of preparation will get the creative bolder to begin to roll up that hill. At this point you are likely sitting at a blank screen and the frustration level is beginning to rise. There are many ways to help with this lack of creativity but the one that I have found works the best is to stop trying to be creative. Words on paper are the way to break the spell of a blank screen. Write down everything that you think of, and if that means that you have five pages of "I can't think of anything to write" that is just fine, but most of the time you will find that after a few minutes of free writing you'll begin to have ideas.

Another important thing to do is to set yourself up for success. This is easier than it might sound. One of the best ways to do this is to stop writing in the middle of a paragraph or even a sentence at the end of your writing time. This can seem a bit odd at first, but the next day when you sit down you already have a sentence or half a paragraph on the page before you even begin to think about creativity.

With some time and effort you can strengthen the creative muscles in your mind and as you begin to trust yourself more and understand that not everything you have to write down needs to be brilliant on the first pass you will find less and less of your time focused on trying to find something creative to say and instead focused on finding more time to say it in.

Learn more about this author, Elton Gahr.
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