Jump-starting your creativity.

If you practice any art long enough, you’ll eventually have to fight through a period of time where you feel creatively tapped out. You’ll wonder, “Is that it? Maybe I blew my wad and it’ll never come back. Never be fun again.” Don’t worry, it’s not, you didn’t, and it will.

There are different remedies for this. Time (and anxiety) permitting, you can take some time to absorb creative works and refill the tank. Read some books just for fun. Watch a few movies just because they look good. Talk about them with friends simply because you want to know what they thought. Eventually, you’ll feel that little nudge, “I want to create.”

But what if you don’t have time for that.

Maybe you’re on a deadline. Or maybe you just really really don’t want to stop creating, but you feel like your little creative car is stuck in the mud. You don’t want to—or can’t—sit there and read until the mud dries. So, flag down another driver or two. They’ll pull you out.

Sometimes just being around other people who are doing what you’re trying to do will be enough to ignite that first spark. One caveat here: if you’re already struggling, it’s important to steer away from harsh critique at this time. Seek out those who will lift you up. If you are in a writing group, you can even ask that they save the rough stuff for a later draft. There’s nothing wrong with that. Especially if you’re just trying to get moving right now. Don’t throw up additional road blocks. There will be time for that later.

Lauren and I grabbed a drink and a spot to slow down and write during the jam-packed ALA Conference. Creativity was zinging about!

In Nashville it’s conference weekend. Folks are arriving from all over for Killer Nashville, our hometown writing conference. I’m excited about it because I’ll be selling actual copies of Ghost Tamer for the first time at the signings! I’m also doing two panels and a solo presentation, but I do have one day where I get to just absorb the panels of my fellow writers.

Author Lauren Thoman isn’t going to the conference, but she intentionally booked a room in the Embassy Suites where the conference is taking place. She’s on a deadline for her second book. (Her first, I’ll Stop The World, debuted in April.) “I write in the lobby as writers flow around me, discussing their work and their craft, and it’s like a shot of adrenaline straight to the hippocampus,” she says.

The physical energy crackling around one can certainly stimulate the creative mind, but what if you can’t get to a conference or just don’t have the time or money? Some creatives have found the body doubling practice effective, even when done on a video chat. If you’re unfamiliar with the concept of body doubling, it simply means doing a task in the presence of another person. They don’t even necessarily have to be working on the same task, many people simply find it more motivating than pushing themselves alone.

My husband and I will sometimes go to a coffee shop together and work on completely different things. I always make progress.

Novelist Melissa R. Collings is gearing up to participate in a group writing sprint with several other writers. “It’s all about accountability for me. I don’t ever want to ‘let myself down,’ but even more, I don’t want others to see me falling short.” She finished an entire novel during last year’s group body doubling sessions. Not only were they writing, but they had a shared spreadsheet where they could include group word count goals for each week. “Just knowing we were all working together toward a single word count goal gave me a sense of security and teamwork. I wasn’t doing it only for myself; I was doing it for the team, and I couldn’t let the team down!”

These are only two options, but you can find a way that suits you if you need a shot in the arm. Most writers are introverted and many prefer to work alone, or simply must find time to write in those spaces of time around their full-time jobs and home obligations. But sometimes you just need a little boost. “This can be meeting up with other creatives at a coffee shop to work,” Thoman says. “Or going to a book event where other authors are talking about their creative process, or attending a wring conference where I can be surrounded by other authors all radiating creative energy.”

Creativity will naturally ebb and flow. If you’re ebbing, it can feel natural to retreat and withdraw—and sometimes this is what you need—but if you’re looking for a shot in the arm, schedule some time with other creatives who may be flowing. They don’t necessarily have to be working on the same type of creative work, just find someone to be with! Things will flow from there.