Sometimes terrible things happen when you’re barreling through a piano piece. You hit a sudden snag, you’re fingers trip, your hand shifts, your brain scrambles and all of a sudden, you’re literally playing every note on the keyboard except the one you were looking for, and that’s that.
That happens now and then in everyone’s creative life. Something goes wrong somewhere and all of a sudden you can’t hit any of the right notes. Call it burnout. Call it a dry spell. Call it not feeling it anymore. It’s discouraging, but it isn’t permanent and it shouldn’t last as long as it often does.
In this post, I’m going to give you a three-step strategy to survive and escape a dry spell. Keep in mind that none of these steps should be rushed. The most likely cause of your burnout is overwhelm, so trying to check off a lot of boxes too quickly is going to defeat the purpose. So be very patient with yourself and take it easy.
And before you start, you’re going to need to stop.
Step one: stop and assess the situation
It pays to be self-aware, especially as creator. Creativity takes a whole lot out of you and requires your mind to be functioning at capacity. If something’s dragging, it’s going to show up in your ability to create.
Pay attention to your intuition, here. If something feels off, don’t ignore it. Keep an eye on yourself for a few days and note how well things seem to be going. It’s normal to have bad days now and then, but if something is actually going wrong, pay attention. Stop and observe what you’re having trouble with.
At this point, try making a list of your WIPs. You are probably working several projects at once right now. List them on paper. You might be doing a lot more that you realize.
Once you’ve got the list, go through the points one by one and note:
- Anything that has an absolute deadline
- the projects you feel most stuck on
- the ones you still feel excited for
- anything you are nearly finished with
Step two: refocus and organize
My first piece of advice for anyone experiencing burnout is, give yourself as much extra time as possible. There’s not much you can do about the projects that have actual unmovable deadlines, but you may be surprised how few of them actually do, if you think about it carefully.
But you might be thinking, “aren’t you just suggesting I procrastinate? How in the world is that going to help my overwhelm?” No. It’s not procrastination if you’re doing it intentionally. You are in control of your time. In many cases, as long as you’re not working for someone else directly, you have every right and every reason to choose not to rush something.
Next, you’re probably going to realize you need to re-prioritize your projects. This could be hard, but you need to be really honest about which projects you actually need to finish soon and which ones you really care about. You might find certain projects are simply giving you no joy. As long as they’re personal projects not for someone else, you might want to let them go, or at least set them aside for a while.
Now, you need to think about all angles of your projects. You might be struggling to write your next chapter because you need to go back into the outline and rework some mechanics there. You might even find your brain is ready to do that kind of work, even when you are struggling to write a cohesive sentence.
Redefine what it means to make progress on your WIP. Maybe wordcount should slide to the backburner while you focus on adjusting some plot or character work. Maybe if you’re stuck on a drawing you need to break it down into some studies so that you can clean up the details confidently.
Step three: gradually start working again
The former steps hopefully will have prepared you to approach your projects from a new angle. When you feel like you’re ready, or maybe a little before, try returning to your work.
Start with the easiest task. Something you can do in a day or less. Don’t dive in and try to accomplish something huge right away. Give yourself motivation with small accomplishments and move up.
Try working on different aspects of your larger projects, as you considered in the previous stage. Set small goals within larger goals. Stay patient with yourself and don’t start pushing your limits until the idea of doing that sounds exciting instead of exhausting. You’ll bounce back sooner than you think. Be patient!
So, here’s a quick recap for you:
Step 1: stop and assess
- notice and acknowledge what you’re struggling with
- list your WIPs
- make notes on the status of each, and how motivated you are
Step 2: refocus and organize
- be realistic about deadlines and give yourself as much extra time as possible
- reprioritize your projects
- redefine progress on you WIPs
Step 3: start working again
- start with your easiest task
- break larger projects into smaller pieces
- be patient
And here’s a final note of encouragement from me to you.
Creative dry spells are really difficult. For a lot of artists, our whole being revolves around what we do. Creating is what makes us feel alive and joyful and useful in the world. When something happens and we become too exhausted or dull or overwhelmed to do our thing, it’s easy to start feeling like a walking shadow. I know this.
But it happens from time to time. And when it does, we need to have both a plan to recover and get back to it, and an understanding that, even without our creative powers functioning, there is still beauty and purpose in our day-to-day lives. We have a reason we’re here that goes beyond what we do. I know it’s easy to say when you’re feeling good about your output and energy-levels, but it’s true even in our lowest times.
This isn’t an easy thing to grasp. I certainly don’t have it figured out, yet. But you have to fight the mental demons that come around when you’re dealing with burnout. It’s one of the many unique spiritual and emotional struggles artists face.
If you’re in a dry spell right now, I hope this post is helpful to you. It will get better, so don’t give up. The world needs your art.
P.S.
This post was actually written as a bonus for my prompt journal, The Burnout Journal for Artists and Creatives. The Burnout Journal contains 101 prompts that could be used for art, poetry, or writing and space for you to explore each one.
The prompts are richly detailed with a lot of opportunity to take them each your own unique direction. Plus, the limits of the two-page spread, and the comforts of the journal format are designed to take the pressure off your creative process and encourage you to have fun.
Check it out if you want a little extra help recovering from burnout.