Asking Artists: How Do You Overcome Creative Block?

I remember when I studied music and regularly had to compose, well, anything. I found the best mix was to take some time away, go for a walk, a meal, a drink, anything, and then equally to sit down and compose anything no matter how awful.

Clearing my head and then forcing myself to work turned out to be about the only thing that regularly fixed creative block for me.

Bring up Amazon in another window and order Steven Pressfield's "War of Art" and just for kicks add Hugh Macleod's "Ignore Everybody"... The latter will put a spotlight on the counter-productive external forces at play that is causing you to grind to a halt. The former will so deliberately and decisively shame you out of your so-called 'writers block' that you will have no choice but to snap out of it...

(Edit) Both books are about creativity. I used writers block in my post because writing is a common profession in the Arts. One book is written by an Artist, the other a writer- and in my opinion, both books will be helpful to any Artist. Including, of course, the Art of programming language..

I've never found anything better than a break from thinking about the subject at hand plus a long hard run. Something about the monotony and the exertion clears your head and lets creativity flow better.

Here's something I thought of while on a treadmill http://www.flickr.com/photos/miura-ori/496920874

When I was studying art, sometimes when I hit a block I'd choose to do what I thought I shouldn't do. It helped free me up a bit. Sometimes when things are going well it's nerve-racking - you could stuff it up. Making a small, intentional step in the wrong direction was liberating and came with mixed, but often good, results.

Writer's block is caused by lack of information.

looking to the past.