Is it possible to get your creativity back?

I personally believe concepts such as a loss of creativity and writer's block are primarily built in our own heads and blown somewhat out of proportion in a sense to excuse the fact that we just can't think of anything. The problem is that when you start treating these things like real problems they suddenly become real.

If you're having trouble coming up with ideas, here's a few pages from James Scott Bell's Plot and Structure that I'll steal for you. At least, I'll steal the concepts he lists for coming up with ideas, reworded a bit to make more sense without context.

  1. Play the, "What If?" game. Watch a movie, show, play a video game, whatever, and ask yourself, "What if?"

  2. Make up a title and write a story around it.

  3. Make up a list of objects that hold significance in your memory and consider writing a story around one.

  4. Take a controversial issue and write around that.

  5. Ask yourself what you want to write about after you wake up. Close your eyes and envision it as a movie. Relax and let it play in front of you.

  6. Listen to music and see if any stories spring up at you.

  7. Start with a character and build the story about him or her.

  8. Steal someone else's story.

  9. Flip a genre.

  10. Predict a future trend, a common one nowadays that's been getting seen more is genetic modification or implants, but it could be anything.

  11. Scan news articles and see if anything comes up.

  12. Research any random topic you find interesting.

  13. Free write nonstop about whatever you feel like writing.

  14. Write about a certain obsession.

  15. Write a cool opening line and go from there.

  16. Write a gripping prologue, doesn't have to be good.

  17. Create a mind map.

  18. Write the ending. Literally any ending.

  19. Write about a character in an interesting occupation

  20. Get desperate and write literally anything until you come up with an idea.

Choose three of these, do each on a different day, try to come up with as many stories as possible. Pick one for each method, let them sit for a while, then pick the one you like the most.

/r/writing Thread