by Carol de Giere

It’s a myth that inspiration floods the brains of the most creative of us. I know plenty of writers, musicians, painters, and other creative folks whose projects stall until a new approach eventually dawns on them. We all need strategies for finding fresh ideas, especially when meeting deadlines.

How do we stir our imaginations and restore enthusiasm so that we can move forward on projects? Here are a few approaches to consider:

Try Research

Broadway and film songwriter Stephen Schwartz follows his own motto for dealing with idea generation: “In lieu of inspiration, do research.” This research can be as elaborate as an international field trip or as simple as sitting at home reading books related to a project.

His work with composer Alan Menken on Disney’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame animated feature and later stage musical adaptation provides a good example of using research. Before starting the film, Disney flew artists and writers to Paris to immerse in the experience of the city, the great cathedral at the center of the story, and near-by sites. In Notre Dame, Schwartz made notes for Quasimodo’s song “Out There” after climbing up about 300 steps to the bell tower.  He says, “By that point I had done a lot of research into what Paris would have looked like in 1482, and I would look out and imagine what Quasimodo might have seen, and how he might have felt about it, and I scribbled down ideas and phrases.” (Defying Gravity second edition, page 212.) Within a few days he was able to write the complete lyrics.

Years later while sitting at home working on the new stage adaptation of the movie, he turned to Victor Hugo’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame novel for ideas. He needed to come up with a song title and write lyrics for a new song for the leading lady. He says, “I went back to the Victor Hugo novel and read a couple of passages about Esmeralda, describing how she danced. And in one place it used the phrase, ‘…the flash of her feet and the rhythm of the tambourine.’” After reading that phrase, he was able to settle on a song title, “Rhythm of the Tambourine,” and then come up with related ideas to complete the song. (Defying Gravity second edition, page 391.)  LISTEN TO THE STUDIO CAST ALBUM.

You’ll find dozens of other examples in the Updated and Revised Second Edition of Defying Gravity, and we’ll cover others in future issues of this blog/newsletter.

By the way, Schwartz’s colleagues sometimes take a different approach to research. His Wicked collaborator Winnie Holzman, for example, sometimes uses coffee-shop eavesdropping as a method to collect inspiration for banter for her stage, film, and television scripts.

Take a Step – The Magic of Momentum

Pablo Picasso once said, “Inspiration exists, but it has to find us working.” This means taking some action in the direction of our goal invites forward motion. It seems obvious, but it’s easy to stall and stare at a blank page or postpone putting paint on a blank canvas.

That’s why writers often “free write” in stream-of-consciousness style, meaning they just keep the pen moving on the page regardless of what language comes out. Then they have something to work with. Similarly, a visual artist might do a sketch or study.

Creativity teacher Julia Cameron points out in her book Walking in this World, our reasons for feeling uninspired might not be from having too few ideas but from too many. “Our competing ideas create a sort of logjam—and that’s why we feel stuck.” Her advice: “You must take some small step… What you are trying to do is move energy out of you. That is what starts the logjam gently moving.” (page 134).

About problems and obstacles in our lives, Goethe once commented, “Fresh activity is the only means of overcoming adversity.” This may be applied to creative endeavors as well.

Break Routine

Habits can be helpful but can also create ruts. Staying in our comfort zone can keep us from finding fresh material. To get out of a rut we can purposely try something new and unexpected.

You might break your routine through an unexpected activity: browse in an antique store, take an improvisational acting class, travel somewhere you may have considered odd…

Or you may find a different approach through using creativity or crafts books. Wreck This Journal is one source of ideas for instantly stepping out of habitual activity. Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain is a classic text for changing artistic perception, tapping right hemisphere strengths as an antidote for habits of left-brain-based rational mind.

Those involved in complex creations like musicals or movies may need to go “back to the drawing board” to break habitual thinking and assumptions. In Now Write! Screenwriting, some recommended strategies include rewriting the whole story from a different character’s point of view or writing character diaries. Another is “Backward brainstorming,” in other words work backward from ending or third act and ask how else could the characters get to their situation or realization?

Let Go

Inspiration often finds us when we are not looking for it. If we have focused on solving a storytelling problem or any kind of step that requires a new solution, the answer might not come until we step away and give ourselves some quiet time.

Michael Gelb, author of How to Think Like Leonardo DaVinci, discovered during his research that da Vinci liked taking restorative breaks from his efforts. After he worked on “The Last Supper” painting for long hours for a week at a time, he took several days off, and when questioned about it, said, “Men of genius sometimes work best when they work least.”

Gelb, in fact, has asked many people where they get their best ideas. The most common answers: in the shower, resting in bed, driving in the car, walking or running, and at the beach. Gelb’s explanation is that “In the shower, bed, or car, we can relax; there’s no fear of embarrassment and the mind shifts into slower alpha or theta waves, brainwave patterns that are conducive to creative insights.” (From Gelb’s book Creativity on Demand p. 139).

We still need to have the focus and set up the questions to ponder first. But clutching for answers doesn’t always help, whereas letting go and trusting our rhythms can sometimes be the best path.