The Todd Blog

Sometimes (today is one such day) my creativity hits rock bottom and I stare blankly at my screen awaiting my muse.

As any writer will tell you, that “technique” rarely, if ever, works. Inspiration doesn’t come from a lack of action, but rather from the rolling up of one’s sleeves and pushing through, even when the ideas seem to have abandoned you.

However, there are sources that can fuel a creative spark. Wikipedia, for example, has a lovely random article feature. It’s often fun to go there, click on random article and write about whatever pops up. Today, unfortunately, this exercise proved to be unfruitful — my topics were Gernrode, Germany, the Philosophy of Chemistry and Tehillat HaShem.

The other technique I use is stream of consciousness writing. Often I end up throwing the paper away as nothing on the page is worth ever looking at again (before you disagree, I write things like “I need to go to the grocery store” or “My car is low on gas,” so yes, I believe it is safe to discard them), but at least I start writing. Today, not even to-do items crept into my mind.

My third and final alternative today was to open up iTunes and hope to get inspired by a song. And there it was. Just the inspiration I needed. And now I share it with you:

[audio:Sufjan.mp3]

Sufjan Stevens’ classic hit, “Out Of Egypt, Into The Great Laugh Of Mankind, And I Shake The Dirt From My Sandals As I Run” provided the spark for my daily writing.

Thank you Sufjan.

So, how do you break through the brain slumps?