Creative Insights from Around Substack
"Inspiration isn’t fully in your control, which is why it happens when you’re not trying too hard."
Happy Friday!
If you’ve been banking up things to read for the weekend, have I got some links for you! The following are some insights from both myself and the very helpful from her guest post for Substack today. She has a great newsletter at sherryning.com which you can subscribe to below.
Finding resonance can be more passive than you might think.
Inspired by Rick Rubin’s The Creative Act, Rosie Peacock reframes creativity as a process of listening rather than forcing: “Creative inspiration is something already present in the world—like a signal waiting to be received. The creator’s role isn’t to strain for ideas but to attune themselves to this frequency and let it flow through them.”
Inspiration isn’t fully in your control, which is why it happens when you’re not trying too hard. When you’re distracted, dreaming, or just taking it slow—that’s when the lightbulb ideas happen.
…but also make time for solitude (and boredom)
When we talk about creativity, it’s often about art—that primitive process of turning individual perception into expression. And your creative self also needs silence to be heard.
Inspired by Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way, Elif Batuman encourages her students—and herself—to go on artist dates: “a block of time, perhaps two hours weekly, especially set aside and committed to nurturing your creative consciousness, your inner artist.”
That’s what Jean Iversen did before starting her three-year MFA program in creative nonfiction. She stayed at a secluded resort in New Mexico, where she found the magic of silence and nothingness. The desert is “a place I know I’ll return to when I need to be still. When I need to feel the spaces, in between the echoes.”
Another way to be more in tune with your creative intuition is to do… nothing. This is what Erik Torenberg calls perfect rest: “Want new ideas? Spend one full day alone doing nothing. Want to be more in touch with yourself? Spend one full day alone doing nothing.” Not even meditating—just sitting there. “100% not judging the process.”
And if doing nothing makes you bored, that might be a good thing. Suleika Jaouad talks about the expansiveness of that feeling of nothingness: “The times when I’ve been forced to lie fallow have spurred me toward the most fertile creative periods of my life.”
Here's my radical suggestion for you:
- Taking a walk? Unplug your airpods. Let your thoughts be the podcast.
- Taking a bath? Make it a #ThoughtBath instead of a scrolling session.
- Taking a baby? Don't take babies.
(Seriously, return any babies you've “borrowed”.)
I've started deliberately scheduling blocks of nothing. Absolutely nothing.
It feels weird and uncomfortable at first, like wearing your shoes on the wrong feet. But the results? Mind-blowing. Those empty spaces have produced more creative ideas than any "productive" time I could have scheduled.
To all my fellow creatives out there: try it. Embrace the void. Let your brain be bored. You might be surprised at what emerges when you stop filling every moment with noise. Trust me, your brain will thank you for the vacation from being everyone else's podcast player.
Related:
For the past 9 years, I’ve run the NO-vember challenge every year. Basically, I teach you how to say NO to one thing every day of November with tips and tools up the wazoo. You can sign up for free below:
