How To Ride Out a Creative Storm

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I’m in the middle of a creative storm. Not sleeping much… head buzzing… ideas flying.

If I were a creativity meteorologist, I’d love to be able to predict these things and plan my schedule accordingly. But it’s just ain’t like that.

In the past I would sometimes feel like I was drowning. I didn’t know what to grab onto – and that fear would actually make me dread or suppress the creative storm. Now, I’m a more seasoned mariner on the ocean of ideas.

Here are my top tools and strategies for riding out a creative storm.

Be prepared.
Like the Supply Officer on a ship with a long deployment, have a supply of your favorite creativity tools on hand. Those supplies are the closest thing to a life preserver that you can find. They’ll keep you afloat as well as keep you having fun. My four must-haves are:

• Index cards
  Little baby ideas can land here. Or a random stream of rapid fire ideas that are part of a bigger project. I try to keep each card’s idea as small possible so that they can later be sorted visually to help me find structure.

• QuickNotes Notebook
  This notebook stays open on my desk, goes to meetings and comes out to play for brainstorming. I love the highlighted zone at the bottom of the page to capture future blog ideas or specific actions that the other notes inspire. It’s an essential tool for me to quickly attach actions with info.

• Pens that make me happy
  My current fave is a Pentel EnerGel Deluxe RTX Gel Ink Pen with a 0.7mm tip. It’s fast and smooth. I love fine fountain pens, too. I know people who love colored markers, but personally I get very distracted with picking a color.

• MindMeister
  I came late to the mindmapping party but now I’m totally hooked. I love that I can share MindMeister’s online mindmaps with other creative partners, too.

Hire a first mate.
I never knew how important this was until I got one. Mine is Crys Williams of BigBrightBulb. Crys is a maven-and-a-half who can keep up, scribe, encourage the flow, spot structure, amplify and is willing to revisit everything later when the storm has passed. We have been working together steadily for almost a year now, and she knows me. I trust her to know when to capture and when to say “When do you want to get this done, Missy?” We agree that all ideas deserve to see the light of day and, thus, get recorded. We use Google Docs so that we can share the capture space.  After the storm, we can pick and choose the ideas that end up on the cutting board and in the frying pan.

Keep filling the chumbucket.
It holds the blood and guts and leftover parts that attract the bigger fish. My favorite kinds of chum are books from disciplines outside my own, vacations, morning pages, and meditation. Crisp Fall walks with an audiobook are wonderful, too. In the middle of a storm just knowing that ideas are being recording for use as future chum gives them extra meaning.

So come on, Creative Nature. Bring it. I’m ready.

photo credit: photo fiddler

What are your strategies and favorite tools? How do you handle your own creative storms?

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1. From Calling to Creed

By Laurie Foley

I'm Laurie Foley and I help solo professionals like you discover your natural brand so that you can get clear, get noticed and get clients. Please request your free copy of The Inner Brandifesto, my popular guidebook full of brand-building exercises.