Raise your hand if some time back in March, after moving through the initial shock of what was happening, you promised yourself you’d create a slew of projects. You’d start a podcast or launch an IGTV series or finally re-write that old dusty pilot that you swear still has potential. For a while, you did it! You organized a writing group, you made sketches online, and you did all the self-tape contests that casting directors were putting out there.
But let’s be real, the months have dragged on and on, theaters remain closed, Twitch comedy doesn’t scratch the same itch as a live improv show, and auditions remain sparse even though production is back (after all, with new protocols, casting can only see a fraction of the actors they once saw for each role).
How does the creative soul stay alive? Because I got to tell you, I’ve experienced some serious slumpage of late and I know I’m not alone. For many, it’s become difficult to even remember that we’re artists. It’s easy to fall into a routine of survival–figuring out how to support oneself when the old ways of making money for many artists are still off the table, and since the unemployment bonuses have dried up, it’s a scramble to make ends meet let alone create. But rather than allow ourselves to sink into a looming sense of pointlessness, it may well be time to shake up your creative routine to bring some life back into it. Here are a few ideas on how to do that.
First and foremost, it’s great to connect to what it is that lights you up about being a creative in the first place. If you’ve never examined why you were called to be an artist, spend some time journaling around this notion. Personally, I believe art is a great service and I make it my goal to be of service through my creativity as much as possible. We learn through stories. We empathize, heal, allow our souls to be affected. Comedy brings much-needed levity–and sometimes cuts through to the heart of serious issues more than drama.
A Casting Director on How To Stay Creative During Quarantine So reminding myself of that goal–to be of service in this way–gets me back to my practice, even if I think I’m creating nothing but garbage. (That’s a whole other battle. Set that voice in the corner of the room and tell it to be quiet till you’re done. It doesn’t have permission to stop the creation with its judgment before the creation even happens.)
After connecting to your why, engage in a dedicated practice to remind you of who you are and what you do. Create a ritual around it. Light a candle while you work on a monologue. Wear a special writing bracelet when writing creatively. Designate an area of your home where you only do creative work. Whatever you can do to let your brain know it’s time to be creative.
Furthermore, challenge yourself to try a new medium or format. Perhaps you haven’t tried your hand at writing before, but dedicating even as little as 20 minutes a day to exploring writing a short screenplay or a comedy sketch could prove enough to remind your soul what lights it up.
If you’ve been diligently writing since March, it may be time to get up and move around with your artistry. Pull out old acting exercises from your favorite classes. Work on a new scene just for the hell of it. Find someone in your isolation pod to work on it with you or Zoom it. Sure, it’s not quite the same, but hey, you don’t have to face traffic?
How To Cope With the Broadway Closure Schedule Zoom readings of the scripts you’ve been working on or just pick a wonderful play and get a group of friends to read it over Zoom together. This accountability is great as well, as we will often break commitments to ourselves to do this sort of thing.
Another tip that I highly recommend is to find a short guided meditation for creativity before you sit down to work. There are some beautiful ones out there. All it takes is a quick Google search.
Subscribe to daily writing prompts and exercises. Or make your own. Here’s one I love: open a book and point to a random sentence–let that sentence inspire a short story that you bang out with no intention of it going anywhere. This might help you breakthrough on a project you’re stuck on, or it may actually lead to the creation of something new that you’re excited about.
If all of this feels pointless–if you’re feeling hopeless around all of it–let’s be clear: creative slumps are OK. They’re necessary, in fact. Have you heard of the bellows concept? I’m talking about bellows used to stoke a fire. Usually a device with two wood handles and a kind of accordion-like bag in the middle that you open and close to pump out the air necessary to get a fire going.
The thing is, bellows can’t work unless they take in air, too. Sometimes we have to stop and breathe in. We can’t be constantly blowing out creations. We have no air left in us if we don’t take in something to fuel the creativity–rest, other art, inspiration.
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and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Backstage or its staff.
