Doing creative things feels, to me, like pulling something out of nothing. Where once nothing was, there is now because I created it.
It’s a very fun pursuit when there are no stakes. But creativity becomes scary and difficult when you must be creative on command. “The client wants a new advertisement campaign, go figure it out.” That’s scary.
However, it comes with the territory. It’s part of being creative. It’s why we must learn to be comfortable being uncomfortable. It stops us from entering a doom cycle of freaking out because we can’t come up with an idea and the more we melt down, the harder it is to come up with a good idea.
I set aside two-hour blocks whenever I begin a new creative project. That two-hour block is the fight. I am vigorously and desperately smashing ideas together until I start to see something form.
I sacrifice the two hours for this endeavor. This way if nothing good is coming out, it doesn’t matter and I don’t panic. I can simply schedule another two-hour block after I recover from this effort.
Stuff always comes together. You always see rough outlines of concepts and vague ideas to chase and develop your design or photo around. You just have to remain as calm as possible and soak yourself in that block of creative battle.
It will come. It always does. Just take the time and do the work.