Reigniting Creativity

So, I’ve been in a creative rut. Maybe rut isn’t the right word. Ditch. Gully, Valley, Chasm. Trench, as in the Marianas Trench. Yeah, that’s it.

(Note to potential employers: I’m speaking strictly about my own creative writing projects—my book, short stories, and the like.)

If you know me, then you know I hate the idea of writing something that looks like what anyone else has done that I’m basically copying their styles or ideas. This seriously handicaps my efforts right off the bat, but I’ve usually been able to write in my own voice enough and develop enough ideas that I could write or days.

Not so much right now. I know there are methods of sparking creativity: writing prompts, deadlines (yes Virginia, deadlines do spark creativity), reading what you wrote yesterday, setting the “mood” for writing, yada, yada, yada. And I have been doing those things. Well, trying to.

Lately, I’ve been working on gaming adventures. I found a neat tool for coming up with situations for simple role-playing situations. “The party must (insert task) for a (insert person) who wants to (insert accomplishment).” And it’s fun. The options for each are limited to 20 choices for each, with some descriptors (shiny, old, evil, etc.) to help flesh things out. No worries about decision paralysis here. But what I think is really beneficial to me as a writer is that I’m given the skeleton—as chaotic as it may turn out—and I have to fill in the details to make it something that other people might like to play. I create the why, the how, and the where to turn this kernel of an idea into a story.

Now, I would never think to use a tool like this for writing a short story or a novel. To me, those ideas have to originate in my own head so I can build my relationship with each character and understand how each beat leads to the ultimate conclusion. What this tool is doing for me, though, is forcing me to think about what happens in the spaces between each beat.

It is nice to have something that get some creative juices flowing. I am (im)patiently waiting for the juice to flow, but until that happens, I‘ll make do with what I got.

One last thing before I go. I recently bought a nice, clear protective case for my laptop. It’s less than a year old and a Mac, so it’s a significant investment. Plus, there’s no way I could afford to replace it. Anyway, along with the case came a keyboard skin to protect from spills, crumbs, etc. I’m using the skin right now, in fact. It’s great insofar as my keyboard is slightly more protected with it than without. But, and there’s always a “but,” for some reason my fingers cannot seem to find the right keys. Every time I hit the C key, I end up with a space instead. S’s turn into Z’s. And the arrow keys? Forget it. I don’t blame the skin as much as I blame the fat that with the skin, by fingers don’t feel the keys like they should. So now I’m debating: keep using the skin because I often have a beverage nearby, or remove the skin when I’m writing. Thoughts?