5 Unorthodox Writing Tips That No One Talks About

Creativity can find you in the most unlikely of places

We’ve all been there. Staring blankly at the blankest of pages, pen yawning to proverbial paper, yet not quite reaching it. That accursed first line, defiant against its own actualization.

And you sit. Waiting. The thick emptiness of the page growing, as if emptiness could take up space.

Eureka Moments are Dead. Or Dying. Or Maybe Just Overrated.

That’s what we’re all hoping for, right? When we’re sitting in front of a blank page? That lightning strike of an idea that flips a switch in our brain, and suddenly all the pieces fit together and the next thing you know, you’ve written the next Great American Novel.

I hate to be the one to break it to you, but the “Eureka” method won’t get you very far because it’s not something you can cultivate. It may happen, sure. But why wait for rain to nourish the garden, when you can pull out the watering hose yourself?

The activities you bring into your daily life can be laterally conducive to your writing. It’s time to start making those regular, mindful choices that spark creativity, flood the writer’s-block-levee, and end the drought of ideas.

5 Creativity-Boosting Activities That All Writers Should Try

1. Stop Writing

Most articles boasting tips to become a better writer will tell you, behind their too-wide, salesman smile: Write much, and read often. Now read my article to be a better writer.

It’s good advice, don’t get me wrong. To improve any skill, practice is the keyword.

Just don’t force it.

When you’re stuck in a drought of ideas, when nothing is materializing on the page, when the most profound thing you’ve written in the last two days has amounted to a couple of bullet points and an anomalous question mark —

Walk away. Take a break. Grab a coffee. Or better yet, try one of the activities below.

2. Take Up a Manual Hobby

Many neurodivergent individuals find that sensory activities help to calm their nerves when they’re overwhelmed.

Psychic mediums lean on automatic writing as a means to the divine, as it quiets the conscious mind and channels subconscious processes.

There’s something to be said about the mind-body connection. The physical and mental realms tend to work in opposites.

When the physical body is idle, the mind runs rampant. When the body is in motion, the tightly-wound knots of the mind can loosen.

And creativity has room to creep back in.

Try knitting. Painting. Calligraphy. Hell, try a puzzle. Gardening. Cooking. Pick your poison.

Bring your conscious attention to the physicality of the activity to release the pressure build-up in your creative mind.

3. Practice Meditation

No, it’s not all hokey-pokey New Age spiritualism.

Meditation is a historically-proven practice of allowing things to be as they are.

Sit with your overwhelm. Welcome your writer’s block. Let it come. And watch it pass.

Matching this mindfulness practice with breathwork, or pranayama in sanskrit, can help you visualize the work you are doing, giving your mind something to cling to in the physical stillness (remember that idea of the opposing mind-body connection?).

Breathe in positivity, openness, creativity; breathe out negativity, obscurity, rigidity.

For writers, this is an especially important activity. Too often we are caught in the super-charged highways of storylines and idea generation that we are more focused on force than acceptance.

Let the ideas come naturally. And if they don’t, please refer to Tip #1.

4. Play Video Games

Video games have evolved from the one-dimensional “shoot-em-ups” and “choose-your-fighters” that many of us outside the gaming community find them to be.

There are still plenty that fall into the category of the mind-numbing, my-hand-is-glued-the-controller-because-capitalist-America-has-a-tight-grip-on-my-nether-regions-and-my-wallet, type of games.

However, if you do your research, you can find games that build dynamic, living environments with characters and stories that stick with you forever. And they’re masterfully poised as some of the greater pieces of modern writing.

I’ve found endless inspiration from the world of video games. Sinking into the story in the same way I’d snuggle up next to a good book, mentally sticky-noting the techniques that I could bring into my own writing.

Need tips on world-building? Play Mass Effect.

Want to nurture deep connections to your characters? Play Red Dead Redemption 2.

Looking for a creative way to convey emotion? Play Life is Strange: True Colors.

5. Discover Shinrin-Yoku (Forest Bathing)

The Japanese practice of forest bathing is more than a simple stroll through nature to clear your head.

Shinrin-yoku is a conscious connection to your natural surroundings, mindfully noting your experience through your five senses.

Walk down a familiar path, whether it be in a forest or a nearby concrete jungle. Focus your attention on the small details, the things that you see everyday but never really notice.

Smells, sounds, sights, feelings. I don’t recommend tasting anything unless you’re sure it’s edible, but I won’t stop you.

It is our job as writers to appreciate the minute and maximize it in our work. You may discover the beauty of the mundane, or just a deeper sense of the mundane within the mundane.

Whatever it may be, let that feeling sink its teeth into your creative process and allow it bleed into your writing.

Do Your Due Diligence as a Writer

A writer’s job goes beyond simply writing.

If you’ve read any of my other work (like this article on the complexity of being a writer, or this one about my strong opinions on Grammarly), you’ll know that I’m passionate about our role, its perception and its expansion.

We are called to do more than put words on a page. Writing brings power to both reader and writer alike.

If you want to write, are you willing to take the time to look at the world — really look at it, cradle its face between your palms, understand its pain, joy, anger, apathy — and translate it through an idea that readers can digest?

Are you capable of firing Chekhov’s gun if you’ve already hung it on the wall?

Can you simultaneously appease your reader’s expectations and plant the seeds of revolution that they never asked for, yet welcome in the end?

I’ll end with Tip #6: Carefully contemplate your position as a writer, and what you are willing to sacrifice for the craft.

Hi friends, thanks for making it to the end. I hope you learned something about yourself.

Check out my page to learn more about me and my writing.

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