How to Avoid Exhausting Your Creativity Muscle

The #1 rule for an endless supply of writing ideas

I planned to start this article with an alarming statistic about the number of writers that experience writer’s block.

Naturally, I went to Google and did a quick search, thinking I’d easily find the results I was looking for.

Jeez, was I wrong?

After about an hour of scouring the interwebs (read: Google), I couldn’t find a single statistic about writer’s block. Nothing. Nada.

“What the heck? Not even a single stat?”, I thought to myself.

Then it hit me.

There aren’t any statistics on writer’s block because it’s just assumed that everyone has, or will, experience it.

Writer’s block is expected. Everyone knows (well, other than me) that at one point or another they’re going to struggle with finding ideas to write about.

Despite my lack of knowledge about the statistics, I‘m no stranger to experiencing writer’s block.

All too often I find myself staring at my computer, my mind as blank as the screen in front of me. With each blink of the cursor, another second passes, rubbing in my face what I already know. Eventually, I give in and close my laptop.

I’m guessing you know the feeling too. It happens, and it’s going to continue to happen.

Legendary playwright and novelist Paul Rudnick even says that writer’s block is an inevitable part of the creative process:

“Writing is 90 percent procrastination: reading magazines, eating cereal out of the box, watching infomercials. It’s a matter of doing everything you can to avoid writing, until it is about four in the morning and you reach the point where you have to write.”

-Paul Rudnick

While writer’s block unavoidable, we don’t have to just sit around and accept it, waiting for it to pass like a thunderstorm during a baseball game.

This simple, yet effective strategy has boosted my creativity ten-fold and created an endless supply of writing ideas, all without much effort on my end.

Here’s how you can do the same…

Set your intention

Ideas are a by-product of our intentions. Without intention there is no creativity.

Sometimes I’ll sit down to write just to get some words out of my head. Rather than intending to write a full piece, it’s more of an “eh, maybe I’ll post in a couple of days” approach. There’s little intention or strategy behind this kind of writing.

Conversely, when I intend to write (or post) every day, I’m forcing my brain to work behind-the-scenes to think and create ideas.

Whether you intend to write every day, every other day, or every week, it doesn’t matter. The key is setting a goal in the first place.

When you set a goal to write — you’re setting your intentions, and as a result, forcing your brain to subconsciously start searching for ways to achieve it.

The brain can do some incredible things — whether you like it or not. When you clearly set your intentions, you transform your brain into a superpower that will help you create more interesting writing topics and ideas.

Your brain then will work behind-the-scenes to connect dots in your life you didn’t even notice. Inevitably it will uncover something creative, unique, or helpful to write about, oftentimes without your conscious effort.

My goal is to write every day. While it doesn’t always happen, it’s still the goal that I’ve written down and strive towards. This is my intention.

After clearly defining my intention, my brain does the work for me, behind-the-scenes, and continues to generate ideas. It happens while running, while brushing my teeth, and even while I’m on the toilet.

Let me walk you through an example…

Yesterday was a crazy day at work, and when I finally logged off, the last thing I wanted to do was write. I was tired, mentally drained, and just wanted to decompress with some mind-numbing Netflix.

Nonetheless, I opened my laptop in a last-ditch effort to just write something. I stared at my blank screen for a few minutes before shutting it and calling it a day.

I wasn’t breaking through writer’s block today.

“Today’s just not my day”, I told myself in a fruitless effort to hold on to some semblance of pride.

The rest of my evening continued as normal — a quick run, dinner, then Netflix — and eventually came to an uneventful end.

As I was brushing my teeth before bed, an idea popped into my head like a mini creative explosion without even thinking about it.

Ah-Ha!

I had consciously given up on writing for the day, but my subconscious had other plans!

Like I said, “Ideas are a by-product of our intentions.”

I quickly spit out my toothpaste, grabbed my laptop, and wrote out everything that popped into my head. I wasn’t sure where it all came from but I didn’t want to stop to find out.

It was way past my normal bedtime, but I didn’t care. I took the time to write out every last thought that was graciously gifted to me.

Quickly, I re-read what just spilt out of my head onto the screen. It was perfect — short, concise, and honest.

Without hesitation, I posted it and went to sleep with a feeling of accomplishment and pride having completed another day of writing.

In about 20 minutes, I went from demoralized with a toothbrush in hand to proud and accomplished with a well-polished article.

When I woke up the next morning, not only did that “toothbrush masterpiece” get published in Runner’s Life, but it was also distributed by Medium’s curators in the topics Lifestyle and Fitness!

All this from simply setting the intention to write every day. Even when I consciously gave up on the day, my brain kept working behind-the-scenes, searching for ideas and inspiration.

The beauty of setting your intention is that your brain will work for you behind the scenes.

Even when writer’s block kicks in and you give up on yourself, your brain is still in the fight. It never stops getting back up. And it never stops swinging.

So set your intention for how often you want to write. And then take solace in knowing that your brain is on your side, like a mini “creative ninja” that has your back at all times.

Then, when the writer’s block inevitably kicks in, let your new sidekick (read: mini creative ninja) do the rest.

The brain is a powerful tool, you just have to tell it what to do and get out of the way.

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