Creativity unblocked 💡
This newsletter is more interesting than your blank page
We’ve all had a stare-off with The Blank Page. The empty doc, sketchpad, timeline. You refresh your inbox. Scroll. Snack. And still? Nothing. Maybe your ideas went up in the flames of burnout. Maybe they stole away when you started comparing them to others.
When creativity is your currency, a rut feels like quicksand – the more you struggle, the deeper you sink. But the deadline! Clients! The existential dread of proving your human ingenuity when AI spits out 100 ideas in seconds! The pressure to be brilliant on demand can be paralysing.
But here’s the thing: ideas don’t follow orders. We can’t schedule a 💡 LIGHTBULB MOMENT 💡for 3 pm next Tuesday. Creativity is a nebulous beast. You have to tune into it, let go, chase it, ignore it and trust it will come back.
It’s why the creative process is hard to pin down. It’s also why we know getting stuck is very much part of that process. Instead of fearing creative blocks, we need to work through them, around them, with them. Sometimes that means failing loudly. Sometimes that means box-breathing, running, folding laundry or hacking your brain in ways that don’t make sense… until they do.
Here are some techniques we’ve tried, tested and borrowed from our very creative pals. Please share yours!
Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell me about it.
I wonder how often Mary Oliver got creative block?** If you’re looking at the same sources, from the same desk, surrounded by the same people, you’re never going to think differently. Look around to art, science, the Traitors final, to anywhere but your industry. At Sonder, we share our rabbit holes on our ‘Vortex’ Slack channel (the namesake of our links section at the end of this letter). Things like this piece on the microscopic structure of dried tears or a Reddit thread about the longest lies ever told.
Let your mind wander
Rishi Dastidar – poet, copywriter and brand strategist
“I use the oldest trick in the book – I go for a walk. Ideally, it’ll be to somewhere I haven’t been before – a new perspective and all that. But if time won’t allow for that, the very act of putting foot in front of foot seems to loosen something up in my brain for me, means I can make even one connection – and that’s enough to get the pen moving again.”
👉 Try this: Walking meetings. Whisking your inner artist on a creative date (as Julia Cameron suggests in The Artist’s Way). Or do like Murakami and run until the idea finds you.
… and think with your hands.
Fia Townshend – Copy Director, Ragged Edge
“Have you heard of bilateral brain activation? To my small and unscientific understanding, it’s an activity that uses both hands. Could be something active like climbing, mundane as folding washing or just clapping or swinging your arms (must try in studio).
“Technically, these motor tasks involve more brain regions and higher neural activation than, say, sitting at your desk. They put you in a state of relaxation, help you process information and I’ve honestly found that doing them can shake loose something I’ve been stuck on.
“I can imagine it also helps to be a healthy distance from your phone or laptop.”
Hack your idea generation
Need an idea RIGHT NOW? There are tricks for that. When all else fails, there are hundreds of tools and techniques for mining ideas – from Brian Eno’s Oblique Strategies card deck to the perspective-shifting ‘six hats method’. We’re big fans of borrowing improv techniques: try A-to-C association (hear “sand”, think “rock”, say “Rolling Stones”), or the ‘yes and…’ way of collaboration – accepting ideas and building on them.
Make one thing you LOVE
Emma Quigley – founder, Belief Machines
“… even if it feels like the least important element of what you’re working on. Having a teeny thing that gives you the *feeling* often unlocks the bigger picture.”
Start offline… and roll your sleeves up with others
Tom Finn – co-founder, Regular Practice
“We start most projects pulling books off the shelf. There have been many times, post tricky meeting, that books have guided an internal conversation or led us to a route forward. The internet has too much finite feeling work that makes it hard to not just choose a quick resolution, rather than a good or interesting idea to build from.
“The way we run our projects at Regular Practice is also collaborative: everyone works on one big Figma board, so by nature the ability to jump around means if something is not working either someone else can build into it or everyone can talk about it in a fairly informal way.”
Empty your stress bucket
Ettie Bailey-King – inclusive and accessible communication educator, Fighting Talk
“We talk about creativity as though it's conjuring stuff out of nowhere, but in reality, creativity is just making connections – finding them or crafting them. When I'm particularly stressed (literally always) I get into fight or flight mode, and I don’t see the big picture. Everything’s a problem to be solved. How do I get rid of it? How do I ping it away?
“But when I'm calm, things have enough white space around them that I can let them dance off each other. I hear more depth in what people are saying. It’s hard to make connections when you’re stressed. So if you’re agonizing over getting, say, a piece of writing done… can you just do some fucking breathing?”
Breathe in the box, think out of it
We did in fact do some breathwork this week, with our client Fashion Snoops’ Curious Creators community. The technique – now scribbled in my diary – helps the rational, analytical mind fall away, while we tap into a calmer, more intuitive creative mindset.
💡Speaking of biohacks: Salvador Dalí napped with a key in hand, waking the moment it clattered to the floor – catching ideas mid-dream.
Have shit ideas
Waiting for a stroke of genius is like expecting to find the love of your life rotting in your PJs on the sofa. Get moving. Dan Nelken leans into 100mph thinking: write 30 ideas in 15 minutes. No time to overthink: this is about speed, not perfection. Crap ideas are fertiliser for the good, he writes. Do your worst, and you’ll get to great quicker.
Keep shit ideas
Ever written something down, dismissed it, and then months later thought: Wait… was that actually good? Bank those unfinished, discarded, wouldn’t-show-it-to-my-mum ideas. Future you might find the gold.
Feed your creative block
This one was physically debilitating. A real vision blocker. If your creative nemesis has also manifested in feline form, hiding treats around the living room helps.
The Vortex
DING DONG THE BIG REVEAL IS DEAD! Pack up your inner perfectionist, we’re seeking feedback and being open to criticism. A creative problem shared is a creative problem solved.
The anterior cingulate cortex – that’s the part of the brain you need to tickle for an ‘aha’ moment. Here’s how.
These two books are dogearred on our desks: A Self-Help Guide for Copywriters by Dan Nelken, and Austin Kleon’s Steal Like an Artist.
And on our virtual desks: the 2025 Creative Playbook by Recess “a big ol’ FU to gatekeeping on our minds.” There are THOUSANDS of tools, links and tips in here, it’s m.i.n.d.b.l.o.w.i.n.g.
**And yes, Mary Oliver wrangled with creative ideas too, see:
This reminded me of a Tiktok Blossoms did the other day about how they created their song with CMAT, and it was that they rented an airbnb in Wales and started reading random sentences from books until they found one that they could riff on!