Still No Eye Deer (or things to do when your imaginary friends refuse to talk to you)

still
no
eye
deer
(things to do
when your
imaginary friends
refuse to talk
to you)
Hannah Smith
Worderist.com

@hannah_bo_bannaWorderist.com
hello there!

I’ve previously worked at both Distilled & Verve Search, on teams that
collectively secured over 22,000 pieces of linked coverage

creating things like this:

A photo series in collaboration with people from 27 countries
“A fascinating glimpse into the lives of the people behind the camera,
and how ways of life vary around the world.”
~Ana Swanson, Washington Post

A series of illustrations of the Modernist architecture we’ve lost
“A lovely tribute to lost mid-century gems”
~Christopher Zara, Fast Company

What some of today’s most successful people would tell their younger selves
“An inspirational project”
~ Anna Papachristos, APLUS

now I’m a creative content consultant :)
you can find out more about me at worderist.com

since going out on my own last year,
creative block is something I’ve been
asked about a lot

hence my talk today...

first up, what is creative block?

when you have no ideas
AND
no idea what to do next

but what’s the opposite
of creative block?

when you’re in “flow”

what’s “flow”?

you know what to do
AND
you know how to do it
AND
you know you’re doing it well

you’re fully-immersed
AND
you’re enjoying what you’re doing

when work feels like play
AND
ideas come easily to you
(being in “flow”doesn’t feel like work, but you’re working really hard)

creative block
when you have no ideas
AND
“flow”
when work feels like play
AND
ideas come easily to you
how do you get from creative block to “flow”?

so, here’s the thing...

we often talk about creative block
as if it’s a specific, singular
concrete problem

but, I think that the truth is...

creative block is a catch-all term
for a whole bunch of
very different problems

the net result of all those
problems is the same

you feel hopelessly stuck

but if you want to unstick yourself
& get in “flow”

you need to figure out
what sort of creative block
you’re suffering from

you don’t know what to do
AND/OR
you don’t know how to do it
AND/OR
you think you’re “bad” at this
AND/OR
you’re constantly interrupted
AND/OR
you’re not enjoying what you’re doing
is one (or more) of these things the problem?

let’s deal with them each in turn

#1
do you know what to do?

without a clear goal it can be tough
to figure out where to begin

I often hear stuff like this:

“constraints FUEL creativity!”

this is sort
of true…
but it’s not
quite the
full story...

what fuels creativity
is striking a balance
between freedom & constraint

too many constraints limit possibilities
- there’s no space to play

too much freedom makes it hard to
figure out where to start

i) in some instances the creative brief
is the problem

a brief with too many constraints
can cause problems

“come up with creative ideas about
motorised window blinds”

that *might* be possible -
but it’s an incredibly restrictive brief

conversely, the absence of a brief,
or an overly open brief
can cause creative blocks

“this client is open to anything,
you have complete creative freedom,
WOOP!”

*something inside me dies*

it’s actually very difficult to come up
with workable ideas about “anything”

because where on earth do you start?

what should a creative brief contain?

as a minimum, I think you need:
- 5-10 sites where the client or company want coverage
- a list of topics they absolutely won’t entertain

stuff that’s nice to have:
- topics they are keen to explore*
- a bit about who they’re seeking to attract**
- some examples of content they wish they’d made
*this often goes awry - instead of topics, I frequently see product or service offerings listed here
**this can also be problematic; lots of companies target very broad audiences - sometimes this is helpful, but often it’s not

so, creative briefs can cause blocks

but sometimes the block is actually
in your head...

ii) mindset problems

sometimes we see limits
that aren’t really there…

in the past I’ve been asked to:

“come up with creative ideas for a
company that sells contact lenses”

“come up with creative ideas for
a vpn provider”

“come up with creative ideas for a
mattress review company”

on dark days, when I see only limits,
this is what I hear:

“come up with creative ideas
about contact lenses”

about vpns”

about mattress reviews”

but that’s not actually
what I’ve been asked to do

& thinking like that limits
me unnecessarily

contact lenses sight
vision
optical illusions
spot the ‘x’ puzzles
seeing jesus on a slice of toast
change blindness
colour blindness
how do people see the world?
optics
think ‘bigger’

privacy / data security
to bypass censorship
to access content (TV / music / gaming)
to get the best deals (money saving)
what do people use VPNs for?
rather than thinking about the product or service, think about why people use it

mattress bed
sex
sleep conditions
sleep problems
what happens if you don’t get enough sleep?
dreams / nightmares
babies / children / parents
relationships
sleep
snoring
pets
hygiene bed bugs
allergies
what’s connected to the product or service?

conversely...

sometimes the problem for me, is not
that I’m seeing only limits

the problem is I have too much freedom

some of my clients have been
open to creating content
around a huge array of topics:

I’ve had travel clients which are cool
with creating content around:
history, culture, language,
sport, food, drink, books, movies,
TV & more

sometimes I find myself flitting
from one topic to another, to another,
to another, to another, to another...

but not actually getting any
concrete ideas down

the range of possibilities
cause me to lack focus

so I set my own constraints
& focus on just one topic area
(I set a timer on my phone for 15 minutes - if I find myself thinking about another
topic I’ll jot down a quick note, but I won’t allow myself to disappear down an
unrelated rabbit hole during that time period)

constraints do NOT fuel creativity

but neither does unlimited freedom

“You have to set up the narrow parameters that you
work in, and then within those, give yourself just
enough room to be free and play.”
~ Trey Speegle,
mixed-media artist

some of this stuff can be solved for
with a balanced brief

but some of this stuff
you have to solve yourself
by altering either your mindset,
or your approach

#2
do you know how to do it?

there are a bunch of myths
about creativity

many
people
believe
that ideas
just come
to you

creativity is not the ability
to conjure ideas out of thin air

it’s part process
&
part practice

I think it’s really important to figure out a
creative process that works for you

& then continually practice,
and refine that process

I can’t tell you what will work for you

but I can share what works for me
right now
(through practice my process has evolved over time, and I fully expect it to further evolve in the future)

for me, it’s a 3 stage process

inspiration, generation, & validation

inspiration
what’s out there?
what excites me?
what sparks my curiosity?

Specific to the client or company sector…
- What are journalists are writing about?
- Why are they writing that stuff?
- What seems to be shared a lot?
- Why is that being shared?
- What’s resonating?
- What are competitors doing?
- What seems to be working?
- Why is that working?
- Data sources
- What’s publicly available?

buzzsumo, ahrefs, pinterest, google

I’ll also look at my own swipe file...

generation
(or making connections)

Specific to the client or company sector…
- What can we do which will feed into what journalists are writing about?
- What could we do around the most resonant topics?
- Is there something a competitor has done which we could do better?
- Or do differently?
- Is there anything we could do with a public data source?
- Is there a way we could get data that isn’t readily available right now?

Broader stuff…
- Is there a topic which resonates with me, which I could explore within this
space?
- Is there something that’s been created in a totally unrelated field which I
could apply here?

validation
is this possible?
does this make sense?
what’s new or different?

Specific to an idea I’ve generated…
- Is this possible?
- Has this been done before?
- What’s new or different?
- What evidence do I have that this will resonate?
- Is this right for the client or company?
- Is this on-brief?

but that process isn’t always
strictly linear

sometimes I jump quickly back and forth
between inspiration & generation

sometimes I’ll jump from
inspiration to generation to validation
for a single idea

other times I’ll just seek inspiration
& leave generation for another day

sometimes I’ll generate 20 ideas
before validating anything

sometimes, the process of generation
will lead me to seek further inspiration

sometimes when I’m validating one
idea, it’ll spark a totally new one

I need to let myself play
in each of these spaces
in whatever capacity seems to be working for me that day

I can jump around however I want

but I still need to be mindful
of potential blocks

too much inspiration:
I can get overwhelmed, unfocused
& ultimately blocked

generation without inspiration
often leads to a block
(because there’s not enough there for me to make connections)

validation when I’m in the wrong
mindset can lead to blocks
(I reject all of my ideas)

having a process won’t
solve all your problems

but it helps

& in my experience following a process
yields more reliable results
than sitting around trying to
conjure ideas out of thin air

#3 do you think you’re “bad” at this?

in this industry,
we share our most successful
content pieces

the trouble is, because we only share our successes
we are inadvertently
presenting a skewed version of reality

you only see other people’s
‘good’ ideas

their ‘bad’ ideas
are invisible
(partly because they’re not shared, but mainly
because they don’t get coverage)

as a result, I hear stuff like this a lot:

people tell me that when they compare their own work to that of others,
they feel like they’re coming up short...
that other people are ‘better’
at this than they are

it’s important to remember
that you are not comparing
yourself or your work to reality

you are comparing your
whole body of work
(i.e. all the successes and failures)
to only the most successful
work of others

the pieces I’ve shared are outliers:
they probably represent less than 10%
of the work I’ve done

more on this here:
https://worderist.com/2019/09/09/skewing-reality/

nevertheless,
if you do find yourself in a place like this
(you’re thinking you’re ‘bad’ at this)

#1
build yourself up

remind yourself of successful work
you’ve done before

we have a tendency to remember
failure & forget success

then...

#2
spend 5 minutes coming up with the
worst ideas you possibly can

can you flip them into something good?

or

#3
do a creative exercise

#4 are you being constantly
interrupted?

constant interruptions break
your “flow”

[when you’re interrupted]
“...it takes an average of 23 minutes
to get back to the task”
~Gloria Mark, Professor at the University of California

don’t allow yourself to be interrupted

& don’t interrupt yourself

close your email

close your social media accounts

close slack
(or whatever poisonous communication / project management tool you use)

disable all notifications

put your phone on flight mode

if you work somewhere where you’re
constantly interrupted leave that space
(I’m not suggesting you quit your job, but go work in a cafe, a library, from home
- anywhere where you can limit those interruptions)

#5 you’re not enjoying what
you’re doing

this is a really tough one
to unpick

here are some
things I’ve struggled with:

#1 are you working in a way
that doesn’t work for you?

time

do you know how long it takes you to
come up with a set of ideas?

you really need to know

if you don’t know, you can’t schedule
your time effectively

use toggl (or similar) to track your time
over several rounds of ideation

figure out how long it typically takes you

over time, I’ve figured out that it takes
me around 17 hours
for each round of ideation

in 17 hours I can come up
with 4-6 workable ideas

sometimes I’m faster,
sometimes I’m slower

but if I give myself less than 17 hours
my output isn’t as good
(that might mean fewer ideas, or lower quality ideas)

the other thing I’ve noticed,
is that when I do the work
seems to be important

I do my best work between
6am - 9:30am

so if I’m coming up with a set of ideas
I try to schedule that work over 5 days
between 6am - 9:30am

space

your brain is amazing

it goes on working without you
realising it

you might have experienced
this yourself

an idea that seemingly comes to you
out of nowhere

when you’re in the shower

or when you’re out for a walk

or cooking dinner

you weren’t trying to come up
with an idea

or even consciously thinking about it

it just “appeared”

I think you can game the system a little

when I do creative work like ideation in
small bursts over five days

I have way more of these instances
when ideas “appear”

if I concentrate those 17 hours of work
over just 2 days

most of the time,
none of those ideas
just “appear”

I suspect it’s because I’m not giving
myself enough space

try changing up your routine a little

see if more ideas just “appear”

solo vs team working

I don’t play nicely with others

I am a solitary person

I do my best work alone

that’s not true for everyone -
some people work best in team

to come up with ideas
they need other people to bounce off

it’s important to figure out not just when
you do your best work, but how

possibly you’ll work best with a
combination e.g.
inspiration - on your own
generation - with others

or
inspiration - on your own
generation - on your own
validation - with others

again, I think it’s important to
figure this stuff out so you can
schedule your work appropriately

but, maybe this isn’t the problem...

#2 is pressure the problem?

coming up with creative ideas
in a commercial environment
is high pressure

there are deadlines

people are relying on you to deliver

your job, or other people’s jobs
might actually be on the line

that is a really heavy load to carry

I’m increasingly of the belief that
my best work happens when
I’m playing

for me, “flow” is not so much about
work feeling like play

“flow” happens only when
I’m able to play

when I’m relaxed, open, & curious

but it’s very difficult for me to feel
relaxed, open, or curious
when I feel under pressure

I frequently find deadlines paralysing

as I approach a deadline,
this often happens:

I have no ideas
AND
AND
no time to do anything

my mind is stuck in an
interminable loop...

“there’s no time, there’s no time, there’s no time, there’s no time, there’s no time,
there’s no time, there’s no time, there’s no time, there’s no time,
there’s no time, there’s no time, there’s no time,
there’s no time, there’s no time,
there’s no time…”

I’m not able to think clearly,
& play is the furthest thing from my mind

& if I remain stuck in this mindset
it’s extremely unlikely that I’ll
come up with anything workable

so I try to flip my mindset

here’s some things I do:

#1 sit with the feeling

someone once told me that a feeling
lasts for a maximum of one minute,
unless you feed it

stuff like this:

feeds negative feelings

take a minute to sit with the
negative feeling,
but don’t feed it - just accept it

you may find it will quickly pass

#2 write it out

give yourself two minutes
to write down all of the
things that will happen if you don’t
deliver those ideas

now read those things back

if you’ve gone hard on this exercise & imagined the apocalypse
ask yourself:
is that really what’s going to happen?

probably not, right?

if your list is less than apocalyptic...
hopefully it’ll give you some perspective

just a gentle reminder:

we’re not working in
a life or death environment
(even though it might feel like it sometimes)

#3 go outside

get away from your desk &
go outside for 10 minutes

sometimes I find just getting up and
moving is enough to shake off a
negative mindset like this

once you’ve done one
(or more) of those things

force yourself to play

often I find a completely unrelated
creative exercise works better
(than a creative exercise directly related to whatever I’m working on)

I find that spending a few minutes doing
something like that
often puts me back in “flow”

#3 are you feeling a more general sense
of discontent?

is this work just not satisfying you
in the way you thought it would?

I can definitely relate

solution: make things just for you

it took me a long time to realise that I
needed to make things for myself

that having a creative job
was not enough

client-work is often fulfilling

but there are frequently compromises
that have to be made

& rarely is it the case that I get to
make whatever I want

so now I make stuff just for me

this stuff is deliberately not
a side-hustle

it’s stuff that I’m extremely unlikely
to be able to
monetise effectively

& that’s the point

it’s an outlet that exists only for me

I’d strongly encourage you to consider
whether or not this is something
you need too

it’s almost time to wrap this thing up...

next time you’re feeling blocked

you don’t know what to do
AND/OR
you don’t know how to do it
AND/OR
you think you’re “bad” at this
AND/OR
you’re constantly interrupted
AND/OR
you’re not enjoying what you’re doing
ask yourself if one (or more) of these things is the problem:

internal blocks
self-inflicted constraints
(seeing limits which aren’t there)
OR
too many possibilities;
not enough focus
external blocks
brief is too constrained
OR
brief is too open
do you know what to do?
constraints don’t fuel creativity; but neither does unbounded freedom...
we need balance

inspiration
what’s out there?
what excites me?
what sparks my curiosity?
do you know how to do it?
creativity is not the ability to conjure ideas out of thin air…
it’s process & practice
generation
making connections
validation
is this possible?
does this make sense?
what’s new or different?

other people’s ‘bad’ ideas are
invisible
you are not comparing yourself or
your work to reality
do you think you’re ‘bad’ at this?
remember: you only see other people’s ‘good’ ideas

shut down *all* interruptions
close email, slack, social media,
etc
put your phone on flight mode
work somewhere else if you
need to
are you constantly interrupted (or interrupting yourself)?
when you’re interrupted, it takes an average of 23 minutes to get back on track

are you trying to work in a way
that doesn’t work for you?
time
space
solo vs team work
are you not enjoying what you’re doing?
to do good creative work, you need to be in a good place
is pressure the problem?
remember:
we’re not working in a life or
death environment
is your work not satisfying you in
the way you thought it would?
make things just for you

final thoughts

I am definitely not at the point where
I’m consistently in “flow”

I have days when
work feels like play
& ideas come easily

but I also have days when creative work
feels like pushing water up a hill

an endless soul-crushing grind

even though
I know what I need to do
to get in “flow”

I can’t always get there

but I think that something
“good” is happening

even on those “bad” days

because it’s often the case
that the following day...

when I review what
I’ve done

I can see tonnes of possibilities

& a “good” day
(where work feels like play & ideas come easily)
often follows a “bad” one

thoughts, feelings, questions?
AMA :)
Hannah Smith
Creative Content Consultant
wanna hire me?
drop me an email - hannah@worderist.com

Still No Eye Deer (or things to do when your imaginary friends refuse to talk to you)

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