In a recent email from Death to the Stock Photo (content creators, check this out if you haven't) they challenged subscribers with a prompt: How do you give yourself the space necessary to create?

Creativity is very important to me. It's very fulfilling to create something that makes me giddy on the inside, come up with a valuable idea or put together a finished piece that feels solid and meaningful. Doing these things also tends to generate more inspiration, and so the cycle continues.

But a lot of times the start doesn't come easily.

There are plenty of instances where I want to move forward on a project but don't have any ideas, feel tied to one seat, staring at a wall and no words are coming or don't feel excited enough about a project that I need to get going on. I'm deadline driven, so that helps keep me motivated to finish, but what do you do when the ideas/words/next steps don't magically appear? I'm still perfecting the art of spiking the creative juices, but here are a few ideas that will generally get me going.

» TURN OFF THE TV

I can't tell you how many times I sit down, turn the TV on for some background noise and completely space out on the task in front of me. It's not that I'm distracted by the show (though sometimes that's the case), but somehow having the TV on pulls my focus just enough that I can't hone in on one task. That's when I'll tend to flip from TV to Instagram to reading blogs and back to my task at hand - ultimately not being productive with any one thing. Before I know it, 3 hours have passed and I have nothing to show.

Turning off noise, whether it's a show, music or anything else (even the dishwasher), helps me to hear what I'm thinking.  If that sounds strange, just try it. Write a blog or journal with the TV on, then write another separate entry with it off. Take a look at the differences between the two.

I do know people that thrive during noisy situations, so take this with a grain of salt, but this small test might be useful if for nothing else than to compare the outcomes.

» GET OUTSIDE 

This one sounds cliche, but it works for me. Going outside to walk around and pay attention to sensory details somehow seems to grease the wheels and rejuvenate my drive. It may be a walk to the mailbox or a three-hour run, but putting on shoes is always the first step.

» JUST DO IT

No, this isn't a Nike plug.

Simply beginning the task and playing around with whatever you're doing will always steer me in a direction - even one that I may not have thought of before. For example, if photography is the task, I start taking pictures. All the pictures. A study of my subject from every possible angle in a variety of settings may help me to find an angle and a feeling I didn't even know was possible to begin with.

» PHONE/MEET A FRIEND

Sometimes all I need is a good brainstorm session. And sometimes all I need is to talk about something entirely off topic. Either way, bouncing ideas off a friend, talking about something frivolous or getting into a deep conversation takes my mind out of the rut it's in and wraps it around a different perspective. It might be one sentence they say that sends me off in an entirely new direction. Plus, if I haven't been around people in a while, being social is very uplifting.

Creativity is unique to each person and also depends a lot on personality type, so there's no one answer for everyone. I also believe that with anything, the more you do it, the easier it becomes, so in my opinion, the most important piece of being creative is just to get started.