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Getting Unstuck from a Creative Rut

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Do you ever feel like your wheels are spinning, but you’re not moving forward?

As a missionary in Flagstaff, AZ, my companion and I literally got our truck stuck in a rut on a very narrow dirt road. I remember the panicked feeling of being trapped and not knowing how we would get home. It took some time, a dozen or so prayers, and a lot of trial and error. Finally, using some very handy sticks for traction and a lot of oomph, we managed to get our truck unstuck.

This experience has never left me, and I think of it often when I’m mentally stuck in a rut, spinning my wheels with no progress, despite pressing the gas again and again. Personally, I don’t believe in writer’s block. I’m always able to put words on a page, even if they aren’t very good words. But, having struggled with motivation for certain projects, I do believe in creative ruts. Over the years, I’ve acquired a few useful tools that help me get unstuck. Here are five tips to help you get out of your own artistic ruts.

Co-Create with Body Doubling

I have a confession to make: I hate revisions. People who know me might raise their eyebrows. “But aren’t you an editor?” Well, yes. But I don’t hate revising other people’s stories—I hate revising my own. Without fail, I hit a wall. All the self-doubt I kept at bay while drafting comes sneaking in, mocking me and making me question all my writing choices. So to avoid that, I simply don’t start the revisions.

This avoidance, however, has proven to be a major problem because it prevents me from making progress on any of my stories.

I came up with an idea to help me with this particular rut. I invited several of my writing friends to hop on a Zoom call with me and just write for an hour. To my relief (and my story’s benefit), I discovered that having someone present while I wrote helped me overcome my motivation slump and actually start revising. I made my way through the murky fog of revision and emerged on the other side better for it.

I still meet with writer friends every week for scheduled writing time, which has had a huge impact on my writing and revising. If you haven’t tried this, I highly recommend it. Having someone on a Zoom call with you makes it a lot harder to get sucked into distractions because you have a witness to your efforts and an accountability partner to return and report your progress to.

Create in a Different Location

Another tool that can help you get out of your creative rut is to change your location. On my bad mental health days, I’ve found that simply getting out of my usual space helps me get out of my head. I’ll go to the library or a local park and just enjoy the world around me. Notebooks and sketchbooks are handy tools for alternate locations. Being somewhere new can spark ideas you wouldn’t have otherwise thought of. If you’ve been tapping the same artistic vein nonstop for weeks, months, or even years in the same location, try changing it up. You might find some new ideas to help you work through whatever is keeping you in that rut.

Explore a Different Medium

I don’t consider myself an artist, at least not in the traditional sense. I have some talent in painting, but my people always look like stick figures. However, when my creativity is running low and I’m struggling to make sense of my story, switching things up by painting or sketching can be therapeutic. It allows me to experiment without the pressure of forcing myself to write. Painting especially helps me want to write more.

Try this out for yourself: if you’re a painter, maybe try writing a poem. (See this article about poetry.) If you’re a writer, try painting or knitting. If you’re a musician, try cooking or cross-stitching. Put yourself in a different medium to get the creative juices flowing. You never know when the perfect idea will strike—it might be while you’re learning to make the perfect crème brûlée.

Change Up the Format

Another tool that’s helped me break out of my rut is changing up the format. Most of my writing is done on my desktop computer. However, there are days when I sit at my keyboard and can’t bring myself to write. I’ll check my email for the thousandth time or watch yet another short on YouTube, but completely neglect the project I want to be working on.

This is where changing up the format comes into play. When I was a kid, I did most of my writing by hand—I have dozens of notebooks and journals to prove it. I still handwrite in my journal, but I rarely do so for stories anymore. Recently, my work-in-progress was being difficult, and my motivation was extremely lacking. On a whim, I put pen to paper in a blank notebook. To my surprise, I wrote seven-and-a-half pages in one session. I’d gotten myself out of the rut simply by changing how I wrote.

Try experimenting with different formats. If you’re a composer who uses MuseScore, try composing by hand. If you’re a painter who mostly uses oil, try watercolors. If you’re a digital artist, sketch something on paper. Writers, try writing by hand or typewriter. The novel format will help you find new pathways forward.

Follow Prompts

What if you’ve tried it all and you are still struggling to get unstuck? Not to worry, my friends, I’ve got one more trick up my sleeve. Despite trying some of the tools mentioned above, I may still find myself completely and utterly unmotivated, uninspired, and unexcited about working on any of my projects.

This is where prompts come in handy. Sometimes the scariest thing about starting a new project is just knowing where to start. Having constraints, such as “paint a picture with only primary colors,” “write a short story featuring a hamster, a poncho, and a hammer,” or “write a poem using only words that start with the letter ‘A’” can prime the pump. Constraints actually allow for more creativity because they force your brain to work within a set of defined parameters, and they give you a firm launch point.

There are countless free prompts available online for all sorts of art. These can include prompts to write short stories with a specific setting, character, or genre; create a song in a certain key, time signature, or rhythm; paint something that starts with the letter “R” or only with black and yellow pigments; and plenty more. Let your muse take over and turn that blank page into an answer to the prompt.

Creating is hard and can take a lot of energy. You’re bound to find yourself in a rut now and then when you work the same way over and over again. My hope is that these five tools will help you find the traction you need to get unstuck and get back to doing what you do best—inspiring others through your art.

A headshot of KaTrina Jackson.

KaTrina Jackson

Author, Editor

KaTrina Jackson loves penguins, chocolate, and piano music, and spends much of each day trying to fit those loves in around her jobs as a freelance editor and a project manager for Eschler Editing. She graduated with a degree in editing and publishing from Brigham Young University. She’s a member of three different writing groups, attends and teaches at multiple writing conferences, has volunteered with LDSPMA since 2021, and recently published her first novel. When she’s not writing, editing, or reading, she can be found practicing yoga, teaching piano lessons, or watching Disney movies while working on a cross-stitch project. She and her husband live in Olathe, Kansas.

    Sprint Writing for the Win

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    As a writer, I have so many stories I want to share with the world, but I also have time constraints. I’m a wife, a mother to ten, and a nana to thirteen. I currently serve as a seminary teacher, so I devote a lot of time to reading, researching, pondering, and preparing lessons. Then there’s personal scripture study, temple attendance, school activities, community service, sporting events, and family gatherings. And then I try to exercise, cook, do laundry, shop for groceries, and stay on top of cleaning my house. Some days, it feels like I need at least fifty hours to accomplish everything.

    So, what’s to be done about all the stories I want to write? I have notebooks filled with ideas, bits of dialogue, characters, and plot pieces. Trying to find time to create worlds and fill them with realistic, compelling characters can feel daunting, if not impossible, with so many other things to do.

    There is no one-size-fits-all for writing a novel—or any book, for that matter. We all must figure out what works for us. Once we do this, we can use our allotted time in the best way possible to produce the books that reside in our hearts and heads to fulfill our innate desires to share and create. As Elder Uchtdorf says, “The desire to create is one of the deepest yearnings of the human soul. No matter our talents, education, backgrounds, or abilities, we each have an inherent wish to create something that did not exist before.”

    I like to have a general idea of the plot and characters in my novel before I start writing. I’m a planner because I feel it saves time when I sit down to write. Even with advance planning, I’ve sometimes found it difficult to meet my word count goal, especially when I’m running from one activity to another.

    Sprinting

    During PE back in the day, I would audibly groan when the teacher told us we’d be running, especially if we were racing. Running fast, or sprinting, never appealed to me. Though I enjoyed sports, running wasn’t my vibe—and still isn’t.

    When I heard about sprint writing, I was intrigued. I’d never considered the idea of combining something I loved (writing) with something I loathed (sprinting).

    Applying sprinting to writing required suspending my disbelief. Writing fast appealed to me abstractly, but concretely, I didn’t believe it was possible.

    Until I tried it.

    Once I discovered sprinting, everything changed. I found that some days I could get 3000 words or more in an hour, broken into blocks.

    How Sprinting Works

    The idea behind sprint writing is to write as many words as quickly as possible.

    The first step is to determine the amount of time you want to sprint. I prefer twenty minutes because I feel like that is manageable—I can do anything for twenty minutes. Fifteen or thirty minutes may work better for you. Experiment until you find your magic number, but don’t go beyond thirty, or writing fatigue may set in before the timer goes off.

    Next, set up a document or spreadsheet to track your sprints. Include the time of day, how many minutes you spent writing, word count, and running word count for the novel (it’s a great feeling to see the word count continue to increase). Knowing these details will help you see when you are most productive and can give you motivation to keep going. Try to plan your sprinting sessions for when you are most productive and your creativity is flowing.

    Now it’s time to sit down and write. I like to do a little pre-writing so I know what scenes I’ll be working on. For me, this usually involves thinking about where I want the story to go for that particular writing session. I write a lot in my head while I do dishes, take a shower, fold laundry, or run errands. Sometimes I’ll jot down a few notes or even a paragraph before I start sprinting. If it’s been a few days, I’ll review the last couple of pages to get back in the flow of the story. If you are a discovery writer, skip this step or modify it.

    Try to eliminate distractions. Consider leaving your phone in another room if it will distract you. Turn off the TV, use the bathroom, get a snack for your child, and make sure you’re in comfy clothes and do all you can to “get in the zone.”

    Set a timer (on your phone if you must) and write. Don’t edit or worry about details. Just write. Allow yourself to get as many words down as you can. Write whatever falls out of your brain without any judgment. Think of this as the “word vomit” step while your inner editor is bound and gagged in another room. Honestly, the words may not be great—some may even be awful—but you can always edit words on the page. You cannot edit empty space.

    Once the timer goes off, stop writing. Get up, take a walk, do an errand, eat a snack, make a phone call, play a game with your child—whatever you need to do.

    Repeat this process as often as you can throughout the day. I’ve found that three times is the sweet spot for me. I can generally write 1000 words in twenty minutes if I’m using the sprinting technique. However, I absolutely cannot write 3000 words if I sit and try to write for a solid hour. Go figure.

    I’ve found that sprint writing has helped me focus on my writing and use my time much more wisely. As I’ve practiced sprinting, I’ve been able to strengthen my writing muscles, and the more I sprint, the more words I can write in my time block.

    Here’s a recap:

    • Do some pre-writing if needed          
    • Eliminate distractions    
    • Set a timer for 20 minutes (or a time block you feel would work best)    
    • Write, write, write—no editing and no judgment    
    • When the timer goes off, go do something else    
    • Repeat

    Try it for a week or two and see if it helps you increase your word count. You might be surprised by how many more words you can write in a day. The trick is to find what works for you. Maybe sprinting won’t be your thing, but it sure is fun to try!

    Headshot of Rebecca Talley.

    Rebecca Talley

    Rebecca Talley is the mom of ten children and nana of thirteen of the world’s most adorable grandkids. She lives with her family and her husband, Del, in Houston, TX, where she tries to avoid the heat and humidity by living in the pool.

    She has published thirteen novels/novellas, a children’s picture book, a chapter book, a writing resource guide, and numerous children’s stories and articles for both online and print magazines. When she isn’t writing, Rebecca likes to date her husband, play with her kids and grandkids, swim in the ocean, crochet, and dance to disco music while she cleans the house.

    You can find Rebecca’s websites here and here.