Finding inspiration
How can I find inspiration?
The best way to stay in a creative hole is to do nothing. If you want to find inspiration, get out and force yourself to create something. I can’t count the number of times I’ve found myself down and spinning the creative wheels for days, sometimes weeks. The longer you let it go on, the harder it is to get out of it.
After my recent move, I was hit with a surge of creativity, followed by the drop. Nearly a week passed where I was incapable of creating. My drive to go out and explore went numb and I just sat around and waited for the motivation to pull the camera out of my bag and shoot something.
One morning, I forced myself to charge the batteries and then proceeded to wait for them. I did everything to procrastinate actually lacing up my boots and going outside. It’s hard to explain why creatives do this to themselves, but it happens far too often. Dreams of creating masterpieces are avoided due to the fear that you’ll never actually achieve your goal, so you procrastinate and feed yourself every excuse in the book.
The day went on and 4pm was showing on my watch. I mustered the motivation to just grab the camera and at least go for a walk so I wouldn’t feel like my Sunday was entirely wasted. Out I went in search of anything to shoot in my tiny town in southern Saskatchewan. With a population of less than 1000 people, it isn’t exactly a mecca of street photography opportunity. I strolled down to the edge of town where a train was sitting.
“This looks kinda cool” I said to myself, noticing the sun creating nice contrast on the rocky ground around the tracks. I adjusted for the time of day and started snapping pictures. Soon enough, without even thinking about it, I was up to 20, and then 30, and then 40 picture shot, OF A TRAIN! No motivation turned into all of my bottled up creativity flowing out through my index finger as it skillfully slammed my shutter, over and over again. I spent just over an hour in this one random spot, on the edge of a tiny town in southern Saskatchewan. To onlookers, I must have looked like I really loved trains, but what they probably didn’t see is that I REALLY love creating. Sometimes it just takes getting over my own excuses and getting outside. Sure enough, this one small moment reignited my fire to create and sent me on my next wave of exploration.
I know that so many of you can relate and if this post help you to remember how easy it can be to find your inspiration, it will have been a success. I think I’ll come back and read it the next time I find myself lacking. Leave a comment about a time you were in a creative hole and how you got out of it.
-Canadian James
