Dealing with burnout/lack of creativity?

Sometimes I have to force myself to type, and I feel like I'm producing pure drivel.

But I usually go back and find that what I wrote was pretty good, or that it's at least salvageable.

Forgot who said it, but I only write when the muse inspires me to. And I make sure she inspires me every day at 9am.

But to answer your question, find something you're excited about and do that for a while. Pick up a new musical instrument, start a new hobby, build a treehouse. Get excited, and those creative juices start to flow.

Nick,

I hope something in this post helps you:

http://www.warriorforum.com/copywrit...have-more.html

Meditate.

Do yoga.

Go on a walk.

Take a trip.

Drop acid and go on a trip.

Have lots of sex.

Get drunk.

Read books that inspire you.

Get in awesome physical condition.

Change your diet.

Start writing more for yourself.

Take time off.

Do something else.

Learn a new language.

Masturbate.

Stop masturbating.

There's lots of stuff you can do.

If you look at your creativity as a bank, you're making too many withdrawals and not enough deposits. So what makes you feel good? Above and beyond work? What gets you off? Go do it.

Mark

Nick, I'm sorry to hear you're hitting a dry spot creatively. Frustrating, I'm sure.

Another way to get past a creative dry spell is to give up being creative for a while. I'm sure you're familiar with marketingexperiments.com's article on value propositions in web sites (I'm sure it applies to direct marketing of all kinds).

The basic thrust is this: clarity trumps persuasion.
Clarity Trumps Persuasion

Getting really clear on the value proposition, who it's for, and how it delivers something no one else can, and delivering that message with crystal clarity converts better than clever language.

So maybe getting back to the roots of your value proposition will give you a running start.

Hope that's helpful.

Thanks to all, some fantastic creative jolts offered (and im not referring to masturbating)

Hey Nick,

Work less.

Look for and create opportunities where you're leveraging your time through JV partnerships, consulting gigs, etc.

--- Ross

I just posted something about this somewhere else in the forum. Try freewriting. I found out about it a couple of months ago and it hasn't let me down yet. I've used it for political articles, law school papers, website content, and it's great. It's almost like meditative writing.

If you're interested, I described it in greater detail on post #11 here: http://www.warriorforum.com/mind-war...reativity.html.

Good luck!

Start by just writing what you are trying to say...

"You should buy XYZ because ____."

Just get it out there so there's something on the page.

Then pretend that you are the target audience and read over what you wrote. Is it compelling?

If not, what can you do to make things better?

For me, burning out means I'm working too hard.

Scale it back, and take more chill time...

OR change some of that writing to other stuff (consulting, partnerships, etc).

Ultimately, it's up to you to figure out what makes you happy and excites you, and what your PERSONAL balance of work/play is.

There's no wrong answer, so don't feel like you have to write 8 hours a day just because some guys can. Parris Lampropoulis only ever did 4. Now he does a lot less than that and pretty much just copy chiefs.

It's your life and your business. Make it what you want. When you're not struggling, you have no reason to get burned out.

-Daniel

Read war of art. Good friend Mr. Ceskavich recommended it to me and it's been a good aid when I feel a little burnt.

1. Fire the bottom half of your Clients and double your rates. (A variation of this is to refer the Clients you don't want to other copywriters and collect a referral fee.)

2. Hang around people better than you. Collaborate with other copywriters that challenge you to raise your game. The ones that refuse to accept mediocrity.

3. Change your compensation structure so the bulk of your income is derived from pay-for-performance projects.

- Rick Duris

PS: Think of it this way: You're at the gym and you're lifting easy weights all the time, just going through the motions.

You're bored, right?

The remedy? Increase the resistance. Raise your game.

Self-Hypnosis.

Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way. (Morning freewrites).

Mornings in gym.

Bike commute.

Oh, and I turn off the computer and write in a notebook. This works wonders for me sometimes. Probably good for society, too.

Burnout is your body's way of telling you to lessen your anxiety for a while. Get your mind off your stuff and onto something else for a while. Good luck.

After 5 years it can be like pushing a wet noodle if you're
waiting till you get creative before you write.

Here are 2 secrets to writing that should help you get over
that:


Secret 1 to writing:

This will sound bad I know but stick with me here...

Take the attitude you're going to write ANY OLD CRAP on the subject that you can come up with.

Whatever you think of - just write it down.

Any old nonsense - GREAT. Just put it on paper (or onto your screen).

A pile of steaming crap no one would ever read?

Not your problem - just write it anyway.

Just fill up pages and pages with any old crap and keep writing straight off the top of your head for as long as you can.

Stop thinking about it and just do it.


Now if you follow secret no 1 you're going to be surprised.

The biggest mistake most writers make is that they confuse the creative process with the critical process.

When you're setting out to write something you're in the creative process.

I've written full books in 7 days.

But that can't happen if you're constantly worrying about how good, bad or accurate what you're writing is.

You're in the creative process.

Let your creative side come out by disengaging your critical process.

If I'm writing any old crap then my critical side has no work to do. I know it's crap already.

After years of writing I began to notice "any old crap" is often pretty good.

I was using sections and pages of non-fiction writing I'd done off the top of my head over and over in other products, articles etc.

That's the first bonus.

A lot of that "any old crap" writing is good! Really good!!

But you might say "What if it's not good? What if any old crap really is crap?!"

And that leads us to secret no 2 - the biggest secret of great writing.



Secret # 2 - Great writing is all about REWRITING.

Once you have something to work with it's really easy to work it over and polish it so it shines.

It is far easier to add to a piece of writing you've already done.

It's far easier to edit writing you've already done so it flows better.

You can even hire an editor to rewrite it for you.

But it's very hard to look at a blank screen and write something brilliant from scratch.

So write any old crap then rewrite it till it sparkles.

Easy.


Kindest regards,
Andrew Cavanagh

My trick to expanding my creativity is to look into unrelated fields.

If you're tired of writing marketing copy for a certain industry (like MMO), maybe you can look into marketing copy for a different industry like sportsgear or women's clothing. I love look at copy for cars, watches, high-end ultrabrands. I also look at copy written for other countries like a British or Australian products. There's always so much I learn from and then I come back to my line of work with a whole new flavor to my work.