Right now my head feels like it’s about to explode. I just got out of a long design session (almost 45 minutes longer than it was planned for!) and I think I’m on information overload. We’re discussing the creative approach to take for an eLearning course, and there is so much to consider that I feel creatively overwhelmed. It’s not unlike how I feel when I’m working through my writing projects.
Last night when I was live with Cali Lewis, I talked about how scary it can be to write a novel. It may seem easy at first, when the ideas are flowing and you’re really excited about the project, but when you are trying to figure out intricate plot points and character motivation, it can be really hard to buckle down and make your creativity work for you. Ideas can go in all different directions and you can get completely off track from where you intended to be. That’s what I’m working through on my main project right now. I got off on a tangent and now I’m having to rein myself back in and get back on the plot path I need to be on to move my story forward.
At work, I’m trying to get all the creative ideas our team came up with to form something more concrete that we can present to the client, and that can be really hard too. I was in kind of a tizzy after the meeting because I just felt snowed by the task, and confused already with what we had discussed. So what do you do in a situation like that?
My first inclination is always to analyze things further and get them straight in my head so that I can push forward. But if I want to get things back under control, that’s NOT my best path to take! The more I analyze, the more confused I make myself and then suddenly I have no idea where I wanted to end up, let alone what path I wanted to take or what I intended to accomplish along the way.
What works for me is taking a step back, letting things settle down before I tackle them again, and then approaching the situation from a different angle. For instance, in my writing project, I’ve stopped actually writing for the moment and I’m going back and shoring up my outline, fleshing out some things, and doing some research to help me with a character I’m stuck on. At work, I’m taking my lunch break, and when I’m done, I’m going to take some design templates and start plugging information in rather than trying to deal with the mess of notes I took during the design session. That will help me determine if we’re on the right path or if we need to make some tweaks.
What is your action plan when you get creatively overwhelmed?
Word Counts - Today: 0 | July: 616 | 2008: 5,089
Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch
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One Hundred Years of Solitude
The Buccaneers (Penguin Great Books of the 20th Century)
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