We’re back with another edition of Sarah’s 2 Sense with advice columnist Sarah Zaman. Sarah is a queer, Muslim university student, studying Global Health, Political Science, and Human Geography. She wanted to share her growing wisdom as a way to help people in little cheeky light-hearted ways. For her next column, Sarah gives her “2 sense” on how to find creativity even when it alludes you, along with some personal tried and true writing tips. Check back for more 2 Sense with Sarah, and feel free to send your own questions to info@weraddicted.com!
What should I do to keep my creative spark going? It burns out fast – SI, 23
After I began writing for ADDICTED, I quickly realized that shit takes a toll on you! Albeit, I have not been writing for too long, but it’s become clear that creativity and new ideas can be drained quite quickly. If you’ve got that itching feeling to write but a blank mind, I find that living life is the best way to keep that spark going.
I know, it sounds trite- but hear me out! There is nothing more sporadic and unplanned than your day to day life, especially during a global pandemic. Personally, I think that inspiration comes best when you can speak from real experience. It helps ensure that your writing sounds real and relatable. Every single moment of your life is you doing something, so how can you be out of ideas? Whether you are studying, scrolling your favourite social media platform, or lying in your bed at 4am questioning the entire existence of the universe and realising that most things do not matter because we are just specks in the ever-expanding universe (not that I’ve ever done that…), you are always doing something!
Start by writing down things that happen, I find that it helps to start with a task that you needed to complete that day. What did you do? Where in your space did this happen? What time of day was it? What were the steps leading up to completing the task? Did you have to interact with other people in order to complete the task? Why did you need to complete this task? Right off the bat you have a who, what, where, when, how, and why and then some with potential characters, conflicts, and established characteristics.
If you truly think that your life is not interesting enough to answer any of these questions, you can try to understand why we are all here on this earth and hey, if you do, please let me know. I need to get some rest.
*Header Photo by Thought Catalog on Unsplash