Getting Creative Again After Burnout
Burnout sucks the soul out of creatives. There’s no energy or desire to create. All you have is an empty space where your creativity used to be. So, how do we overcome this and become creative again after burnout?
When your creative outlet becomes your job, when everything is hanging on this thing working and making you money, the well eventually dries up if you don’t keep it primed.
Burnout has plagued me for the last several years. In 2018, I worked through it, releasing 8 books (the most I’ve ever released in one year). In 2019, I took a break that was only supposed to last for two years. I took a sabbatical I guess, but then, even though I tried to start writing and publishing again, it just hasn’t happened. I did release a book in 2021, but it was already written and all I did was edit and release it.
What I’m learning is that burnout happens when we use our gifts and talents for things that aren’t our actual calling. There is a purpose to the gifts, talents, and desires that we have, and if we don’t use them for that purpose, we will burn out and we will run out of creativity. But we can find creativity after burnout. There is hope.
So, how do we first, make sure we’re creating for the right reasons, and second, how do we keep the creative juices flowing?
Calling and Purpose
Let me begin by saying, I’m still figuring out what my calling and purpose are and how my creativity is supposed to work toward that goal. I guess, what I’m trying to say is that I don’t have the answer yet. Maybe you do. Maybe you have some insight as to how that has worked for you. I’d love to hear what you have to say. I know that right now, I’m being directed to write nonfiction on quite a few different topics. Let’s figure this one out together.
As for keeping the creativity flowing, that I do have an answer for. Keep in mind that some of these will be subjective to your tastes, and you may have other ways of keeping the creativity flowing. We’d all love to hear about them.
Here is my list:
Read
Read everything. Not just the genres that you love, but genres you’ve never tried before. One of my favorite things to read (when I’m not reading about dragons and aliens and the fae) is books about how people started their businesses and the companies that are household names today.
Learn Something New
Learn a new language or a new talent or how to build an engine. Just learn something new. You never know where your next idea or inspiration will come from.
Get a New Hobby
When your hobby (writing, painting, building a company, etc) becomes your job, it takes on a whole new world of stress. It’s so important to take up a new hobby that allows you to use your creativity for fun. Crochet or knit. Sew something. Draw or paint. Build legos. Whatever it is that makes you happy.
Get Out of the House
You need new scenery. You need to get out and see something other than the four walls where you work or live. When I’m struggling to get work done, I go to a coffee shop because I’m forced to focus there. At one point I went to a different coffee shop every week. I also love to go to Barnes & Noble just to be around the books.
Go See a Movie Alone
See a movie by yourself so you can cry or see something that you don’t think anyone else will want to see with you.
Go See a Play
I love musicals. I recently saw Wicked for the first time and I loved it so much I wish I could go again. The Phantom of the Opera is my absolute favorite musical of all time. Seeing something that you don’t usually see will awaken creativity in you. Watching something that makes you happy can give you a moment of escape that may help awaken your creativity.
Go Hiking
Get out in nature. Yeah, I know. Ugh, nature. Me too. But the sun and fresh air will do you good. Just wear long pants, good shoes, and bug spray. And maybe take a friend with you just in case you get lost, that way you’re not lost by yourself.
Go Sightseeing
Go somewhere that you’ve never been. You don’t have to go far. The next town or two over if you want. Or make a day trip of it and go somewhere an hour or two away. I’ve been going on adventures lately, and I recently visited a friend that I haven’t seen in years. We went to a couple of bookstores, a museum, and some really great restaurants. I had so much fun and I got to catch up with an old friend.
When I was a teenager, still trying to write and finish my first book, my favorite author published a blog post about burnout that you can read here. I did not understand it at the time, but I do now. It’s debilitating and it makes you feel so inadequate. Like, what’s wrong with me? I used to be able to pump out 5,000, 8,000, 10,000 words a day. Why now is it a struggle to get one word? I know that I can do this. I have done this. Why can’t I do this now?
The last year, I have really struggled to get started again. I want to write. I want to create, and if these blog posts are it for me, then at least I’m writing again. But for the first time, I have experienced what it feels like to be pushed by someone to be something I should be able to be, that I used to be able to be, yet I cannot find it in me to be that person.
So, how do we become creative again after burnout?
I think the first step is to have grace with yourself. You’re not going to be able to go from 0 to 100. You might have been able to sit for six solid hours before, but you may have to cap that at six minutes while you’re trying to get back in the groove. I set myself a goal of 15 minutes a night. That’s all I have to do, and if I make a full fifteen minutes and I only get 400 or 500 words, that is a success for me. I will not push myself to get more written, because I did what I said I was going to do. There were, of course, nights that I was able to sit longer than 15 minutes. There were nights when the story took hold of me and I was able to get 2,000, 3,000, even 4,000 words written, but those were the exception, not the rule.
I also worked to make it a habit. I made a ritual of making tea, putting on my head phones, finding music, plugging in my pink lights (they make it feel like I’m in a dystopian cyberpunk world), setting the timer, and writing. The setup might have taken longer than the actual writing session, but that was okay. Eventually, my body and my mind knew that once I put on my headphones and started brewing tea, it was time to sit down and write. I was able to settle into that space of focus and get my words in for the night and set myself up to succeed the next night too.
Rest Is Important
Pushing yourself past what you’re able to do, especially if you have a family to care for or a full-time job to work, is not going to help get you out of burnout. Take time to rest. Read, watch TV, go for a drive. Just do something restful for you.
You also need to find a new outlet. This is your job now, it’s no longer a hobby and there are times when it’s not going to be fun. That’s okay. Find a new hobby. Find new fun. As creatives, we need to get out of our creator caves and experience new things. We need to get out of our heads and explore, read, travel, see movies. It’s important to do these things. Go find new foods to eat or artists to meet. Go to Comicon or a seminar or an art gallery. Get out and experience life because we’re dying inside, and we have things to create.
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