Image by Keith Chapman

One incredibly easy and simple way to spark creativity is to change your scene. Change your surroundings. Where do you do your creative work? In an office? In a room? At a coffee shop? Take a look at where you are most productive and take a look at what is around you. If you are blocked, go elsewhere even just for one small creative session. When I was writing my first novel, I hit a major lull. Until that time, I went to write at a bar and grill type restaurant over lunches that granted me free wi-fi access. Then I hit a wall. I was lost in the book. I didn’t remember how I got into the weeds but in the weeds I sat staring at a blinking cursor.
Finally, I closed the laptop, gobbled down my food, and left. I went to a local coffee shop, ordered an afternoon coffee and sat down for just another 15 minutes and opened the laptop on a whim. Nope. Blinking cursor sucking my creative synapses right out from under me. Then, totally out of the blue, two well-dressed business ladies sitting near me had a conversation that I could not prevent from overhearing. One lady was complaining how their meetings were so unproductive because people felt the need to talk to fill the air. She went on to say if a meeting is scheduled for 30 minutes and it only needs to take 10 minutes, then be a doll and give the time back to your people. Oddly, this resonated in more ways than one. It well stood true in my own experiences with corporate life but deeper than that was the nudge I needed on my book. I was hung up on  making the dialog of my parody go through this entirely boring scene line by line. I ditched the whole section and summed up the many, many paragraphs by replacing it all with a simple, snide commentary. It shortened the chapter significantly, became more direct, and most importantly removed the logjam. This would not have happened as easily as it had if I had not relocated. Changing it up gives you a chance for newness. This means the muse in each of us gets new input which in turn can result in different outputs. If nothing else, it keeps you moving.