An inevitable part of having a creative mind is hitting creative blocks every once in a while. They can last for days, weeks, sometimes months. I’m actually in the middle of one as I attempt this blog entry for the 11^th time this week. I figured that writing about would help me complete it, but it has become something of a catch-22. I still can’t write anything!

When I hit a wall, I go through some variation of a Kübler-Ross model, otherwise known as the five stages of grief.

The first stage is denial. It’s a defense mechanism for my threatened ego. I’m a creative professional; I can’t POSSIBLY be having a creative block right now. I’m so good at being creative, I pay my bills with it! Nope, not me. I’m all creative, all the time.

The second stage is anger, which stems from the realization that my denial can’t go on forever. This is the dumbest stage of the whole stupid thing and I don’t even care anymore, I HATE THIS BLOG, STOP READING IT, YOU JUDGMENTAL TURD.

The third stage is bargaining. I promise I’ll finish this paragraph later if you just pretend there was one here in the first place. I’m just going to copy and paste this twice to make it look longer. The third stage is bargaining. I promise I’ll finish this paragraph later if you just pretend there was one here in the first place. I’m just going to copy and paste this twice to make it look longer.

The next stage is depression. It’s filled mostly with fear and regret. My biggest regret is writing about creative blocks with a creative block. My biggest fear is rereading this thing once I finish it. Why bother finishing it? It’s not even that good, so what’s the point?

The final stage is acceptance. This is where I can finally move on. This is also the step I should have just skipped to in the first place. Sometimes you just can’t avoid a creative block. You need to face it because it won’t go away on its own. You can either figure some clever way to get around it or just muscle through with brute force. And you shouldn’t worry about producing something from the whole experience. You don’t always need something to show for it or else you end up with weird, rambling blogs of frustration. Tackle a creative block for your own self-improvement.