It is not exactly a question about writing, but do you have any ideas for what as a creative person I should do when I am bored?
Write more. Not a great answer but a very pertinent one. Have a completely self-serving project who's goal is only to be amusing to you and just keep writing it, or painting or whatever. Just keep on with it. Even if it is just posting on forums, just the process of writing is good for you. It's a thing that encourages you to brainstorm and think and describe and have epiphanies about what you are doing. And yes, you definitely want a 'down time' project to be, to some degree, mindless fun. My one is largely pornographic. But you need something to just keep you writing, someone to explore things in a less formal way, where you can maybe pull out a nice turn of phrase or idea from but where you can also write and see that this was a shit idea and just leave it to die. I know that boredom isn't as easy as just finding something to do. You need to find things that will actually engage you at that moment and that's not always easy. If you are bored of writing then I can't help you really, other than to say it's ok to just go play video games sometimes. But if you find yourself being unable to focus or martial your thoughts (my sympathies, I understand how that feels) then it's better to be unable to focus on writing rather than unable to focus on nothing. And, if you give yourself a running start by writing in very bare bones way, just notes of stuff, eventually you'll run into something you do want to write, or at least is interesting, and you're good to go.
Go on a walk and clear your head. Is what I do. Then I am inspired again. Just changing location and writing somewhere new or going somewhere new. To experience something new to revive your juices. Or I do something that my characters would do to try and experience it.
I've gotten into the habit of listening to songs that inspire certain emotions in my when I write. So when I feel bored or uninspired I listen to those songs and that just gets me into the groove instantly. Weird ... I know
Not weird in my eyes. I do that too @krishin316 , plug some fancy lyrics into myself and combine the deed with going for a walk. IDK but moving and listening to music (something with a bit of a pulse helps too) motivates and sets me up as much as a few shots of caffeine does.
In a weird sense I feel the same thing. I spend way too much time struggling manfully with the 'I can't do fucking anything' gremlin that feels like banging my head against a brick wall. It really annoys me that at times like that I don't even really feel like playing video games. I suspect working from home is some amount of the problem with it, always got a huge amount of things I could possibly be doing none of which seem exciting to me. But you put me on a really long train journey and I can suddenly sit and write and think and I know exactly what to do. It's... Frustrating.
It had that problem years ago, but in this age of portable electronics I find that I have very little wasted time. I spend a lot of time waiting to testify in court, and now I have both a Kindle app band a Word-connective app on my phone, so inspiration and execution are always with me.
Oh whenever I'm somewhere that I have just my phone to work on then I'm absolutely fine. I've been writing on my phone for like ten years (although I was writing essays back then) and that was always very productive for me. My problem is sitting in my house when there's fifty things to do and wasting time by starting something, realizing I don't want to do it then starting over. Just having so much choice leaves me doing nothing. I don't know why but it's something I've always had a real problem with. I could read in the back of the car or waiting for my parents to pick me up but I'd never just sit and read. Something about the restrictions makes me feel totally different about what to do. At home I always drag my feet on everything and work somehow feels like an imposition. But if I'm on a train I can knock out a couple of voice overs and some interview questions and do almost a whole days work no problems at all, in fact I feel good about it because then I can have a free day tomorrow. Really I need to be able to focus when I want to. I think maybe you need some new friends...
I see. I don't have that problem; I go where the muse takes me. The weather is my biggest foe in my endeavors. I'm a police supervisor, keeper of records, and expert witness, in a system that moves at its own pace.
Aww that's much less funny. When I'm sitting on a train I can do that no problems, and it equally frustrates me when I'm on a train with a co-worker heading to a shoot and they want to talk instead of letting me write. Whenever I go out I always have an idea for a scene that I want to write before I leave, just something to play with, and the goal is to write it by the time I get home and I almost always do. I've come up with some really nice ideas that way too. One time I actually wrote about ten thousand words of a new idea that really engaged me just between trains and down time on location. And when I'm at home I can definitely still do that, on my actual writing days (ie when I'm high as a kite) but on my off days I find it hard to do anything. I keep trying to get myself to carry on writing, or at least keep working on my porny, ego stroking, side project (it's about a ruggedly handsome, stunningly wealthy, best selling author having love affairs with his gorgeous and adoring fans. It's written from their point of view too, so I spend a reasonable amount of time writing in someone else's voices telling myself what a good writer I am. Hey, I said it was ego-stroking!) and sometimes I manage to get a few thousands words down in a day but often I just write three sentences and give up just because I can think of seven other things to do and I can't get into a flow anyway. And then I start doing something else and can't get into a flow with that either. At least I can still write sometimes outside of my proper writing days. And I do always have a muse to work from and that's something a lot of people would kill for so in a sense I'm lucky. I just never learned how to make myself sit down and focus on what I tell myself to focus on instead of whatever takes my fancy.
I walk while listening to my MP3 player, and it gets the juices flowing. Granted I listen to some strange and/or heavy stuff. Try searching for obscure art and imagery, something may spark a bit and will compel you write about it. Try living in the moment, and riffing out a micro short loosely based around a subject. Write down your plan and execution for wold domination, and what society would be like. Write an Erotic short in which you conquer a fear you have. Doodle. ( I mean with a pen/pencil and paper) Keep a dream diary. Write me a love letter, depicting why I am your favorite author of all time and why we should be together. Take up an instrument and learn it. IDK, the world is your oyster.
Presumably because it's slimy and looks vaguely like a female body part. I legitimately read that as "Vanity is the spice of life" and found myself nodding and going 'yes, this makes sense.'.
Maybe it's because oysters are full of briny deliciousness and the occasional pearl? Though having served/shucked several thousand oysters in my day, I've yet to find the elusive pearl. Also oysters used to a symbol of opulence and sophistication, so if the "world was your oyster" you were living the high life. Great expression that you rarely hear anymore.
My enhanced memory (Google) tells me it could be one of Shakespeare's: Falstaff: I will not lend thee a penny. Pistol: Why, then, the world's mine oyster, which I with sword will open.' Act II, Scene II.
