Do you sometimes suffer from writer’s block? Have you written yourself into a corner and can’t get past the character/scene/overarching theme behind your work? Are you obsessed with one idea that constantly permeates your writing? Do you feel like everything you write resembles marketing copy (see prior three sentences)?

If so, you are like me — desperately in need of a shape-shifting change that will stimulate your creativity, spark those synapses, and invite a different kind of muse to your brain party.

Whenever I encounter this problem, the first thing I do is read. Read more, write more, right? But if I am truthful with myself, I often gravitate (quite naturally) to the same authors, the same kinds of content, that I most enjoy. And while this practice is indeed enjoyable, perhaps it doesn’t always challenge me enough to experience the kind of break-through momentum that I need to write the mind-blowing, triple-trope abecedarian I yearn to get out.

Most recently, I have found that conversations (yes, in-person, face-to-face chats) with persons who are not writers have provided the inspiration needed for getting my writing back on track. Meeting eye-to-eye and mind-to-mind with great thinkers — no matter their discipline and/or lack of creativity as traditionally defined — typically leaves my brain reeling in so many directions that I then encounter a new problem: focus! So many new ways of thinking, so much convergence between idea and possibility and output…

 And while I think there is great merit in literary artists hanging out with other literary artists, perhaps a stretch could be to talk with some visual artists, a few musicians, even a culinary artist to reintroduce yourself to some different perspectives. Need an even bigger stretch? Meet with a physicist or an economist and begin to see your work shifting into shapes you never thought possible. Have dinner with a string theorist, and you may begin seeing patterns in your work you didn’t realize were there (and if you’re lucky, you may even hear the dissonant harmonies, too!).

 But if you desire to be an island (not all of us are extroverted) and not venture out to talk to new people, you can still venture out of your comfort zone: take in an indie film, visit a local art gallery, or go to a live show.

After seeing songwriter Darrell Scott twice in 24 hours last weekend (I was on a music binge), I wrote five poems, came up with an overarching theme for a book, conceived of four new businesses, started a non-profit organization in my head, and constructed a well-articulated letter to one obnoxious national talk-show host. Not bad for three hours of out-of-the-norm inspiration!