Writing Tutorial: Methods to Unblock Your Creativity

Discover techniques that liberate your ideas and free up your creativity for writing, with author, illustrator and podcaster Aline Valek

New York Times best-selling author and designer Austin Kleon believes one of the best ways to overcome creative block is to set yourself a few rules. This may seem like a contradiction in terms, but in his experience, limitations increase your freedom and make the creative process more intense.

At some point you will need to define things like: the period, your number of characters or indeed anything else, to be able to evolve as a writer. Applying slight pressure allows your creativity to flow under the catalyst of self-imposed limitations.

Creative potential fascinates writer, illustrator and podcaster Aline Valek (@alinevalek), who has a rare understanding of the power of words and uses writing to explore language and tell interesting stories through the details of daily living.

Aline is the author of two Brazilian novels: As águas-vivas não sabem de si (Rocco) and Cidas afundam em dias normais (Rocco), and many stories for magazines and reviews including Superinteressante and Dragão Brasil.

She has been writing online for 11 years and is the creator of Bobagens Imperdíveis, a multi-platform storytelling label that publishes newsletters, ezines, books and podcasts. Her most recent title is the ebook Neuroses a varejo.

As well as teaching classes on creativity, Aline also gives courses on writing fiction, writing for the internet, fanzines and self-publication.

In this tutorial, Aline teaches you two of her favorite methods to unblock your creativity and free up your hand when you sit down to write. Don’t miss the video!

Create a list of words

Warm up with a piece of paper or a notebook and a pen. Write down a list of any words and thoughts that come into your head right now. They could include songs, films, books, videogames... all ideas are valid and should not be discarded.

It doesn’t matter if they seem random or illogical. Write down everything that is going around inside your head. It’s important to set yourself a deadline, perhaps five or ten minutes. When you set a time limit, you tend to concentrate more on the task in hand. And you also get less distracted.

Use the timer on your phone if that makes things easier.

This exercise will result in a hodgepodge of your freshest ideas and the recent things you’ve watched, heard or read. The next step is to start creating connections between the words.

Choose two or three words from the list and write about them. It’s a great place to start when you’re feeling low on ideas.

Use tarot cards

That’s right: tarot cards! Grab a deck and pull out one or two cards. The images and illustrations will stimulate your imagination and creativity. Tarot cards are designed to feature interesting narrations with infinite meanings and a plethora of details.

You could think about what’s going on in the image on the card, or define the character(s). What are they feeling? What will they do next? Let your imagination run free.

Write a character arc or a story starting from the card you selected.

These exercises serve as a starting point to unblock your creativity, and help you create stories in your own style.

If you want to discover more methods to release your creativity, create your own writing routine and bring your stories to life, don’t miss Aline’s online course: Creative Techniques to Transform Ideas into Texts.

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