Poetry Culture explores ways to live a more creative and meaningful life.

Whatever the reason for our creative block, rekindling a sense of creative fun in our artistic lives is one solution. Here are four ways that we can reignite that sense of fun in our writing and art.

Lower expectations, not standards

Lowering expectations is painful when we have high standards. But lowering expectations is not about reducing the quality of our work. It is about giving a nascent idea permission to exist and the chance to grow.

Do it for itself

The corollary to embracing silliness is the idea of doing something for its own sake. Being silly is about rejecting judgment, but doing something for its own sake is about avoiding the lure of profit, or praise, or all sorts of other things which can blow our ship off course. It’s about creating work that you believe in so much that you would do for free.

Imbue your work with personal meaning

Making our work personal can help us continue to create, regardless whether we are being paid for our work or not.

Imbuing our work with personal meaning allows us to look back on what we’ve created with nostalgia, as well as pride. Linking our work to a personal story or struggle isn’t just a good way of coming up with ideas. It’s also a way of ensuring our work has meaning for ourselves and our friends.

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