Creativity in a Stale World

Seeking novelty when life is locked down

Our world is at a standstill. Prompted by a virus, humanity has effectively put the brakes on life. Many of us are spending more time at home than ever before, cancelling travel plans and cementing daily routines.

I feel as though every day is groundhog day — they all melt into one samey experience now. I frequent the same spaces, do the same things, see the same people. Every aspect of pandemic life has become familiar and there’s very little novelty in the world. And this is a big problem for creativity.

You may, like me, have joyously welcomed all this free time to dedicate to long-neglected creative projects. Things have gotten off the ground. That idea that’s been pent up in your head is finally realised as an actual piece fit for publication.

I’ve written more in the past three months than in the past three years. I’ve been able to give shape to the vague thoughts, concepts and stories that have been sitting with me for ages. New found free time is actually new found creative time.

But I’m running out of gas.

I’ve exhausted my vault of novelty. I’ve fleshed out my darling concepts, the gems. I’ve dredged up old memories and experiences in search of ‘lesson’s’ from my past. My newest ideas are merely minor reformulations of what I’ve already written. Perhaps a slightly different perspective, or a different way of describing it, but there’s no denying — I’m saying the same things in different ways.

To create, in any form, requires stimulus. Our creations are reflections of the world we inhabit, with a bit of our unique personal spin. And this is my problem now — the world that I inhabit is not changing. Each day is largely the same as before.

When we look back at what we’ve created over the years, there’s undoubtedly a clear shift in style and content. We evolve as creators. But evolution is driven by change, and in this unchanging world we are deprived of the stimulus we need. We are deprived of any reason to shift our views, to respond to anything new, to harness the novel and push the envelope.

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