How to Overcome a Creative Block: A Step-by-Step Guide

What’s Really Going On When You Hit a Creative Block

A creative block is one of those things that feels completely mysterious when you’re in the middle of it. One day the words or ideas are flowing and the next they’ve completely dried up and you’ve no idea why.

But, the thing is it’s rarely about your creativity at all.

Most of the time, a creative block is your mind’s way of telling you that something else is going on. It might be fear of getting it wrong, it might be that you’re completely exhausted and running on empty, it might be perfectionism quietly convincing you that if you can’t do it perfectly, you shouldn’t do it at all, or it might be that your head is so full of everything else in life there’s no room for creativity to do its thing.

I’ve experienced all of these at different times. I came out of a five year block not long ago, and what I found again and again was that trying to force my way through it made everything worse. It wasn’t until I stopped fighting and started getting curious about what was actually going on that things began to shift.

If you’d like to go deeper on understanding the different types of creative blocks and what causes them, you might find it helpful to read What Are Creative Blocks? A Complete Guide for Creatives first. Today we’re focusing on what to do once you’ve got a block.

Why Pushing Through Doesn’t Usually Work

There’s a lot of advice out there that basically tells you to just sit down and do it anyway. And, sometimes, for a mild block or a bit of low motivation, that works fine.

But for a real creative block, especially one rooted in fear, burnout or perfectionism, pushing harder tends to backfire. The pressure to produce something good when you’re already blocked just adds another layer of stress to the whole thing, and that stress makes the block worse, not better.

I think of it a bit like trying to remember something, the harder you try to force it, the more it slips away but the moment you stop trying and go do something else, it comes back on its own.

So, the step-by-step approach below is deliberately gentle. It’s not about forcing anything. It’s about understanding what’s going on and giving yourself the right conditions to start moving again.

How to Overcome a Creative Block: Step by Step

Step 1: Work Out What Kind of Block You’re Dealing With

Not all creative blocks are the same, and the approach that helps one type can actually make another worse. So before you try anything else, it’s worth getting a bit curious about what’s actually going on.

Ask yourself:

• Am I scared of getting this wrong or being judged for it?
• Am I waiting for it to be perfect before I’ll let myself start?
• Am I completely overwhelmed and mentally exhausted?
• Am I just genuinely running on empty and need to rest?
• Am I dealing with outside life issues and there’s no space for creative energy?

Sometimes the answer is obvious straight away. Other times you need to sit with it for a bit and let the answer come.

Try this:

Spend five minutes writing about the block itself, not about your work. What does it feel like? What thoughts come up when you try to sit and create? You’re not looking for a perfect answer, just a bit more understanding of what’s underneath it.

Step 2: Take the Pressure Off Completely

This one sounds simple but it’s probably the most important step of all. Most creative blocks are made far worse by the weight of expectation sitting on top of them.

If every time you sit down to create you’re telling yourself it needs to be good, it needs to be finished, it needs to be worth sharing, your brain is going to keep finding reasons not to start. The stakes feel too high and it wants to protect you from disappointment and failure.

Try this:

Give yourself a short window, maybe 20 minutes, where the only rule is that what you create doesn’t have to be good. It doesn’t have to be finished, it doesn’t have to go anywhere. Write a rough paragraph, sketch something, make a list of half-formed ideas, anything that lets you create without any consequences.

Step 3: Make the Task Much, Much Smaller

When you’re blocked, the task in your head is almost always too big. Not because it actually is too big, but because that’s how it feels right now. And your brain is very good at using that feeling as a reason to avoid the whole thing. It’s actually just your brain’s way of trying to keep you safe.

The trick is to break it down until you find a version so small it feels genuinely manageable rather than just theoretically doable.

Try this:

Instead of write the next chapter, try write the first sentence of the next chapter. Instead of finish the painting or project, try get the paints out and mix one colour or get out the materials you need. Start there. The next step usually becomes obvious once you’ve taken the first one.

I use this one a lot with my writing. I call it ‘writing practice’ rather than writing, because it immediately takes the pressure off and reminds me I’m just playing around rather than producing something that has to be good instantly the first time I write it. It allows me to do it terribly first time.

Step 4: Refill Your Creative Well

Sometimes a creative block isn’t really a block at all. It’s your creative well running dry. And, if that’s what’s happening, no amount of trying to push through is going to help because there’s simply nothing left to draw on.

Creativity needs feeding. It needs new experiences, new ideas and new input so you have something to work with. When life gets busy and we stop filling ourselves back up, the well empties and the block sets in.

Try this:

Make a list of everything that fills you back up creatively. For me, it’s getting out in nature, reading something completely different to what I’m writing, or going somewhere I’ve never been before. Your list will be different. When the block hits, pick something from your list and do that instead of trying to force the creative work. This isn’t procrastination. It’s necessary maintenance.

Step 5: Face the Fear Directly

If you’ve worked out that fear is at the root of your block, trying to go around it tends not to work for very long. At some point you have to face it directly.

As an NLP practitioner I know how much power our internal language has over our behaviour. The stories we tell ourselves about our creativity, our worth, our ability to get things right, shape everything we do and don’t do.

Try this:

Write down the specific fear as clearly as you can. I’m worried this won’t be as good as my last piece. I’m scared people will think I don’t know what I’m doing. I’m afraid of finishing this and it not being good enough.

Then ask yourself what you’d say to a friend who came to you with that exact same fear. We’re almost always far kinder to other creatives than we are to ourselves, and it’s worth noticing that gap. We’d never accept a friend speaking to us the way we do internally to ourselves.

Step 6: Build a Small, Regular Creative Habit

Once things start to shift, the most useful thing you can do is build a small, consistent creative habit to keep the momentum going. Not a big ambitious one. A tiny, sustainable one.

I’ve found that consistency matters far more than big bursts of output. Five minutes every day at the same time does more for your creative practice than a big three hour session once a fortnight, because it trains your brain to show up regularly and keeps that creative muscle active.

Try this:

Work out when your natural creative peak is, when you feel most alert and energised, and block out just 15 minutes of that time as non-negotiable creative time. Treat it the same way you’d treat an important meeting. The more you show up, the more your creativity will too.

10 FAQs: How to Overcome a Creative Block

Next Steps

If you’re in the middle of a creative block right now, the best thing you can do is start small. Download the free Tiny Steps Creative Prompt Pack, pick one prompt, and spend five minutes with it. That’s it. You don’t have to do anything more than that today.

→ Download the Tiny Steps Creative Prompt Pack free

Or, if you’d like a weekly letter with practical support for your creativity, confidence and creative life, come and join my Substack community Articles go out every Friday and it’s a good place to be if you’re building a creative practice around a real, busy life.

→ Join Substack