Katie Riesner on how to overcome creative block

By Yuli Atta

Find Katie at @riesolution

A photography enthusiast talks about the creative block and how to overcome it.

   It has happened to every creative person at some point. We’ve all been there for a short or long period of time. We’ve all experienced it, there’s no avoiding it, the dreaded creative block, a creator’s worst nightmare.

  When you can’t come up with new ideas for your art, when you think that none of your ideas would work, this is probably one of the worst times in a creator’s life, not being able to produce any art. So how do you overcome your one true enemy, the creative block?

  Since this is an entirely personal experience, it’s due to the individual to get over it. There are countless ways of dealing with a creative block from forcing yourself to create to getting out of your comfort zone.

  I asked Katie Riesner, an avid photography enthusiast, to tell me how she deals with the dreaded block, “I believe that you just need to have a little bit of time when you don’t create and it ends up motivating you later on, when you suddenly want to create again.”

  “Other than that I just quite enjoy going through Pinterest,” she said, “It's like researching but it's  not intensive at all and you're just ingesting other people's work. The things you enjoy, you start getting inspired by and you can make your little board of things you really like and it may give you different ideas that you haven’t thought of before, or new ways of looking at things.”

  Everybody struggles every once in a while and it’s no secret that artists do so as well. There are times when we feel uninspired, unmotivated and want to give up on creating because of lack of inspiration. Many creators refer to their inspiration as “the muse” or “my muse”. In most cases it’s known for its absence and lack of help. In some of these scenarios, artist may feel close to giving up on their art.

  “Last year I was really struggling in terms of my photography because I wanted it to be experimental but nothing was working and I was feeling so down, I hated it,” Katie said.

  However, it is important not to give up. The creative block is a momentary thing that can be overcome. It is important to remember what inspires you to create and to keep on going. I asked Katie about the best piece of advice she has received and she was willing to share with me:

  “If you're not enjoying it, what's the point,” she said. “That kind of stuck with me, in order to be creative, you've got to enjoy what you're doing and have a purpose for why you're doing it. If you're doing it and it's making you miserable, then there's no point in doing it.”

  When it comes to art, you should know to never give up. Whether you are a writer, an artist, a dancer, a photographer or anything else, there would always be these moments of creative block but the important part is that they aren’t permanent. A lot of writers, for example, say that even if they are in a writing slump, they would always keep on writing and most of the times, whatever they’ve written during this dark period ends up being better because of how much more effort they’ve put into it.