Trying to break out of a creative rut?

Use these three tools:
1. Specificity
2. Scale
3. Surprise

Here are my notes from @zefrank’s YouTube video on the Unsticking Technique. (video linked at end)

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These are ways to “loosen up” creatively.

While @zefrank is referring to making videos, I think the concepts are universally useful.

There are 3 kinds of specificity.

1. Observation
2. Experience
3. Description

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Observation:

Whenever you’re describing something get as specific as you can when making that observation.

Think of all the things around a subject matter that are obvious to a person making a similar video as you. Write it all down and throw it away.

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Why throw all that away?

That’s placeholder info that doesn’t really get into the juicy details.

You may not always use the tiny details you write down but it’s still really neat because you have a pool of things others wouldn’t think of immediately.

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Experience:

Think of the way you feel when you’re thinking of that scenario or when you’re making the media itself.

What feelings do you get as you think of the concepts?

For example, do you fear you’re alone in your feelings on your topic?

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So far, we’ve discussed writerly tools. It lets you get into the language.

The last thing is Description.

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Description:

Your experience counts. Your experience is the only one you’re an expert on.
You can be candid about what you don’t know.

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Another thing to consider is scale:

Life is never lived in medium.
Life is lived on the extremes.

In whatever you create, there’s big and small.

If you don’t consider the big and the small, you’re limiting the range of possibilities.

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Go big or go small because it adds to the imagery of experience.

Another trick you can add to your arsenal is surprise.

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Surprise:

This one isn’t so obvious.

Everything you do has rhythm, even the way you talk.
It becomes a pattern.

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This pattern can be in the length of shots you take or the types of jokes you tell.

That rhythm eventually becomes the hallmark of the piece and it becomes sort of trite.

Identify as many rhythms as possible in the media you’re making and break them.

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“Left turns are okay”

If a part of your brain starts feeling stagnant it’s okay to look in every possible direction to break a pattern.

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Your “turn left” moment can be as small as one moment, like with your text size or shot size.

BUT, it’ll have a huge impact and it can draw people back into the thing you’ve made.

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When I heard this, I thought of Kids See Ghosts because there’s a few moments where a track takes a left turn and it’s great.

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Fun bonus trick for specificity of experience

Watch your video near the end of the project.

See how you react to it and you might get drawn to something that happens on the screen.

You might notice something you haven’t noticed before. Work with that.

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Calling out the thing you noticed from watching your video is a kind of magic because your audience will pick it up and connect with you.

If you’re feeling stuck, use these techniques are handy ways to get unstuck.

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Here’s the video!