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Struggling to unleash your inner creative? Feeling a little blocked up? You're not alone. Writer's block has affected some of the greatest creative minds in history - but with a little ingenuity and a new perspective, it can be triumphed. We've tracked down some of the most prolific and respected film directors and writers of the last century to find out how they kept (and keep) on peak creative form. From coffee-swilling daily rituals to idyllic and isolated sanctuaries, finding your own creative rhythm is key to unlocking your imagination. From F Scott Fitzgerald to David Lynch, here are 14 ideas to try when the muse is playing hard to get...
Imagination Untapped: How 14 Film Directors And Writers Avoid Creative Block
David Lynch: Establish (obsessive) routines(01 of14)
For some creative minds, routine is EVERYTHING. Take David Lynch, who was devoted to a certain Los Angeles fast food joint. “For seven years I ate at Bob’s Big Boy. I would go at 2:30, after the lunch rush. I ate a chocolate shake and four, five, six, seven cups of coffee—with lots of sugar. And there’s lots of sugar in that chocolate shake. It’s a thick shake. In a silver goblet," Lynch revealed in a recent interview with the New York Times. "I would get a rush from all this sugar, and I would get so many ideas! I would write them on these napkins. It was like I had a desk with paper. All I had to do was remember to bring my pen, but a waitress would give me one if I remembered to return it at the end of my stay. I got a lot of ideas at Bob’s.” (credit:Getty Images)
Jack Kerouac: Be spontaneous(02 of14)
A spontaneous road trip with his good friend Neal Cassady from New York to San Francisco in the winter of 1948 provided inspiration for the author's best known novel, On the Road.He had considered "giving up" on life, writing, and relationships, but the drive across the country visiting old friends and seeing new places, all the while getting hold of money by any means necessary provided him the inspirational kick that he needed. (credit:PA)
Francis Ford Coppola: Make a pilgrimage(03 of14)
Coppola's frequent visits to his family's ancestral town in southern Italy have provided much solace for the legendary filmmaker - so much so much so that he's opened a hotel there. Bernalda - or “Bernaldabella” as it's know to the Coppola clan - held a mythical status in the mind of the Godfather Trilogy director since his grandfather Agostino left the region for New York in 1904. He made a pilgrimage to the town at the age of 22 and began to return regularly. In 2005 he bought the town's Palazzo Margherita. (credit:Getty Images)
Salman Rushdie: Take a bath(04 of14)
Rushdie addressed the practical problem of earning money while writing Midnight's Children by taking a part-time job as a copywriter at an advertising agency. In the book's introduction he writes that "On Friday nights I would come home to Kentish Town from the agency's offices near Waterloo Bridge, take a long hot bath, wash the week's commerce away, and emerge - or so I told myself - as a novelist." (credit:Alamy)
Quentin Tarantino: Play board games(05 of14)
For Tarantino, it appears that unlocking the imagination means finding an escape from the day job. The director is known for his penchant for board games, specifically vintage TV board games. During filming Pulp Fiction, Tarantino challenged John Travolta to multiple games of the board game of 1970s TV series Welcome Back, Kotter, which starred Travolta. (credit:PA)
George Lucas: Get back to nature(06 of14)
The Star Wars director reportedly likes to relax by getting some fresh air and feeding squirrels. As you do. (credit:Getty Images)
Truman Capote: Go to bed(07 of14)
"I am a completely horizontal author,” Capote told The Paris Review in 1957. “I can’t think unless I’m lying down, either in bed or stretched out on a couch and with a cigarette and coffee handy." (credit:Getty Images)
Dylan Thomas: Find a room with a view (08 of14)
Described by Thomas as his "water and tree room", it's easy to see how his garage-turned-writing-shed, with its spectacular view over the hills, the town of Laugharne and the Taf estuary, provided an endless source of inspiration for the writer and poet. (credit:Alamy)
Steven Spielberg: Stop everything(09 of14)
One advantage of being amongst the most successful film makers in history is that when you get away, you can really get away. This summer Spielberg will take a creative sabbatical aboard his super yacht inspired by novelist Jules Verne, with an epic 30,000 mile voyage.The lesson for those of us with more modest means? If the words aren't flowing, don't be afraid to put down the pen, turn off the computer and give yourself a completely different kind of challenge. A creative break might be just what you need to reignite your imagination. (credit:Getty Images)
L. Frank Baum: Get gardening(10 of14)
The man who wrote The Wizard of Oz alternated between writing and gardening, digging his flower beds while he tried to work out ideas for his books. “My characters just won’t do what I want them to,” he would explain, before grabbing his trowel. (credit:Alamy)
F Scott Fitzgerald: Avoid distractions(11 of14)
After the creative slump that followed the success of The Great Gatsby, This Side of Paradise, and The Beautiful and the Damned, the novelist escaped the temptations and chaos of his life in Baltimore with frequent visits to the mountains of North Carolina. (credit:Alamy)
Roald Dahl: Keep it simple(12 of14)
Dahl's sparse writing hut located a few metres from him home is proof, it it were ever needed, that the best creative thinking needs little more than a sharp mind and a sharp pencil. "Inside, it had a very mercurial atmosphere, the sense of an inventing room or a laboratory," according to his granddaughter Ophelia, "It wasn’t particularly well lit: there was a light bulb, and then he had an old Anglepoise lamp that was directed onto the green baize board that he rested on the arms of his chair...He smoked in there and in the winter there’d also be the smell of a paraffin heater." (credit:Alamy)
Ingmar Bergman: Seek out isolated places(13 of14)
Bergman hated noise and people, so it's unsurprising that his imagination came alive when he was able to retreat to the isolated island of Fårö. “When I’m in Stockholm, I’m longing every day for that island—for the sea, for nature,” he told a friend. “To listen to music. To write. To write without deadlines." (credit:Alamy)
Samuel Beckett: Late nights and red wine(14 of14)
According to biographer Paul Strathern, Beckett required strict routine and repetition to maintain his focus, although it admittedly didn't result in the healthiest of lifestyles: “It was spent largely in his room, isolated from the world, coming face to face with his own demons, attempting to explore the workings of his mind. His routine was for the most part simple enough. He would rise around the early hours of the afternoon, make himself scrambled eggs, and retire to his room for as many hours as he could bear. He would then leave for his late-night perambulation of the bars of Montparnasse, drinking copious amount of cheap red wine, returning before dawn and the long attempt to sleep. His entire life revolved around his almost psychotic obsession to write.” (credit:Alamy)