If you write (or create anything at all - painting, sculpting...whatever), it can be helpful to establish rhythms which can facilitate more productive and focused times of creativity. There are, of course, countless ways to do this. You can, for example, establish routines and/or disciplines to your work.
When I write, I, for instance, like to get out at least 1,000 words a day if I can. (As I write this, I just finished such a session - I wrote 1,096 words in my next book, A Ghost of Water, the sequel to A Ghost of Fire.) Sometimes I do way better than this sometimes, not so much. But there are other things we can do which feed our spirits and ennable further creativity.
One thing which helps me is the intake of other people's creativity. It's a common piece of wisdom which suggests that writers should first be readers and muscians should first be listeners to great musicians and actors should first be members of the audience.
Here's what I've been doing for some time now: When I write I like to listen to music at the same time. I love to read, for sure, but I find music really gets me going and itching to create. I'm a mediocre musician myself, but I'm fairly good at writing and so that's whereI like to channel my creativity. Plus, it's sort of hard to read a book and write a book at the same moment.
When I was writing A Ghost of Fire listened to U2's album, No Line on the Horizon over and over and over. Now that I'm working on A Ghost of Water I'm constantly cycling through Lindsey Buckingham's new album, Seeds We Sow (which is really fantastic and indie, if you're into that).
I let the rhythm of the music get me going.
The point is, before you try to prepare a meal for other people with your creativity, it's important that you get fed yourself first.
Warning: be careful when doing this. In one respect you might find your work too strongly taking on a flavor of whatever is "inspiring" you at the moment. In his fantastic book, Story, Robert McKee, a guru on story, plot and pacing, says that the screenwriter must be careful of this because sitting on the top of your brain is every movie you've ever seen, so it's very easy to steal someone else's work, even without really realizing it. The same is true for writers nd artists of every type.
But don't let that stop you. Allow it to challenge you to dig deeper to the themes and veins of resource buried deep in that strange, complex little head of yours.
Go, listen, watch, pay attention, eat it, soak in it, digest and process it.
Then go and make something.
