Ways to Manage Creative Blocks and Burnout
- Aaron Corte LMSW
- Jul 27
- 4 min read
Updated: Aug 5
Hardly anything is more discouraging to highly creative people than burnout. Our generative energy gets sapped, and we encounter those dreaded “creative blocks.” These times are challenging if our job requires us to keep up our performance. And for more personal projects, this burnout can harm our self-worth.
Creative burnout may also spiral into existential suffering. The more that we identify as a creative person, the stronger our doubt becomes in these times. We become consumed by questions like - who am I without my creative work?
Yet, it's possible to work with your creativity to manage this: transforming "creative blocks" into "creative breaks," learning new approaches to kickstart creativity, and building a self-worth that is more resilient throughout these ebbs and flows.
We'll explore:
Creative Burnout is Inevitable
Or at least, creative growth isn't exponential: we need time away from the work. Periods of creative drought will happen. The first step is to embrace this, although that's not exactly easy to do. Remembering that we’re not in full control of the creative process can be humbling.
Yet for many, our creativity supports our mental health. And if it's rooted in our past traumas, it can be an essential part of how we stabilize ourselves. To let that go, well, that can be terrifying. But still, the more we tighten our grip, the more creativity slips away.
There is a beauty to this wild nature of creativity. When we choose to embrace it, we're invited to step into grace. This acceptance itself can be healing. When we begin to learn acceptance, we can then move forward in better managing our creative ebbs and flows.
Where Does Burnout Occur?
Because creativity can be very messy, it’s helpful to look at where we encounter burnout. Literally as if we’re charting it on a map. Here is a basic overview of the creative process:
Self > Craft > World
We, make things, which then enter into the world.
This process is always at play, unless our work lives solely in isolation. The process is a serious of relationships. Burnout will occur somewhere within it - either within our craft, or in our relationship with the world.
Craft burnout examples:
Absence of new creative ideas or inspiration
Your skills are feeling stagnant
Difficulty bringing creative projects to completion
Overworked and scattered between multiple projects, unfocused
World burnout examples:
Exhaustion after performances
Audience feedback that is negative or indifferent
Fear of releasing your new material
Opportunities being blocked by gatekeepers
Let's see an example. James is a musician in burnout. He acknowledges that his relationship with his craft is good - his songwriting is flowing. But he's depleted from his performances. It would be great if he could just stop performing and focus on his writing. But, he is on tour. So what does he do?
Managing World Burnout
When our burnout is tied to the world, the show must go on, that business must stay open, the job must get done. Always when in burnout, rest is needed. There's no substitution for that. But you may also find new energy in seeking out flow states.
Flow puts us back in the creative zone of joyful focus. So if you're encountering world burnout, shift focus to your relationship with your craft. And seek out new ways to cultivate flow there.
In The Beatles ‘Let It Be’ documentary the band is clearly at burnout, each with their own frustrations. At some point in the studio, they break into playing old cover songs from their youth. It’s playful, and has nothing to do with their album (which is strongly tied to the world). The whole point is that it’s for them: a moment of creative joy that's fully within the craft, away from the world.
James on tour may do something similar, exploring fun ways to just engage with his craft. The music he plays should have nothing to do with his performance, the further from that, the better. Or perhaps he finds flow in a different craft, sketching ideas for a future album cover, or even going out for a run.
Creative Blocks - Struggling With Your Craft
Yet burnout can also occur with your craft. Maybe you want to improve that relationship, and you’ve even carved out time away from the world to focus on your work. But, the flow is not happening. The ideas don’t come, or they come out all wrong.
If you're facing a block, then your creative task has simply changed. Instead of generating something new, as you imagined your creative task to be, it is now to manage being in a drought. Creative blocks become the creative task.
Creativity itself has two main functions:
expression
problem-solving
When faced with a creative block, consider if you will stay in your main function, or pivot to the other. If you're a artist focused on expression, maybe try a radically different approach to expression. Or, shift to problem-solving creativity and see what happens there.
But a creative drought always welcomes the problem-solving creativity, being that it's a problem in need of resolution. There are many, many ways the problem of creative blocks may be solved. It's an experiment. Look for where flow can be found.
Don Draper in Mad Men gives his prodigy some advice when she’s seeking new ideas - “Think about it deeply. Then forget it. And an idea will jump in your face.”
Forget About It - The Gift of Breaks
We've been looking at the more exciting ways of managing creative burnout: finding new ways of flow, solving new problems, getting back to fun. And while that's all true, there's no substitute for time off.
When in burnout, we must do less. For a time. This is where you use your self-care activities. Steven Spielberg has a ritual of taking a vacation right as his movie hits theaters, to become completely unplugged from the work. This is wise.
While we can't always get to the beach, everybody can step back from their creative ambitions. This should be basic, easy, restful, or fun.
If you are connecting with any of the ideas laid out here but want further support, consider getting started with a Wellspring Connection therapist.
Wellspring Connection specializes in therapy for artists and creatives
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