Creativity, unstacked

Sherry Ning shares creative insights from across Substack

“The Artist in Winter,” Elisabeth Vellacott, shared by Deborah Vass

“​Creativity” is a word so overused, it’s easy to forget what it actually means. But as a new year begins, let’s reclaim creativity for what it truly is—something beyond skill or intellect. It’s about perspective. It’s what creates great symphonies and novels, striking magazine covers and memorable billboard designs, but it’s also a mindset: one that dares to think differently, to step beyond the expected.

I’ve previously written about creativity as a religious experience, one where you transcend your sense of self and feel at one with a greater whole. Whether it’s designing unique ceramics, crafting a new recipe, or launching a Substack, exploring the oft-forgotten creative parts of ourselves can make us feel less anxious and more fulfilled. Consider these insights an invitation to rediscover your creative spark.

Find inspiration

Creation begins with that sacred, slippery aha moment. Moments of inspiration often follow admiration: “Notice who you admire,” says

Isabel

. “Our sources of inspiration are our guides. They take us towards our magic. They show us where to look to find our gifts.” That moment of resonance is “the universe winking at us, a flicker of our own magic catching our eye.”

Finding resonance can be more passive than you might think. Inspired by Rick Rubin’s The Creative Act,

Rosie Peacock

reframes creativity as a process of listening rather than forcing: “Creative inspiration is something already present in the world—like a signal waiting to be received. The creator’s role isn’t to strain for ideas but to attune themselves to this frequency and let it flow through them.”

Inspiration isn’t fully in your control, which is why it happens when you’re not trying too hard. When you’re distracted, dreaming, or just taking it slow—that’s when the lightbulb ideas happen.

Go for a long walk

As I’ve said before, long walks are the midwives of good ideas. The ancients called it solvitur ambulando, Latin for “it is solved by walking.” In

postcards by elle

, she writes, “in the open solitude, the frequency of your thoughts begin to change, and something that didn’t make sense, the gray areas clouding your head, presents itself with an answer in startling technicolor.”

Nietzsche, who walked five to seven hours a day, agreed: “Only ideas won by walking have any value,”

Jash Dholani

quotes him as saying.

For inspiration, take a look at the scenes that have inspired your (digitally) local creators. And if you need more guidance, try asking yourself these six questions next time you’re on your feet.

From left, photos by Tom Cox, Benjamin Parry, and Chris Arnade

Connect with other artists…

Host a collage night, or a “friendsidency” à la

Anna Brones

to build deeper connections centered around creative pursuits. Use art as a vessel for gathering, because “every idea needs a little breathing room, and if they only sit in the stuffy, closed-up space of our own minds, they won’t get it.”

When

Maya C. Popa

reflected on her vision for the Conscious Writers Collective, a place where writers connect with each other, she said, “I often think of T.S. Eliot’s assertion that all literature is happening simultaneously, which makes me feel a deep and numinous connection.”

…but also make time for solitude (and boredom)

When we talk about creativity, it’s often about art—that primitive process of turning individual perception into expression. And your creative self also needs silence to be heard.

Inspired by Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way,

Elif Batuman

encourages her students—and herself—to go on artist dates: “a block of time, perhaps two hours weekly, especially set aside and committed to nurturing your creative consciousness, your inner artist.”

That’s what

Jean Iversen

did before starting her three-year MFA program in creative nonfiction. She stayed at a secluded resort in New Mexico, where she found the magic of silence and nothingness. The desert is “a place I know I’ll return to when I need to be still. When I need to feel the spaces, in between the echoes.”

Another way to be more in tune with your creative intuition is to do… nothing. This is what

Erik Torenberg

calls perfect rest: “Want new ideas? Spend one full day alone doing nothing. Want to be more in touch with yourself? Spend one full day alone doing nothing.” Not even meditating—just sitting there. “100% not judging the process.”

And if doing nothing makes you bored, that might be a good thing.

Suleika Jaouad

talks about the expansiveness of that feeling of nothingness: “The times when I’ve been forced to lie fallow have spurred me toward the most fertile creative periods of my life.”

Ignore creativity advice

Maybe there’s no formula for creativity at all. Maybe you just need to learn the rules of the game and break them your own way, as in

Henry Oliver

’s reminder to ignore writing advice. Or, as

Henrik Karlsson

says about befriending your curiosity, you don’t need creative guidance; you just need to follow what’s fun and interesting. And if you don’t like what comes out of it, you can always rip it up and start again, like

Alice Bowsher

.

Log off. Touch grass. Get some ZZZs (it’s okay to rest). Go on a picnic. Bake something delicious. Cuddle a sheep.

And if all else fails, remember: “In order to be an artist, the first thing you have to do is make some art.” Consider this your invitation to get started.