Few things are scarier to me than a blank page. Particularly when I have a deadline and I know I need to produce something awesome. I do my worst work when I try to force myself to create.

I’ve found that the best way to produce mediocre content is to sit down fire up PowerPoint without any idea of what I want to do.

An Example

Imagine if a carpenter was asked to create a rocking chair. A special chair for an important client. She knows it needs to be really impressive, not just the standard run-of-the-mill chair. Do you think the first things she does is head out to the workshop and start sawing and hammering boards together hoping that something wonderful will take shape as she goes? I doubt it.

It’s more likely that she spends a good deal of time just thinking about what she wants the chair to look like. Going over and over in her mind what kind of wood to use, the dimensions of the rockers or the arms, the color of the stain. She knows that her materials, especially the kind that will be most pleasing to her customer, are expensive and any mistakes she can avoid ahead of time by planning will save time and money in the building process. So her designs must be near perfect before she ever cuts the first board.

Don’t Stare

I’m not sure why exactly but for some reason, when it comes to Word or PowerPoint files, web pages or what have you, my first thought is to stare at the blank page or slide hoping something will come to me. Unfortunately the muse rarely strikes when it’s convenient for me, no matter how hard I concentrate. It’s usually while I’m doing something completely unrelated that inspiration strikes. When I finally learned to accept this fact, it took a lot of the agony out of the creative process.

Instead of sitting down and trying to force myself to be inspired (almost impossible) the better solution is to begin thinking about the project long before anything has to be produced. Get my subconscious working on the project. If I’m designing a webpage, I go to places like dailySlurp.com that specializes in finding tons of well-designed websites to peruse. I browse through what others have created until I find something I like and then I think about how I could incorporate it (or something similar) into my page.

Make It Easy For The Muse To Find You

If you’re struggling for ideas, one thing’s for sure. You’re not alone. The question is what are you going to do about it?

There are all kinds of things out there that can inspire us. Go to places you know the Muse likes to hang out. Magazines. TV commercials. Movies. Museums (yes, that’s why it’s called that). Even PowerPoint presentations, believe it or not.  Designers copy each others work all the time. Hardly anything is new.

I suggest thinking about the problem for a while, then doing something completely different and letting your subconscious mull things over for a bit. When I do this, it never fails that eventually the good and sometimes great idea comes eventually like a bolt of lightning out of a clear, blue sky.