Creative Dehydration

 I was sick the entire month of June and half of July. I lost momentum and it was hard to get the creative juices flowing again. Initially, I mistook my virus for dehydration. That has led me to coin the phrase “creative dehydration” to describe the phenomenon of lack of creative juices flowing.

Let’s look at dehydration and what it does to us.

This cute squirrel won’t be thirsty for long. It has found an ideal source of water. In fact, I imagine there was bathing and frolicking involved once it had quenched its thirst.

Thirst is your brain’s way of warning you that you’re dehydrated. A busy day can find you forgetting to drink water. We’re all guilty, or there wouldn’t be countless smartphone apps available to remind us to drink water.

What causes dehydration? When there’s less fluid outside your body’s cells than inside, your body compensates by drawing fluid from the cells. This inhibits their ability to function. Drinking fluids restores the balance and allows your body’s cells to function properly again.

If you’ve flown in an airplane, the dry air can trigger dehydration.

Being at high altitudes increases your breathing rate, especially if you’re exerting yourself while engaging in a physical activity like hiking. There is less oxygen at high altitudes, which causes us to breathe faster and shallower, leading to increased water loss. The body loses water twice as fast at high altitudes as it does at sea level. Exercise caution if your travel involves higher altitudes than you typically experience.

When I travel, I have trouble staying hydrated. I have a picky palette when it comes to the taste of water, so we load up all our reusable water bottles with filtered water at home–enough to last our days on the road. We use YETI water bottles that keep our water cold all day. We also bring along a countertop filter we use at our destination. Honestly, it’s inconvenient, but it’s far better than the symptoms of dehydration. Mild dehydration makes you thirsty. Moderate dehydration feels like the flu. Severe dehydration…well, we won’t go there.

Creative Dehydration 

But what is creative dehydration? Simply put, it occurs when the creative juices seem to stop flowing. “Writer’s block” is a form of creative dehydration.

 Picture a stream, flowing gently over soil and rocks, gurgling happily to its destination. We often associate the scene with peace.

Now picture a stream when there hasn’t been enough precipitation. The stream dries up. There’s no flow of water headed to a destination. The little water that is in the stream can become stagnant. 

The steady flow of words whose destination is our story brings us satisfaction. When there’s no flow, we become dissatisfied and discontent. Stagnant.

While physical dehydration wreaks havoc on the human body, creative dehydration can have detrimental effects on the mind and emotions, and eventually the physical body. When our creativity is lacking, frustration builds and our emotions can get out of control. This frustration can lead to headaches or high blood pressure. It can cause the writer to feel despondent, discouraged, or even depressed.

If a writer can’t write, it threatens their identity. They wonder if they should write at all. Imposter syndrome takes hold. Self-doubt creeps in and takes up residence in their mind. It can be paralyzing.

Much like physical dehydration, creative dehydration affects the body in a hugely negative way.

So, is writer’s block a real thing? If you believe what you see in the movies, it is. The authoress goes to the Italian countryside, hoping the change of scenery will unblock her. It might do the trick, but she falls in love in the meantime and that complicates the plot line. Just peruse the Hallmark channel listings and you’ll find several similar story lines.

If you’re a writer yourself, you probably think writer’s block is real.

But is it really?

Words flow from the mind down onto the page. Your hand writes or your fingers type. It doesn’t matter which method you choose to use. Sometimes the words just won’t come. But why?

Fear is a major factor involved in creative dehydration.

How many things can one person be afraid of?

Oh, let me count the ways.

Fear of rejection. Will they truly like my story? There’s a high level of vulnerability involved in writing. And that can keep a writer from finishing their story.

Fear of failure. What if I’ve spent all this time and effort and it never gets published? Why bother writing?

Fear of criticism. What if people don’t agree with what I’ve written? Putting your work out there leaves you susceptible to the opinions of others.

Fear of perfection. Getting that first draft written can be a daunting task. The writer strives for perfection, wanting every word to count. Just get the words on the page. You can perfect it later.

It could also be external forces.

These keep a writer from completing their work in progress, such as life disruptions, like moving, getting the crops in, or having a baby. The writer has to apply self-discipline to make time for writing when life is chaotic.

Loss of momentum due to illness. Whether it’s the flu or something worse, sickness can block our way to our goals.

Technological failures can put a halt to our writing.

I have a friend who was attending a writers’ conference and her laptop’s hard drive basically self-destructed. That definitely put a kink in the works. But she overcame it.

 Overcoming creative dehydration

Do you think writer’s block is real? My vote is yes. But I believe its root is in fear. And we need to be cautious about letting it control us. Don’t use it as an excuse to give up on writing, even temporarily.

It can be overcome more easily than we might think. Just thinking, “I have writer’s block,” can keep you stalled for much longer than necessary. There are many ways to overcome creative dehydration.

When the creative part of my brain stalls, my favorite method for overcoming it is asking my support team to pray. After all, my God is the Creator of the universe. Certainly, He has the power to speak creativity into my feeble human mind!

Or I choose to kick-start my creativity by engaging in another activity. The most effective for me is taking a walk outside–not laps up and down my hallway. There’s no inspiration there. But being outdoors and experiencing God’s creation will often get the creative juices flowing. Or just using a different part of my brain. I confess, sometimes that involves watching a mystery on television. Or reading a romantic suspense novel not written by yours truly. Seeing how others express themselves can be inspiring. That can get my own creative juices flowing again.

How about you?

Have you ever experienced creative dehydration?

How did you overcome it?