Sound advise - I've not deadline - but I do have to maintain a reasonable timeline - they're really great about giving me my creative room, but I don't want to be lazy either.

Dave

Lazy!?! Who is saying you are lazing? Only you! ! ! AND you are thinking about the work when you AREN'T actually at the timeline. If "they" aren't "pushing" you then give yourself "other" work - I do! I shoot and work and rework projects. Projects that maybe only a few will see.

Give yourself a chance to experiment - this IS the time to gain more and more experience. It is "bar-work" for ballet dancers; it is sketchy for fine artists; it is making maquettes for a sculptor; it is playing riffs on a guitar - you are an editor! Edit something everyday . .. a day not editing is a another day gone. Yah don't just have to do THE job! Doing "other" experimentation is ALSO part of the job. Part of the job? Shred that! It IS the job! ! ! !

Have fun . . . just edit!

Grazie

One of the primary reasons I eventually (not 'til age 35) chose voice-over as my career was that I couldn't stand creative deadlines. I had tried a number of "occupations" on my journey, including video production, writing, providing cartoons to publications, etc.

It was always the same story... I'd wrack my brain trying to come up with a solution to whatever project I was working on and it would always take 'til the very last minute unitl the answer would appear.

I even worked on this for a while with a therapist - it was so agonizing. The answer from the therapist surprised me:

Do you ever miss a deadline? she asked.

Well, no, but I'm always worried that I will!, I replied.

What would happen if you didn't drive yourself crazy?

I don't know, I never tried-- too frightening to even consider.... I think the stress is part of the creative process - I might miss the deadline!

The therapist eventually, several sessions later, got me to agree to take it easy and not worry about the deadline. I could always return to my previous stress-filled ways if there was a problem.

I got another project with a creative deadline, and I WAS able to just accept that the muse would not appear until the last minute, and accept on faith that the creative solution would appear again at the last minute.... You know what? it did! - this time without stress.

I eventually learned that my creative procrastination was actually part of the process - my brain needed time to process pertinent info and come up with the solution. My subconscious (The right side of the brain, where all creative work is performed anyway) would take whatever time it had available to come up with the best possible solution.

Now, when screen is blank, I just patiently wait for the answer to present itself.

Your mileage will certainly vary.

-Travis

Travis, well said . .. G

I go chop wood - other mundane but also physical activities will:
1. Release endorphines that support creativity.
2. A mundane task allows the brain to work within metaphysical spheres.

//Garo

I only use Vegas as a hobby but I know what you mean about creativity blocks.

I usually get inspiration by choosing a music track that fits the pace and feel of what I want to portray visually. I don't necessarily use the music in the final edit, it's just my way of getting the old brain cells moving.

Then I start to add the visual stuff, video, stills, whatever. Then the inspiration starts to flow.

Alan

Deadlines are good. Sleeping on it is good. Worrying about it isn't good. Getting churned up is a sure way to stop me thinking. In any endevour involving many factors with a number of possible solutions you have to give yourself time to let it all sink in. True, at times the solution leaps out. At other times you're not satisfied with any solution that you've considered. Have a break, do something else that's enjoyable. The trick of sleeping on it really does work. You absorb the data, go to bed, sleep, and have the solution in the morning. And if with all this the process still isn't working, that dealine really kicks the mechanism into gear. I think all these things have been mentioned by Grazie et al.

Try going back to some of the things, such as films, books, videos, etc. that first got you excited about doing this kind of thing.

In my case, reading Eric Barnouw's "Documentary," or Michael Ondaatje's "Conversations with Walter Murch," usually do it for me.

Amazing! There are 2 threads going at the moment, that are converging very very fast indeed. There is this one .. and . . guess which is the other?

Go get the Scorsie movie on MrD . . . .

. . . "Like a Rollin' Stone" . . . aint that the truth!

. . aint that the truth!

Do something most blocked creative people diligently avoid - have fun! In fact, treat your work as play and it will tweek your creaive spirit when you least expect it.
I learned a long time ago that what I called "laziness" was actually fear - fear of not being good enough was high amongst them since I would constantly compare my work to masters far beyond my years and experience. That would lead to a block, which in turn lead to another fear - beginning again! My desire to produce something extraordinary, made it impossible to produce anything at all. Maybe that's the stage you're at right now.
Best to just love to do your work for the sake of enjoyment - and not submit to the pressure to please everyone else and meet deadlines. I have found that when I work this way (as was already mentioned by someone else in the forum) creativity flows naturally and the result is highly favourable, even fantastic, if I stop feeling pressured. It did take some time to abandon my old way of working and trust in this concept though! I read somewhere that the creative process is one of surrender, not control, and try to keep that in mind during every new project.

Don't worry, you'll enter a new phase of enthusiasm in due time- but first try to be nice to YOU for a while - and, puleeeze, forget about beating yourself up for feeling "lazy"! (I used to do THAT too)
lili

Grab 2 beers, a radio and my fishing pole and head to a nearby lake. Listen to baseball (not a huge fan) and enjoy the outdoors. Basically do something you don't do on a routine basis, that's fun, but not too engaging.

Gives you time to think. The oxygen helps, too.

Dave

Strip Clubs

One of the main blocks is after putting into the project all kinds of time and solutions and it still sucks, and has to be rebased on an entirely different theme which means junk it and start over. Making that decision is the block.

JJK

That's a great way to look at it Travis....

As for Grazie.... he knowns only too well how my own creative blocks impact me... as I have taken to calling Grazie for advice on several occasions.

There are two things that help me get through this..

1) SHARING

By this I mean sharing the ideas with another editor, the wife, the client. The simple act of talking through the "issues" (rather than just mulling over in your own brain) seems to help me a lot.

2) CHOOSE rather than DECIDE.

That's the critical thing. Until recently I found I spent far far too much time "deciding" on what the "BEST" answer was. The result was that even after deciding... I would still have that nagging feeling that maybe the "other way" would have been BETTER.

Now... I CHOOSE a solution.

What's the difference between "Choose" and "Decide"? Good question.

For me that act of "Choosing" is where I make my decision for no other reason than "I Choose". I still consider the options of course... but in the end... "I choose" the solution.

Somehow this subtly different way of making the creative choice frees me to concentrate on implementing the creative idea without feeling I need to re-examine my reasons for making the choice.

With a "creative hammer" of course...!

Good advice so far...I won't repeat but will share a couple of things.

When I feel stuck, I walk away for a bit and get my mind on something else or nothing at all. Oddly enough, mowing my yard is a very pleasant zone for me if I'm just trying to clear my head. I also like to run, lift weights etc as that really seems to burn away a lot of the bad stress before it can accumulate and eat away at the ole creative soul.

Don't get so caught up in one thing that you become trapped within that one issue. Step back from the thing you are hung up on and look around it. "The map is not the territory" (think about it)

Just don't give up!!I Keep paper and pen close at hand all the time and I write down things as they pop into my head. I even keep one by the bed.....some of my best ideas have popped in my head in the middle of the night - insert joke here - . I try and never let a thought get past me as it may be the one that starts the whole process up again. To quote Ralph Waldo Emerson: "The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn."

Grab a hammer!

Keith

(edit for punctuation)

besides beer and chips and strip clubs,, I find anyone unlucky enough to be walking past my office and talk to them about the project, janitor ,plumber, plumbers kid, anyone and everyone.

There's a flash of wisdom there.
Human interaction.
Get talking about your work with someone.
Doesn't have to be another editor or shooter,---just someone who shows an interest.
Even someone who politely nods.
That has a way of rekindling the embers of imagination.
Gets the creative juices coursing through your viens and brains.
Or, if there's no one who'll listen,----do you have a dog?
Good listeners, dogs,---especially Yorkshire terriers.
When you talk outload, even to a dog, ideas come flooding in.
Don't ask how I know that!

All sorts of good advice.

This is not something I can really control but it all tends to work like a sponge-you squeeze it until it's dry and then drop it into a wet spot to suck up some new fluid. Sponges work that way-you just can't squeeze them forever.

Similarly, I find if I work real hard and then let loose for a bit in a stimulating environment I'll start to get some new ideas.

The important thing is to have been working productively in the first place and this is where making choices instead of decisions helps. Basically, I think most of the decisions we agonize over aren't quite as crucial as we think so if you just make some choices and move on you won't be quite as blocked. I also find that I'm better at fixing mistakes than I am at making right decisions so moving on is good. I'll come back to it later.

A book I found inspiring was "The Collected Letters of Mark Twain". It wasn't exactly about writing but Samuel Clemmens lived to write so there's a lot of commentary there. One of the two things that were illuminating was that when he wasn't writing for work he was writing letters to people for pleasure. He was always writing. The other was that he would "Pidgeonhole" stories and sometimes he wouldn't come back to them for a few decades. Oh, and he had a lot to say about copyright laws.

Rob Mack

Sherman, that is a really insightful approach -- tell it to the dog. In verbalising the problem you organise your thoughts, so actually you don't need the listener to respond. My hubby gets subjected to this (standing in for dog) and complains that he seldom hears the end of whatever because I've figured it out before I finish the story (or even the sentence). Anyway he's not actually interested in editing, so I reckon I'm reducing his boredom by cutting the account when the solution blossums.

Serena

Have pen and notebook at the ready.

Inspiration presents itself at the most inopportune times.
Stef(Socrates)101

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All the above sound like good suggestions as I can relate - even though those may not work for me.

While I can't speak that much about editing (just getting started really), I have had blocks with other things like music, programming, web development, etc... Sometimes I just do random things with what I'm trying to do or would never think about doing. For example, just throw random clips on the timeline, throw in some effects, some random wavs, etc and check out the results. For the most part it is likely to be crap but there may be something in it that catches your eye and starts you down another path. Case in point, I have run across some exciting things when the midi sequencer started screwing up. While not a resolution in itself but it was a mind opener... Now, I sometimes hope that it will screw up. ;)