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Creativity can feel ineffable. Mysterious. Elusive. A “you have it or you don’t” type of thing. In reality, it’s for everyone. A muscle you need to work like any other. But how? We asked our favorite creative minds to share the rules they return to again and again. The tricks that help them get inspired, stay productive, and translate good ideas into masterworks. Indie film king Jim Jarmusch, comedian Ramy Youssef, and novelist Joyce Carol Oates think you should take a walk. Others say you should trust your gut. Write everything down. Be your most radical self. With this brain trust, we assembled GQ’s “Secrets to Unlocking Your Creativity.” So open your mind. Find your inner genius. And for the love of God, go for a walk.
1. Just Try
There is no dark art to creating, according to Rick Rubin, the sui generis record producer who wrote a whole book on the subject (The Creative Act: A Way of Being, out now). His advice? Just go for it. “Think of it as play,” says Rubin. “Have fun, do iterations. No thought is too small or ridiculous. Build a model in the physical world, not just in your mind’s eye. Follow your excitement. If your interest wanes, experiment in a new direction. If you’re excited to show it to a friend, it’s ready to release into the world.”
2. But Don’t Try Too Hard
What would Lucy Sante, writer and author of the singular history Low Life: Lures and Snares of Old New York, have done differently when she was just starting out? “Don’t try so hard. Simplicity is your best bet. Outsmarting everyone else is not the point.”
3. Step Out of Your Mind
Velvet Underground co-founder John Cale has a tried-and-true method for getting his brain unstuck. “I go to the gym to get endorphins rushing around,” says the octogenarian musician. “And, I reread a few favorite novels to get me out of my own head. I’ve said before how Repetition by Alain Robbe-Grillet or [the work of] David Peace seem to put things into a perspective for me that helps me expand.” And what creative advice would Cale give his younger, rock-and-roll self? “Skip the drugs, dumbshit!! It’s not worth it and it doesn’t make you any more creative just because you think you feel free. You’re no smarter then than you are now.”
4. Find Your Own Vision
The distinguished, Academy Award–winning cinematographer Roger Deakins has turned his eye to over 50 acclaimed films, from A Beautiful Mind to No Country for Old Men to 1917. His greatest piece of advice? “Find your own vision. Don’t attempt to copy.”
5. Open Up Your Energy
Uncut Gems and Euphoria casting director Jennifer Venditti is responsible for some of the most captivating characters to appear on your screen. She’s come to understand that success isn’t just about people who catch her eye—the flow and attraction go both ways. “When I first started, I had to find these people and I had to find these people,” she says. “And then I realized, it’s not just about me finding them. They’re seeing me too. And if my energy isn’t right, these people don’t respond. There’s a reason why we’re all here together. We’re reflections of each other.”
6. Take Notes All The Time
Calvin Eng, the celebrated Brooklyn chef behind the Cantonese-American restaurant Bonnie’s (which serves zany and ingenious dishes, like its own cha siu version of the McDonald’s McRib) always has his phone within arm’s reach. “I get ideas during the craziest times,” he says. “I bring my phone when I shower, because I just gotta write these ideas down. I always email myself. It’s my to-do list. You could just mark the email as ‘unread,’ and it’s there. At the end of the day or when I have time, I’ll sort through everything. I’ll get to the idea at some point. With email, I won’t forget to get to it. If it’s on my notepad, I might forget.”
7. Prioritize Looking Over Making
For architects Nile Greenberg and Michael Abel, founders of the studio ANY, the real work comes before the first line is drawn. “Creativity is not about producing ideas,” Greenberg says. “Prioritize looking over making and establish a strong position. The production side is unimportant after you learn to see in a clear way.”
8. But Also: Always Be Making Stuff
“You have to take things out of the realm of the theoretical,” says surrealist painter Alejandro Cardenas. “You have to get to the point where your hand can translate what’s in your mind in a clear and effective way.”
9. Throw the Proverbial Spaghetti Against the Wall
“Sometimes one of us will just start talking, either in character or not, until we lose steam. Often we’ll just all check our notes in our phone and be quiet for a few minutes, then say something like ‘Seat belts for the subway?’ And nobody else will make any noise. Rinse and repeat until something mildly funny is said that we can all start riffing on.” —Ben Marshall, John Higgins, and Martin Herlihy of Please Don’t Destroy, SNL’s resident weird comedy trio
10. Attack Big Problems
When Derek Jenkins, the lead designer at the luxury electric vehicle maker Lucid Motors, finds himself struggling to sketch something beautiful, he thinks back to his most basic objectives. For instance, making a car that’s highly aerodynamic, so that it can travel long distances without recharging. “Whatever problem you’re trying to solve,” he says, “make sure that you’re addressing that in the most honest, pure way, because that will result in some sort of aesthetic reward, if you’re good at what you do.”
11. Do Your Research
Salehe Bembury, the sneakerhead’s sneaker designer and former vice president of men’s footwear at Versace, puts in a ton of background work before his shoes land on your feet. “A sign of a good designer lies within their ability to research. When I begin to explore is when I find the answers I am looking for. Research can be conducted in many ways. Sometimes experience is more valuable than traditional research. Often, time spent in nature helps me break through a creative rut.”
12. Push Failure Out of Your Mind
Nicole McLaughlin is the queen of freaky upcycling, consistently crafting mind-bending wearables. In her hands, croissants can become a bra and a slew of Carhartt beanies can transform into shorts. How does she get there? “Take a moment and try to remove the idea that the permanence of failure will happen if you cut something too short or too long,” McLaughlin says. “See it as an opportunity to be creative and adapt. The process can be simple, and a finished product doesn’t require perfection. Everything you do and make is an opportunity to learn; the more you do it, the better you get.”
13. Change Your Scenery
Ethel Cain, who blew up with her Southern-gothic-inflected debut album, Preacher’s Daughter, knows that stepping away from her work can breathe new life into it. “When whatever I’m currently finding inspiration in stops inspiring me, I look for a change of scenery and a new well to draw from,” she says. “Sometimes stepping away to get a new angle is the best thing for a project. Also, trying something new is a good way to take the project in a new direction or realize what you were doing before was the best way to do it after all.”
14. Lean Into Your Discomfort
Jake Arnold, the sought-after Hollywood interior designer for the likes of John Legend and Chrissy Teigen, Orlando Bloom, and Katy Perry, didn’t land on his bold, sophisticated style by playing it safe. “Being uncomfortable means that something great is happening because it’s getting you to think about things and getting people talking,” Arnold says. “Have something to say, have a point of view, and know that it could flop or it could soar. But either one of those is better than being in the middle.”
15. Go for a Walk
What does legendary director Jim Jarmusch do when he’s stuck? “Walk. Wherever I am. Appreciate details and forget about being blocked,” he says. “The gradually changing landscape seems to free up the neural pathways that relate to ideas.”
Author Michael Pollan agrees: “Walking somehow lubricates a mind that has seized up, and produces lots of good ideas.” So does Joyce Carol Oates, the great American novelist and Twitter phenomenon: “That is my great solace in a time of frustration.”
16. Establish a Strict Routine
The Academy Award–winning Icelandic composer Hildur Guðnadóttir, who most recently created the soundtrack for Tár, finds freedom within a locked-in routine. “Somehow, in the structure, there’s a lot of flexibility,” she says. “The fewer decisions you have to make, the better. Because then you can use that space for creativity itself.”
17. Go With Your Gut
“Trust your instinct. I always listen to what people have to say. But at the end of the day, I always just make the decision myself. There’s nothing worse than regretting a decision that you didn’t make yourself.” —Fashion designer Peter Do
“If something comes naturally and quickly and it consistently produces good work, that’s your gift. Trust it.” —GQ Wellness columnist Joe Holder
“Trust your instincts and take risks, even if it means going against the norm.” —Yuri Choi, cofounder of Savile Row tailor Yuri & Yuri
“Stick with your gut. Whenever I do R&D, it’s never as good as when I’m freestyling—cooking from passion and intuition.” —Calvin Eng
18. Stay Hydrated
“I try to drink a lot of water. Usually when I really can’t think I’m probably dehydrated. I wish I had figured out the water drinking earlier.” —Ramy Youssef, creator, writer, and star of Ramy
19. Freak It
Perfumer David Moltz, the founder of D.S. & Durga, bottles up unexpected scents—copper and creosote and wooden crates—and turns far-out ideas, like a Pixies song, into something you’d want to spray on your neck. “Be bold and make something that no one has thought of,” he says. “Don’t worry at all if you think people won’t get a novel concept. They will when they see how rad it is. Make sure you present it in the best way when it’s done. No one wants to see the half-assed early version.”
20. Get on the Horn
What does the fabulously old-school downtown publicist Kaitlin Phillips do when she’s stuck? Why, she picks up the phone. “I call friends, journalists, and especially boomers,” she says. “Sometimes just explaining to an older person what I’m working on makes me frame it in a new way and unlocks angles for me.”
21. Make Yourself Unreachable
Andrew Huberman, the Stanford neuroscientist and host of the Huberman Lab podcast, knows the power of boundaries. “I think one of the biggest challenges people have nowadays is feeling comfortable being inaccessible,” he says. “And I work hard to defeat the anxiety of being inaccessible for basically two hours of the day. I know people with kids will say, ‘You can’t do that.’ Actually, you can. There are things you can place in your life that will allow that. And the communications by text or socializing in person are far more enriching when you have segmented portions of the day where that doesn’t exist.”
22. Tune In to Your Dreams
All throughout human history, freethinkers from artists to scientists have mined their dreams for groundbreaking ideas. The designer Peter Do, known for his impeccable genderless tailoring, does too. “I have dreams about fittings. Within the dream, it’s very vivid. I know what garment it is—it’s a very specific thing so I write it down,” he says. “When I’m stuck, sometimes I’ll have dreams about solving the problems.”
23. Seek Out Honest feedback
“A trusted collaborator—it’s never too early to develop trusted collaborators!—can help you to understand when you’re too close to a project, and when it’s time to take a few steps back and zoom out,” says Ashley Clark, curatorial director at the Criterion Collection and author of Facing Blackness: Media and Minstrelsy in Spike Lee’s ‘Bamboozled.’ “They can also look you in the eye and tell you that something isn’t working. Surrounding yourself with ‘yes’ people is the enemy of true creativity.”
24. Enjoy the Ride
It can be easy to forget that the true pleasure lies in doing the work. “Remember to enjoy the process, as that’s where the real magic happens,” says Yuri Choi, one half of the brains behind the hot new-school Savile Row tailor shop Yuri & Yuri. “And to keep a focus on the process, as this can lead to new pieces and clues that bring me closer to my goal.”
25. Play the Long Game
“I can’t tell when an idea will be coming. So, I just need to wait. And search for something inspiring, like a photo, a film, a poem, a book, art, and especially listening to the sounds of nature, rain, the wind, the birds, looking at the clouds.” —Ryuichi Sakamoto, Oscar-winning composer, actor, and record producer
26. Swerve Out of Your Lane
When Hannibal Buress was starting out, he thought he was just a stand-up comedian and had no business writing sketches. Even when he was writing them for SNL, he saw himself as a bit of an impostor. It took some time for him to come to a realization: “Nobody’s born a sketch writer. It’s just a format and you adjust to it. To my younger self, I would say, ‘Stretch out some more, have fun,’ and also: ‘Dig deeper.’ ”
27. Don’t Romanticize It
“Creativity is a blue-collar job in so many ways. It’s like being on a factory line. You show up and you punch the clock, day in and day out, and you try not to get too caught up in the end results or how it will be perceived. Because that’s not your job! Your job is to do the thing that moves you, and to do it in the face of anything that’s thrown in your direction that’s trying to distract you.” —Rich Roll, vegan ultra-endurance athlete and wellness podcaster
28. Do It All
Kyle Ng co-founded Brain Dead in 2014 as a clothing line, but today it also encompasses an LA art-house theater, a pro wrestling federation, and a record label. He also pumps out nonstop collaborations with everyone from Chia Pet to Magic: The Gathering. All that variety, Ng says, is the key to keeping his mind fresh. “I always say it’s like a garden where you’re watering the plants,” he says. “If you only have tomato plants, you’ll probably be sick of tomatoes, right? But if the peaches are growing, and then you have tomatoes and oranges and strawberries, you’ll be excited for that next batch of produce.”
29. Be Your Own Hype Man
“I took a class once, and the prof, on the last day, said something that’s stuck with me. He asked everyone, who’s the best writer in the class? Everyone kinda demurred. I jumped in and jokingly said I obviously was, then clarified that I was joking. He said no, you’re not joking. It’s not a joke. You have to believe you are the best writer alive. You have to have a vision. You have to be a visionary. Neither the publishers, nor the readers, least of all the critics, have any clue what story the world needs to hear. You have to decide that. Go into yourself, tap into exactly the story you feel needs to be told, the story that only you could tell.” —Sean Thor Conroe, author of Fuckboi
30. Pray—Whatever That Means to You
“All writers are spiritual. They’re trying to connect with something that, for the most part, no one else can see. It actually doesn’t exist in the physical world yet.” —Ramy Youssef
31. Put in the Damn Work
“There is no substitute for hard work, stubbornness, and a resolve to do the very best you can.” —Joyce Carol Oates
“It often comes down to bulldozing your way through, putting in the nonstop work, staying under and in the work for a long, uninterrupted stretch.” —Sean Thor Conroe
“It’s not magic, it’s hard work.” —John Cale