Here's my quick list of things I do, which I know I shouldn't, when trying to be creative. Three bad habits to avoid.
1) Force it. If you've got no inspiration for the words, but you need some words before you go any further, then staring at the screen until your head starts to bleed in the hope the drops of blood will spell a genius line...won't work.
If you've been trying to do something for an hour, and it's just not working, then doing it for another hour probably won't help.
2) Permature perfection. The lyrics you use when constructing the song don't need to be the final ones. A simple dumb bassline can stand in for the killer one you haven't quite worked out yet, while you're working on EQing the drums.
And if you're recording the guitar part, you only need a rough mix - or a guide track - not something close to the finished product.
If all you've got is a rhyming couplet, sing that until you need more. If you've got a hihat you don't like, use that one till you're in the mood for tweaking hihats. Or...don't program the hihats yet.
3) Skip sleep. I'm a night owl. I often work best at four in the morning. But if I go to bed at five and wake up at nine, I will be rubbish for the whole day. And if I can scrape together the will to write something, it will be rubbish.
If you skip sleep, you might get two good hours done - and lose all of the next 24. It's bad economics.
The reason I had to hastily cobble this post together instead of presenting you with the fruits of my creativity is...I stayed up all last night failing to find inspiration, and as a result, was an uncreative zombie the whole day. I will now sleep, even though I'm not tired, so I can hopefully make something tomorrow.
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