What I do when I hit a creative wall.

First, I panic. Just a little. I glare at the blank page, the blinking cursor, the canvas that suddenly feels like it’s holding its breath. I consider dramatic career changes. Cryptid hunting. Moss farming. Anything but this.

Then I remember: I’m a traditional artist. A brush-and-paper kind of girl. Charcoal smudges under my nails, paint water mistaken for tea, sketchbooks stacked like spells—my creative process isn’t clean or linear, it’s ritual. Messy, sacred, stitched with muscle memory and stained fingertips.

But when even the physical materials stop speaking to me, I wander digital for a bit—just enough to stir the ghosts. I scroll through my own TikTok's, revisit Calypso dancing on the shore, dig through eerie audio, and read my comments like love letters from the haunted. Sometimes, a strange sound or forgotten idea pulls me sideways into storytelling again. I never stay long in the digital fog, but I’m grateful for its strange kind of sorcery.

Mostly, I try not to panic too loudly. I light a candle. I take walks where I can, talk to the dead uninterrupted. I touch base with the personas who built me—Willow, Calypso, the pieces I carry forward. I write bad sentences. I remember that even a dead story can resurrect itself under the right moonlight.

And when nothing else works? I rest. Not because I’m giving up. Not because I don’t care. But because creativity takes energy—soul-deep, bone-tired energy. And sometimes the most revolutionary thing an artist can do is step away. Unplug. Breathe. Watch a terrible movie. Touch grass. Lay on the floor and let the ideas come back like tidewater.

I’ve learned that rest isn’t a break from the work. It is the work. So, if you’ve hit a wall, if the muse is silent, if your fingers are aching and your heart’s gone quiet—it’s okay to take a day or two. Or longer.

The haunted attic of your mind will still be there when you return. And maybe… the ghosts will be more talkative after a little nap.

Little note: Would you guys be interested in shorter and more frequent posts OR longer and less frequent ones? I definitely plan on doing longer ones every now and then especially when a podcast episode comes out. Let me know what you guys think!

Signed, your favorite emotionally unstable folklore cryptid <3