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Finding yourself stuck behind a creative barrier, as if the wheels of creativity have stopped spinning? Here are thirteen tips that have helped me break out of my creative dry-spells. I hope you'll find them helpful and that they will get those creative juices flowing again!

(1) Listen to music from totally different genres fromwhat you usually listen to.

(2) Shift art forms; do some drawing, write some poetry or a short prose piece; do a free-write. Sometimes getting your imagination working on very different things can spur your musical mind onward.

(3) Choose some random sounds, and start a free musical piece with them. Intend not to let anyone hear it, so that the mind doesn't get too bogged down in details or in making something "presentable." Make it free and keep it fun.

(4) Go back to those works of art that most inspired you review or relisten to them; try to take note of details you previously missed.

(5) Go to an art gallery; view an exhibit you've never seen before.

(5) Read a new book.

(6) Go to the forest; connect with nature, and listen for rhythms and melodies in the flowing sounds of the natural world.

(7) Dive into your memory bank; think of the moments when you felt most inspired, or the most emotionally intense moments in your life.

(8) Take a feeling or mood (e.g. energetic, happy, sad, depressed, optimistic, cynical, dark, tormented, blissful, mellow, etc.), perhaps one you never dealt with before in music, and give yourself the task of giving it a soundtrack.

(8) Do the same, but with an abstract idea; what would justice sound like? what would be the soundtrack of wisdom? compassion? freedom?

(9) Watch a scene from one of your favourite movies with the sound on mute; watch it in the dark and imagine what its soundtrack would be, if it were written by you.

(10) Write a sentence or message, or choose a favourite quote. What would the soundtrack of this quote be?

(11) Imagine a scene or setting; what sort of music would best flesh it out?

(12) Collaborate with another artist; sometimes the confluence of two artists' creative streams can produce something as powerful as it is beautifully fresh.

(13) Take a break from writing and creating for a while. Be receptive; take the world in. After this period, your creative activity will have a sense of vivid novelty, which pours out of all of the new experiences of the world that you have received.

I hope these will help break through those walls obstructing your creative flow. Have fun experimenting with them, and let me know which ones work best for you.