At a glance
WHAT IT’S REALLY ABOUT
Suleika Jaouad’s practical rituals for moving through creative blocks
- Jaouad reframes creative blockage as a frequent, normal state and shares how she works through it rather than waiting for inspiration.
- She uses private journaling as “writing that doesn’t count,” creating a no-audience space to be unedited and honest.
- When stuck, she starts with resistance—writing “I don’t want to write about…”—and then follows that thread to uncover what she’s truly curious about.
- She replenishes creativity by consuming art outside her primary discipline, like music, poetry, open mics, and revisiting formative books, which reliably sparks new ideas.
IDEAS WORTH REMEMBERING
5 ideasMake a “no audience” writing space to reduce pressure.
Jaouad treats journaling as writing that doesn’t count, which allows her to show up unedited and bypass performance anxiety.
Use resistance as your entry point when you don’t know what to say.
Beginning with “I don’t want to write about…” turns avoidance into a prompt, and the avoided topic often reveals what matters most.
Follow curiosity, not polish, to find the next idea.
She notices that what she resists is frequently what she’s most curious about, providing a reliable direction for exploration.
Refill the well outside your discipline to restart momentum.
Music, reading poetry out loud, attending open mics, and revisiting influential childhood books create “igniting moments” that lead to new work.
Treat inspiration as something you cultivate through inputs, not something you wait for.
Her approach emphasizes proactive practices—daily journaling and deliberate exposure to art—that generate conditions for creativity to return.
WORDS WORTH SAVING
5 quotesI am someone who feels blocked more often than not.
— Suleika Jaouad
I think I've been an obsessive journaler my entire life is because it's the writing that doesn't count.
— Suleika Jaouad
It's a rare space, especially in our world today, where there is no audience, unless you have a very nosy mother who's reading your journals, where you get to show up as your most unedited, unvarnished self.
— Suleika Jaouad
And so often when I don't know what to say, I begin by writing, "I don't want to write about..." And then I write into that.
— Suleika Jaouad
I think also just refilling the well outside of whatever your discipline is, for me, is always what inspires me.
— Suleika Jaouad
High quality AI-generated summary created from speaker-labeled transcript.
