Wrapping up our 3 part series, I wanted to share with you the fun side of “generating inspiration.” I realize that, thus far, “fun” seems like an unlikely descriptor - so far I’ve recommended a course of action that requires a structure and a set of procedures (not necessarily great fun) in order to break through the paralysis of writer’s block, or a wholly uninspired state in general (also, not fun.) This will be fun, because I’ll show you how some of our greatest and well-known thinkers cut through their blocks, and in some cases came to rely on these methods.
Thomas Edison, Salvador Dali, Robert Louis Stevenson - the near-dreamers 
I realize right away the unlikely grouping being presented here - but two of these prolific and well-known creators shared a near-identical method for bringing forth inspired visions and solutions when needed. Effectively, their inadvertently shared method involved falling asleep while holding an object in hand which, upon their falling asleep, would make a loud noise, waking them with a start and also with a vision or solution at the forefront of their mind, which was hastily written down as completely as possible.Robert Anton Wilson and others called this the hypnopompic method -hallucinations upon waking that Edison and Dali both found useful, but certainly used for different ends.
Dali in particular gave us rather large hints as to his method when naming a painting Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bumblebee around a Pomegranate a Second Before Awakening, certainly. I am of the opinion that Edison’s state of mind was likely more of a theta state that allowed him to bring forward solutions to vexing problems, but certainly it’s related to Dali’s state of mind (by virtue of methodology).
It is also said that Robert Louis Stevenson came up with The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde in a dream state, after being awakened by his wife. The cool bit in all this is, there’s no reason you can’t use this method yourself. It appears to entail no risk (unless you drop something pointy and heavy on yourself!) and looks to be a very quick way to access a potent and fertile state of the human mind.
James Joyce, Albert Einstein - art as science, science as art
Sometimes, in order to move forward, you have to shake things up and take an unlikely approach.
Known for the masterworks Ulysses and Finnegan’s Wake (among others) we find that James Joyce is a literary artist who approached his art methodically, more along the lines of a scientific method than a wholly inspired artistic vision. I won’t attempt to add to the volumes already written about Joyce and his work, except to say that his methodology was highly structured, very rigorous, and deliberate - something that a first reading experience of Ulysses is unlikely to imply!
Albert Einstein, it can be said, seemed to take the opposite approach entirely. While certainly familiar with rote and methodology, and skilled as a physicist and mathematician, it was Einstein’s rejection of rote learning and willingness to engage in imaginative thought experiments which led him to many of his breakthroughs.
There’s a great deal of value in experimenting with your methods - a change in perspective is always healthy, and prevents a certain kind of tunnel vision from limiting your work unnecessarily.
Personal experience
I have been fortunate enough to be involved in a wide range of creative disciplines, but the one that I find the most challenging and rewarding is songwriting. This is not to say that I’m particularly great at it, nor does it come easy to me. But, I have been lucky enough to have epiphanies and breakthroughs that seemed to come from nowhere, in addition to plotting songs out through a more methodical approach. I am keenly aware of the feelings generated by mental blocks, and have struggled to employ some of these very techniques to get around them. They do work - you’ll just have to experiment and see what’s right for you.
I’ll leave you with a quote from my beloved art teacher, Robert G. Rankin - “there are no mistakes; only creative delays!” This was meant to encourage people to jump in and make something, just to get he process rolling. Ol’ Bob knew that the tyranny of the blank page needed to be overcome - and I hope that somewhere in this 3 part series you found something useful that will allow you to break through in your own way.
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