In this chap­ter “What Works for You”, a song­writer once claimed that the key to her cre­ative suc­cess lay in a clut­tered, untouched room in an old office build­ing where she had writ­ten all of her music. For thir­ty years, she refused to let it be cleaned, believ­ing that the space itself held the essence of her inspi­ra­tion. Whether it was the envi­ron­ment, the nos­tal­gia, or sim­ply the con­fi­dence her belief instilled, the rit­u­al worked for her, rein­forc­ing the idea that cre­ative habits, no mat­ter how uncon­ven­tion­al, can be pow­er­ful tools.

Charles Dick­ens car­ried a com­pass every­where to ensure that he always slept fac­ing north, con­vinced that align­ing with the Earth­’s nat­ur­al ener­gy cur­rents enhanced his cre­ativ­i­ty. Dr. Seuss kept a hid­den col­lec­tion of eccen­tric hats behind a false door in his book­case, select­ing one before sit­ting down to write, as if the act of wear­ing some­thing whim­si­cal would unlock his imag­i­na­tion. These rit­u­als, whether root­ed in sci­ence, super­sti­tion, or per­son­al con­vic­tion, illus­trate how deeply artists rely on their unique cre­ative trig­gers to bring their work to life.

The truth behind these sto­ries is irrel­e­vant; what mat­ters is that these prac­tices gave the artists con­fi­dence and a sense of con­trol over their cre­ative process. The mind is incred­i­bly pow­er­ful, and if a par­tic­u­lar habit or belief fos­ters inspi­ra­tion, then it serves a valu­able pur­pose, regard­less of log­ic or rea­son. Cre­ativ­i­ty does not fol­low a strict for­mu­la, and every artist finds their own way—whether through struc­tured dis­ci­pline, spon­ta­neous bursts of inspi­ra­tion, or rit­u­als that might seem unusu­al to out­siders.

Through­out his­to­ry, artists have worked under vast­ly dif­fer­ent con­di­tions, thriv­ing in envi­ron­ments of chaos, strict order, or some­where in between. Some require absolute silence, while oth­ers need the hum of a bustling café or the com­fort of a famil­iar space filled with sen­ti­men­tal objects. What works for one cre­ator may be entire­ly inef­fec­tive for anoth­er, rein­forc­ing the notion that there is no uni­ver­sal strat­e­gy for cre­ative suc­cess.

Seek­ing advice from sea­soned artists can be ben­e­fi­cial, offer­ing insights into dif­fer­ent ways of approach­ing the cre­ative process. How­ev­er, these rec­om­men­da­tions should be viewed as sug­ges­tions rather than rigid pre­scrip­tions. What fuels one person’s cre­ativ­i­ty may sti­fle another’s, and attempt­ing to con­form to some­one else’s method can some­times do more harm than good, pre­vent­ing an artist from dis­cov­er­ing their own rhythm.

Estab­lished artists often share what has worked for them, but their meth­ods are deeply per­son­al and shaped by their unique expe­ri­ences. While their insights can be valu­able, it is impor­tant to rec­og­nize that their approach is not the defin­i­tive way—it is sim­ply their way. The cre­ative jour­ney is deeply indi­vid­ual, and each per­son must exper­i­ment, adapt, and refine their own tech­niques to unlock their full poten­tial.

The key take­away is that inspi­ra­tion is a deeply per­son­al and often unpre­dictable force, and the most effec­tive cre­ative habits are the ones that make an artist feel con­fi­dent and con­nect­ed to their work. Whether it’s a qui­et work­space, a par­tic­u­lar time of day, or a quirky rit­u­al, what mat­ters most is that it cul­ti­vates a state of flow and moti­va­tion. By embrac­ing per­son­al cre­ative trig­gers and remain­ing open to self-dis­cov­ery, artists can build a process that feels nat­ur­al, sus­tain­able, and unique­ly their own.

Ulti­mate­ly, the pur­suit of cre­ativ­i­ty is not about adher­ing to strict guide­lines but about find­ing what gen­uine­ly works for you. There is no right or wrong way to create—only the meth­ods that res­onate with you and allow your best ideas to emerge. The chal­lenge is not to fit into some­one else’s mold but to embrace the quirks, rou­tines, and envi­ron­ments that unlock your cre­ativ­i­ty and make the process tru­ly ful­fill­ing.