For writers there is nothing more infuriatingly useful than having all of the information in the world at your fingertips. Appreciation towards the simplicity of learning “how a spy would dress in the 1700s” or “how to best kill the fan-favorite comic relief character” may start you out feeling good, but that feeling quickly dissipates. 

When you break down what makes a piece of literature good, you never say “the historical accuracy,” unless you happen to be reading for educational purposes– which is not what I’m speaking about. Rather you remember the characters, what they overcame, their humor or their relatability. You remember the humanity of art more than the facts it contains. 

But this endless information is more than useless: it’s killing your creativity. Without realizing it, you’ve scrolled on Pinterest making your fictional characters’ mood boards a bit too long and retained all of the information your brain can hold. You are now unable to come up with an original thought or, in some cases, think at all. 

This can kill the motivation of any writer rather quickly. It’s easy to spiral into hopelessness and convince yourself that since you cannot come up with a new idea you aren’t cut out for writing, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. Your brain is simply not made for the sheer amount of information that the internet has to offer. 

Here is a cure to the ailment created by doomscrolling: touch grass. I mean this in the most literal sense possible. 

Go frolic in a field for ten minutes and see how overloaded your brain feels afterwards. This idea is supported by the American Psychological Association as they stated in their article “Nurtured by Nature” that “spending time in nature can act as a balm for our busy brains. Both correlational and experimental research have shown that interacting with nature has cognitive benefits.” 

But not having a grassy field to run around in is understandable, so here are a few other techniques you can try to get back into a creative mindset:

Make time to be aimlessly creative every day. Take a few minutes to doodle before you go to bed or learn a new art technique for fun. Taking time to simply create with no pressure behind being “good at it” is helpful for coming up with new ideas and learning to put less pressure on yourself. 

Try reading some classic literature, even if you think it’s boring. By reading the classics you are widening your understanding of story tropes and different personalities to use in your own writings. You might also learn you like authors such as Shakespeare and feel compelled to write whenever you read their works.

Create a space meant for writing. By having a spot to sit and write where you don’t allow yourself to do anything else (even research), your brain is able to switch tracks into “writing mode” relatively faster than if you were to simply sit at the same table you eat and play computer games at. 

In the end, what’s most important is simply learning to limit the amount of time you spend online. This helps us keep a clear headspace at all times in order to maintain our ability to write and tell stories well. Cutting out doomscrolling will restore creativity and supercharge writing, so put your phone down and let your writing freely flow.