Creativity and inspiration are elusive. But there are many ways you can change your writing habits and environment to boost your creativity.
Some writers can find inspiration anywhere. In a grimy city, in a relaxing countryside cottage, or on a train or bus. Many writers go to coffee shops for inspiration, and others isolate themselves in cork-lined rooms. (Well not many, but at least one famous writer did.)
When you’re stuck or if you’ve hit a wall in your project, a change of scenery, music, or wardrobe could open up the creative valves in your mind. Here are some ideas that can help jumpstart your creativity.
Hotel rooms
Maya Angelou found her happy place in hotel rooms. She rented hotel rooms in the towns she lived in for a few months, and went there during the day to write. “To write, I lie across the bed, so that this elbow is absolutely encrusted at the end, just so rough with callouses.” She didn’t spend the night, but used these rooms as her writing study.
Allison Williams, who we spoke to on episode no. 22 of the Write Now with Scrivener podcast, said, "I am a binge writer, I like to check into a hotel and write 8,000 words in four days because I work better when I have one steady, deep-focus time to do my work.” She likes the way she can isolate herself and not have to worry about day-to-day home requirements.
Wardrobe changes
There’s a story that circulates about Victor Hugo writing naked. It is said that he “had his valet take away every stitch of his clothing, and ordered this servant not to return his attire until the hour when he expected to be through with his day’s writing.” That’s pretty hard to imagine in 19th-century France or Jersey, where Hugo spent many years, because he would have been cold in poorly insulated houses. Hugo’s wife, in her memoirs, explained that he bought “a huge grey knitted shawl, which swathed him from head to foot, locked his formal clothes away so that he would not be tempted to go out and entered his novel as if it were a prison.”
Robert Caro, author of biographies such as The Power Broker, goes to his office every day dressed in a suit and tie, even though he is alone, since it reminds him that he is is at work and he has a job to do.
You may not want to choose clothes that imprison you, but choosing comfortable clothes, or even dressing up, may make you feel more creative. 
A soundtrack for writing
Some writers need silence. Others want music to help them shut out the world. Many writers listen to instrumental music because songs with words get in the way. Anything from piano music to symphonies, from ambient music to movie soundtracks can set the right mood.
In On Writing, Stephen King says, “I work to loud music – hard-rock stuff like AC/DC, Guns ’n Roses, and Metallica have always been particular favorites – but for me, the music is just another way of shutting the door.”
This may not be the right type of music for your writing, but if you find some music that makes you feel at home and relaxed, this could let your creativity flow more easily. 
A writing shed
Similar to the hotel room is the writing shack. William Shaw, who we spoke to in episode no. 42 of Write Now with Scrivener, has a writing shed that goes to “about three-quarters of the way through a book when it’s a complete mess and I’m too sulky to talk to other people. And that way you can live in your own personal misery until you’ve sorted out what the book’s about.” With no running water and only solar power, this isn’t quite the cabin that Henry David Thoreau built by Walden Pond to write, but Shaw finds this forced isolation helps him finish his novels.
The writing shed has a storied history, with authors such as Dylan Thomas, Arthur Miller, Virginia Woolf, and George Bernard Shaw all having used this form of mini-retreat for their work, different enough from their homes to allow their creativity to flourish. 
If you don’t have your own shed, there are many writing retreats where you can rent a room or a cabin when you need this sort of isolation, usually with meals and evening get-togethers with other writers.
Art as inspiration
Many creative people find museums and art galleries inspiring. Looking at an art form different from the one that you’re working on can help you get a different perspective on your own creativity. 
Tracy Chevalier first saw Vermeer’s painting “Girl with a Pearl Earring” when she was 19. She bought a poster of the painting and put it on her wall. Sixteen years later, she thought, “I wonder what the painter did to make her look like that.“ This begin her journey toward the creation of her best-selling novel named after the painting. Tracy Chevalier discusses art as inspiration in this TED Talk
Richard Powers’ first novel Three Farmers on Their Way to a Dance owes its origin to a photo taken in 1914 by August Sander. The story of the three farmers is interwoven with two contemporary threads, and all three stories connect as the novel reaches its conclusion.
You don’t have to have a museum or gallery nearby; you can get inspired by looking at books of paintings or photos or viewing them online. If you find a work of art that you really like, get a poster and hang it on the wall in your writing space. It might give you ideas.
All of these ideas can give you a change of perspective that can help you boost your creativity and progress on your writing projects. Try some of them and see if they can help you.
Kirk McElhearn is a writer, podcaster, and photographer. He is the author of Take Control of Scrivener, and host of the podcast Write Now with Scrivener.