Creators Spicy Tea

Battling Through and Blocking Content Block

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by

Alley – Creators Spicy Tea
in ,

Content block hits all of us like a brick wall when we least expect it and when we can least afford it. I don’t know about y’all but I think I was about 2 years into this when I started getting stuck in a spiral of… I don’t know what else there is to do?!

Content block is not just you being lazy, or you not being original or not having ideas. Just think about the sheer volume of content you have probably already created. In just this Lightroom account which I have had since January 2024, I have 8,801 photos… And that is just photos and that is just almost 2 years. And those are just the photos that I deemed good enough to upload to edit. THAT IS SO MUCH?!

We have to create so much content on a cyclical and never ending basis that it is just a system rigged against us. We have to keep everything you need and fresh and new. But there is only so much new out there. And there is a saying, there is no originality in art, for a reason. No matter what you do, somebody has likely done it before, or something very similar. So it can feel like a uphill and losing battle to keep trying to come up with more and more content concepts.


Content Block: The Overview

What Causes Content Block

Once that battle starts to become a little bit chaotic or a little bit too much your creativity can totally stall, or when stress systems dominate, when your cognitive load is high, or when your decision space is too wide. That doesn’t even touch on acute and chronic stress which can shift brain resources away from flexible and creative and divergent thinking, which is the idea generation mode most creators need to step into.

Stepping away from just mental health and cognitive load, we also need to pay attention to our physical health. There is no way you can create art and depict exactly what you want to depict if your body is suffering or struggling. Sleep quality, especially REM sleep, heavily affects our ability to form novel associations and insights. And or, create stories and fantasy.

Sleep is not the only Health metric we need to take care of. If you are hungry, dehydrated, overworked or burnt out, you are not going to be able to create. We have to make sure to be putting our physical health in the same level of importance as our businesses and our mental health.

Why Adult Creators Face Content Block So Often

  • We are constantly in a state of elevated stress and anxiety. Everything from policy volatility and platform risks. Everything from Shadow banning, deep platforming, and payment policy shifts. All these and more increase productivity which elevates stress and avoidance. In simple terms, the more stressful our businesses become, the more likely we are to want to avoid them subconsciously.
  • Beyond the volatility of the industry, we also deal with a huge parasocial load and constant intimacy labor. So much research on influencer burnout and parasocial Dynamics shows that sustaining high mental and emotionally laborious relationships at scale raises the pressure we are constantly under, which raises our fatigue levels, which just depletes us creatively.
  • On top of the parasocial load we take on, we also put on every single hat in the hat rack all at once and are expected to still fit through the doorway. Adult creators carry the role of performer, editor, marketer, hr, customer service, tech, financial management, and the list goes on. We are constantly switching tasks and roles all day throughout the day. The cognitive science that’s out there on tasks switching can help explain the friction and extreme slowdown that comes from this constant need to be a different role every 10 minutes.

Prevention and Reaction to Content Block

Ways to Prevent Content Block

  • Take care of yourself! Stabilize your physiology so that your psychology can follow.
    • Sleep regularly. Protect consistent sleep and your opportunity for REM since REM is what helps promote those novel associations.
    • Be certain your base physical needs have been met such as adequate meals and water.
    • You could even consider walking for helping idea generation. Many experiments have shown that walking reliably boost divergent thinking whether you are walking indoors or outdoors. Try a 5 to 10 minute walk before planning your shoots or captions and see if it helps you as well.
  • Reduce cognitive load, but add constraints: have you ever stood in front of a menu or a giant list of options and just stared at it for 10 minutes because God damn how do you choose? That’s called decision paralysis and you can help reduce that by adding constraints. Creativity improves when constraints help focus the attention. Use more narrow briefs or concepts, consider fixed formats, etc.
  • Batch tasks: just like we batch create content to be certain we can keep on task and have as much content as we need, batching our similar tasks is just as effective of a strategy help us out. This could look like having a hour to edit a day, an hour to schedule after, and client interaction later etc. This helps keep us from bouncing from one type of task to the next. APA summaries and many recent studies have shown that switching between major types of tasks will drain our time and attention. So if you were transitions equals less friction and hopefully less content block.
  • Stop demanding perfection from yourself: on a day you are feeling fairly middle ground, define minimum standard for content. And on your low days with low content energy or low inspiration, hit that minimum and then stop expecting more from yourself. The aim is to avoid those perfection spirals, which tend to pop up when stress is high and options are too varied.

What to do when Content Block Hits

  • Search Pinterest/Google for boudoir photos: Find ones you like and re-create them.
    • Always remember when re-creating someone’s work you emulate, not replicate! We need our own spice, not a direct replication. We want to make sure we are still representing our branding our niche and our style as a creator.
    • Try searching the niche of content you create such as BDSM poses, or simply selfie/self boudoir tips.
  • Browse YouTube/TikTok for boudoir tutorials: even if you do not find a specific pose or theme or concept that you are going to directly replicate, I would still suggest this. I find that even just watching these and immersing myself in the process of self photography and South boudoir helps me get into the mindset that I need to be in to actively do it. You are definitely going to find a lot of videos that are directed specifically to professional photographers who are photographing other people. You can help narrow the results by adding it to self-boudoir or selfie boudoir, selfie photography, selfie tips, etc.
  • Take inspiration from the top creators on your platforms: Look through the content they post and what does well, and see if you can recreate it in your own way.
    • For social promotion go on your discover page, your FYP, search the hashtags you commonly use and scroll through and see what others are doing.
      • If you are on Reddit: my strategy has always been to sort the subreddit that I’m going to be wanting to post content in by top of the last month and by top of the last week to see what in general performs well there so I can look to attempt that in my own style.
    • For adult content search through content sites that you are on, or just ones in general. Look specifically through the niche of content you already do create, and what you might want to create.
  • Make your content do the work for you: You probably already have more content than you think you do if you just start re-purposing content you have already created.
    • Re-purpose and re-sell your customs as premades.
      • This is not applicable if your clients paid for exclusivity, and you must remove any and all identifying information of any clients prior to redistributing the video. So if you used their name that must go, if you showed their image that must go etc.
      • Custom photos can be bundled and then resold. Or they can be posted on your adult content walls. Custom videos can also be reused in their entirety as long as the above bullet point is followed. You can absolutely resell those. You own them. You have the copyright. And if your client did not request or pay for exclusivity, you have every right in the entire world to do anything you want with your property.
    • Make one video stretch miles.
      • Each one of your longer videos is a gold mine of content just waiting for you to clip it. Screenshot any scenes that ended up looking pretty damn good and post those photos on your walls. And clip it into small clips for your walls or promotion or as trailers. Take very short sections that are maybe 3 to 5 second long and make GIFs. Using this strategy one 5 minute long custom video for me usually turns into at least 30 or more pieces of postable content.
  • Have your subs provide the content ideas: why should we have to come up with all of the ideas?! Make your subscribers help out!
    • Put up a poll, or ask them to comment responding with what they want to see. This helps make them feel more involved in the process and more likely to want to purchase content or services.
    • Run a small sale on customs or custom photos. Use the concepts and ideas they come up with while making their customs for your own shoots. Make as much extra as you can surrounding that concept while you create their custom content and schedule all of that for your walls, promo, etc.
  • Utilize available tools and resources: these days there are so many resources on content concepts out there. You just have to know where to find them. Here are a few examples:
  • Switch your fit your lighting or location: go put on something in your closet that you would never think to use for content. And then make it content.
    • No, seriously, it is actually a lot of fun in the end. Close your eyes, stick your hand in the closet, pull something out and you just throw that on in whatever way you can imagine, and snap some photos.
    • Or, go into a different room that you are never normally in, strip down or dress up, and start taking pictures. Eventually after taking photos in the new environment, I usually start getting excited about what I’m able to do that’s different and I’ll even be able to start sparking inspiration for short clips.
    • Or, go blue. Or pink. Or red. If you don’t have a RGB light yet, I highly suggest it. I personally have a few but the one that I love and would more than happily recommend is this one from SmallRig. She is tiny, powerful, and portable. Turn all the lights in your room off, turn on just one RGB light, and just go ham. Play with the shadows, play with your highlights, play with texture. Surrounding yourself in a somewhat brand new environment with the new color can help spark inspiration.
      • For more tips and tricks about lighting, pop over and read or watch our resource on lighting tips and tricks.
  • Go get a chair: I know that sounds a bit weird but hear me out. Go and grab a chair or other item which you can place your weight or your body on. Or some other large prop that you would normally never use.
    • Bring that prop into your shooting space. If you are able, just hop in front of the camera and start taking photos using that prop however you can imagine.
    • If your brain isn’t quite stimulated enough by the new addition to the environment, go through Google and Pinterest and those steps we described above but add in the key word describing what your prop is. So for example if I grab a chair my Google search would look like self boudoir with chair or self boudoir seated

Re-shape Your Structure and Systems

  • Build and maintain a starting routine for when you need to create or conceptualize content. Think something like listening to the same playlist, maybe wearing the same kind of lip gloss every time, or, as I described here in this resource, sitting in front of your lights for a few minutes to let your eyes adjust and get used to being under the camera’s eye.
  • Start implementing micro brakes. If at any point your productivity starts to slow or stall, take a micro break. Take a 5 to 10 minute non-working break, then come back into it. Micro brakes will help reduce fatigue, and increase your attentiveness which can often help clear a block from settling in.
  • Be very attentive to when or if you start noticing content block showing up. It could very well be a indicator that you could be getting into a cycle of burnout or at least a little bit close. This resource covers much more on creator burnout.

Final Thoughts

We are on a never-ending cyclical pattern of having to create create at a rate that most people could never even conceptualize having to do for a living. Or for any reason at that matter. But, the algorithms don’t get less demanding, and the need for new ideas never slows down. Try using some of these tricks above and see if it can help jog any inspiration or creativity at all. And remember, don’t expect perfection on days where you don’t feel perfect!

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