You can only cook with what’s in the fridge. Your ideas can only come from what you’ve been taking in.

Nothing original comes out of nowhere. What you make gets assembled from everything you have read, watched, heard and paid attention to, so thin input gives you thin output however hard you strain for it. Feeling creatively empty is often just an empty shelf rather than a missing talent.

Restock on purpose this month. One book outside your usual, one album you would never have chosen, one conversation with somebody who does nothing like your thing. Do not try to use any of it immediately. It comes back later, recombined, and you will not be able to trace the source.