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Artists work with a scaffolding; a thoughtful plan or a broad strategy for getting started, but when you finally get down to work, unpredictable transformation inevitably takes over, and you need to be prepared for it. Being prepared for it also means accepting it.
 
Despite impeccable planning, ruts and groves, as Tharp (2003) calls them, happen. Lingering in a rut for whatever reason can be detrimental to the work. To notice those low points in creativity, “you have to question everything except your ability to get out of it” (Tharp, 2003, p.187). If you’re in a rut Tharp suggests a three-step process for dealing with one: first, see the rut, second, admit the rut, and three, get out of the rut.
 
Ruts and grooves are met by people in different ways. When I hit a rut yesterday, I called it a day and got in my car to take a short drive. I mentioned before that I do some of my best thinking in the car. It helped and I was able to rethink some ideas and started back up again today.