Don't Stop Me Now: Investigating the Information Interactions Involved in Overcoming Creative Blocks

ABSTRACT Creative work is economically and socially important: information demonstrably plays a crucial role in creativity. Creative blocks are emotionally and professionally difficult for those engaged in creative work, and disruptive of the work itself. Despite the importance of resolving blocks in creative work and the well‐known role information plays in supporting creativity, little research has examined the role of information in addressing (or causing) creative blocks. In this paper, we present a dedicated empirical examination of this role of information in creative blocks—to our knowledge the first of its kind. Our results show that information interaction and behaviour are key to resolving creative blocks. Traditional information behaviours, notably browsing, are key, but these are supported by a range of digital interactions, including scrolling, algorithmic curation, and easy digital curation of multimedia. This research cements the importance of both information behaviour and digital information interactions to creative unblocking.