Having a personal creative block

[crankyoldman]

At least, I think I am. I've been ruminating on this all morning, because well, I have free time now that I've been working. And while I've been doing a lot more creative stuff at this job, it's not you know, MINE exactly. And I find myself not wanting to do much at all in my free time.

Rest is good, of course, but am I just in a lazy mood... forever? I haven't felt the need to write, or sew, or even play around with graphics or anything outside of work. I just come home and watch TV and if I'm feeling extra with it I read a book or play a videogame. I was starting to think it was because I stared at a screen all day, but that just doesn't seem to be the case MOST days (some days, like yesterday where I spent an entire day in Illustrator on a hugeass flow diagram... that counts as needing a break).

Ladyfriend pointed this out, because well, my participation in anything hobby related has dwindled. It was within the context of fanfic and while I maybe thought that hobby was simply something I was no longer interested in, that's really not the case. I still get stupid excited over reading fic and seeing reviews and things...

Any of you sorts out there know how to pace your creative energy better between a job and hobbies? Am I becoming unable to concentrate or something? It's just really weird and I think that it's a little more than a simple "not feeling into it".

Comments

[p_cocincinus]

My creative energy levels seem very cyclical - sometimes I write a lot, other times not really at all. Sometimes I knit to have something to do while watching television, other times I'm knitting in every spare moment and designing in my head and wanting to cast on ALL THE THINGS. Sometimes I read voraciously; other times it's all I can do to keep up with Twitter and my feed reader. (I used to read voraciously all the time. Now, I still read a lot but not many of the things I read are books.)

I think some of it is just the energy of being a grownup, your creative energy starts to pace itself. Maybe your brain is resetting from all the creative work you were doing before - creative burnout is a thing, and it's why I don't do NaNo any more.

I heard on the radio that not being able to concentrate in the summer is actually a real thing that science has confirmed. It's called "cognition attrition."

[seventhe]

Excellent icon use.

I am interested in this as well -- I know a lot of my creative block is actual plain old exhaustion, but it would be nice to have a little bit of creative motivation on the weekends. :/

[wandererriha]

I have felt this way since 2005.

If you figure it out, do let me know. :P

[finch]

Weirdly, pacing myself is almost never the solution? I gently push myself with little bits of writing, little bits of worldbuilding, until something clicks and then I'm motivated again.

[thene]

Mine's so erratic. Sometimes I get super-creative due to irl/work stress, other times I can't even remember how does I words.

[ser_pounce_alot]

sometimes mine is so bad i don't open my writing program for over 30 days, and sometimes i sit down and out of nowhere vomit out 10k onto it, after weeks of absolutely nothing. i think maybe it's a combination of everything that you thought and that other people have mentioned? but i can't figure mine out, either. lol

[whitemage]

You may consider retraining your brain on why you're doing creative hobbies. For a long time, I know you were feeling vastly unfulfilled in your program/career, and you had a lot of life things you needed a major outlet from. Your hobbies (even the ones you had been doing before all that) were a way to help you survive, then to feel accomplished and engaged to make up for what your professional life lacked.

You don't have that as much anymore, because you have a more stable personal life and a program/developing career that fits your talents and inclinations much better. It's still not necessarily that you no longer need creative hobbies, but that your reason for doing them now has changed somewhat. So it might take finding a new reason or goal for whatever creative thing you're wanting to do?

[flecksofpoppy]

I have no idea if my experience is applicable, but sometimes, it's okay to just be, regardless of the reason. At the same time, if you're generally a creative person and you intuitively feel like you're missing something, after a long while, perhaps it might be worth looking into more closely. I feel like just "existing" outside work and etc. is underrated, mostly because for a long time I felt the need to DO SOMETHING ALL THE TIME. I feel like when inspiration and head space strikes, it just catapults you back into the universe of inspiration. But like I said, that's me, and it's certainly not applicable to everyone. I definitely wax and wane, but sometimes, it's as simple as one day desiring to stare at the television, and the next falling into a certain head space and doing effortlessly creative things with it. "Effortlessly" being, it just kind of... arrives. Of course, as I've said about 1,000 times at this point, that's me. But for what it's worth, there's my perspective. XD

If all else fails, look at L.L. Bean's website and think of dicks.

[yukie]

For me, doing what seems fun/is fun helps. And it doesn't matter if it`s wweh childish wweh. I have a pack of crayola markers that I will just DOODLE with. I plan to get some crayons and some giant paper to draw on. If I'm blocked, playing is what I need to do. If I think of creative stuff as work that torpedoes my drive, because it becomes obligatory and commodified/'something you must do to be worthwhile' rather than 'something i do because i love to'.

so seriously, FUCK ~putting away childish things~. Play is a fucking necessity, it is good for brains. So if you feel like writing ridiculous fanfic for an old franchise you love, do that. You are still creating; it is not of less worth because it's silly and playful. People make the mistake all the time of bein convinced that something needs to be "grown-up" and it must have GRAVITAS and be STIRRING and CHUNKY and FULL-BODIED all the time, and you are not allowed to indulge in the literary/artistic equivalent of cookies and milk ever blah blah blah... Yeah nah. That's crap. In my experience, if you get too preoccupied with being teh super duper growed-up person and ignore what you love/what is fun in favour of like--I don't know, TEH GRYMMDARQUE SRSBZNSS HEARTBREAKIN' STAGGERING OSCARWORTHY ET CETERA...if your work becomes an obligation or a hollowed-out means to an end (I do not count commissioned/contracted work as this, even though it is a means to the end that is money--the creative impulse is still your own voice in these cases), if there is no joy in the creation and no play...then the work stops having meaning. It becomes by-rote. your muse will give you the finger. And yes, silly playful stuff does have meaning, It's nourishing. It's a treat. It's all well and good to have a good healthy diet, but if you deny yourself treats and associate them with negative qualities...thhbppptt.

(My friends who do freelance illustration work taught me this incidentally. XD "Sometimes you have to draw Wolverine in a space helmet with a jetpack, punching a two-headed air-shark with freaky spider legs, with a backdrop of a crazy-ass Martian landscape...just because you can" was the exact phrase used.)

Doing something silly and playful, for me, will immediately mangle blockages. If it doesn't, I know I need to tale a break and try again. YMMV, but this works for me. XD