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."