Pain of creativity

[Ilgoth]

Hey forum!

I have had a terrible week lately. I got nothing done. It's not like I don't have anything to do, but every single thing I have tried to do - has failed. I got four different maps as WIP, and none of them went further, as I couldn't allow myself to save what I had done. I feel I'm completely sidetracked, and underscoring everything right now.

Is this some sort of burning out with creativity, or what? Feeling terrible right now. For a while it was just an emotion, but now its Sunday and my hands feel just broken. As if I had been at the gym, and torn all of my muscles from shoulder to fingers.

Have you encountered anything like this? What did you do to end it?

- Il

[Falconius]

Take a break and do something else, recharge your batteries so to speak. Could be anything, but physical activities are probably best. Though often I just end up making terrain for war games... You know, just slapping stuff together without caring so much, that also works, projects where you're just dicking around having fun. They key though is don't map (or whatever it is you're concentrated and stuck on).

[johnvanvliet]

there is a reason and need for "time wasters"

some of mine are
BZ-flag ( a tank capture the flag)
Word War Vi ( reinterpretation of the 80's CLASSIC "Defender" )


creative side

mandelbulber2 ( 3d fractal program )
Fragmentarium and StructureSynth ( 2d and 3d fractal coding programs)

and this old blog post
https://www.cartographersguild.com/entry.php?b=147

[ChickPea]

I think this is the mapping equivalent of writer's block, and I suspect everyone gets a touch of it now and then. The best thing is to step away and indulge in some other hobby. Read a book or watch a movie, go for a run or paint your house! Don't think about mapping because if you try to force yourself, you're only going to feel more discouraged. If you feel you simply must keep mapping, try something completely different. So, for example, if you've been creating regional or world maps, trying making a village map or a dungeon map. You just need a change of scene. But don't worry, your muse will return. Just give it time.

[kacey]

Hi Ilgoth, I think I might know how you feel. I filled a two terabyte hard drive with unfinished PSD files, because I just wasn’t happy with where they were going, and that’s not including about 50gb of unfinished projects on my computer right now. At the moment I’m jumping back, and forth between three unfinished maps.

For me, when I run out of steam completely on trying to complete a map...which I’ve never done, I find it helps to do something completely different. If I really feel drained by poor results in mapping, I start doing landscapes of what that world might look like, and when I feel I’ve failed at that I move on to painting portraits of the people who might live there. Finally when I’ve completely convinced myself that I’m just not cut out for digital painting, I start sewing book’s together. It’s weird...I know, but it still keeps my hands busy while I’m brooding over failed results, and I hope to fill one with map’s one day, and when I get tired of doing that I go back to mapping again.

It’s a constant cycle, but I find...Sometimes when I get back to where it started that the work I thought was completely awful really wasn’t all that bad, and at that point I get back to work on it with a fresh perspective.

By the tone of you’re post it seems like you might be one of those people who just needs to create, so I hope you can push through, I know how frustrating it can be.

Another thing I find that helps is to save a copy of the file you’re struggling with, only add the word TEST to the end of the name, or experiment, or something similar, and then give yourself the freedom to screw things up with the assurance that you’re original file is still intact...I find this is where my best work stems from. Eventually the test file get’s renamed, and then I don’t feel stuck anymore...For a while...

If all else fails, you could lurk around the Cartographers Guild hopping to gain even the slightest bit of inspiration from the beautiful work here. That’s what I’m doing tonight, no matter how hard I try, I just can’t seem to do anything worthwhile keeping tonight on my current project.

[darcycardinal]

Hey forum!

I have had a terrible week lately. I got nothing done. It's not like I don't have anything to do, but every single thing I have tried to do - has failed. I got four different maps as WIP, and none of them went further, as I couldn't allow myself to save what I had done. I feel I'm completely sidetracked, and underscoring everything right now.

Is this some sort of burning out with creativity, or what? Feeling terrible right now. For a while it was just an emotion, but now its Sunday and my hands feel just broken. As if I had been at the gym, and torn all of my muscles from shoulder to fingers.

Have you encountered anything like this? What did you do to end it?

- Il

I think we have been all there before Il. And yes, it sucks cause you look back on your previous work and wonder "what the heck just happened?". Well for some of us, the fear of criticism can end a creative streak, or perhaps it's "Impostor Syndrome" striking or even focusing on being to perfect. All of us at one point have produces work that we feel is "less than stellar" but in all honesty, keep going with your work, and show it to the world.

Keep on creating those maps Il!

-darcycardinal

EDIT: Sometimes if you have a big map that needs to be finished, it may be better to break it up into phases, the project will seem a little less daunting if you only focus on a small section at a time.

[Ilgoth]

Hey all,

thanks for the posts! Most likely I am struggling to shutdown that 'inner critic' we all have and it prevents me from being happy with the work I do. Kacey guessed it right with feeling the need to create. I've always been like that, its just have been the form of creativity that has changed during the lifetime.

I decided to stay away from mapping for 5 days (trying Chickpea's tip), and just do something else. Played games, excersised more and I actually gave digital painting a go. Pretty much all of it I scraped, but I did finish one:




I am now trying to get back on mapping, hopefully getting better feel for it now and get things going.

EDIT//

And oh yes, the maps you guys make around here always give me boost as well.

[Redrobes]

Your painting is superb - I like that a lot !

When I get dulled its usually from repitition. So I think having a *proper* break from it and esp doing exercise helps a lot. Also when you take a break dont fill that time in with something similar. Its no good to be digitally painting at the computer instead of mapping at the computer. I think you have to get away from the computer and change your environment altogether. But saying that, I write software and I can be writing software for a client and get tired of it and then I can switch to writing my own software and perk up a lot and still be doing the same thing. But I think being away from it does help a lot.

[Ilgoth]

Your painting is superb - I like that a lot !

When I get dulled its usually from repitition. So I think having a *proper* break from it and esp doing exercise helps a lot. Also when you take a break dont fill that time in with something similar. Its no good to be digitally painting at the computer instead of mapping at the computer. I think you have to get away from the computer and change your environment altogether. But saying that, I write software and I can be writing software for a client and get tired of it and then I can switch to writing my own software and perk up a lot and still be doing the same thing. But I think being away from it does help a lot.

Thanks Redrobes.

Yeah I agree on that. I'm pretty certain it was the increased excersise that helped me most, I was also so lucky the weather was great and I could stop to enjoy some views around the city. I have to keep that as a habit. One problem I have could be that my studies changed a bit, and I spent lot more time on PC because of it...