The double bind of creation

Page 1 of 1 [ 3 posts ] 

walkingfundead
Emu Egg
Emu Egg

User avatar

Joined: 21 Apr 2024
Age: 21
Gender: Non-binary
Posts: 5
Location: The distant planet Eudora… just kidding.

22 Apr 2024, 11:10 am

I would call myself a creative person, from a baseline standpoint. I prefer drawing and listening to music over physical labor or just coding calculators for a higher-up. I have many ideas in my head, mainly for my own video games or comics. But I almost completely lack the skills needed to make them, and I struggle to further them for a simple reason.

Everyone knows that for some things, you have to push through. You have to shut down your rational thinking and rush to the finish line of your job. But this is more delicate when it comes to art, and creation. I firmly believe that the best art is created with driving passion behind it at all times. Trying to make something just for the sake of making it often leads to it feeling devoid of character or personality. So when I’m not fully passionate about something in my ideas, I do no work whatsoever to further it. This of course leads to many projects being nothing more than ideas in the back of my head.

Still, when I bring up this quarrel with others, they suggest the same cure: just push through and make something. So, I am left with a dilemma: you can’t rush art, and it must be the best quality you can make it… but you also must force yourself to make it. This double bind leaves me deluded; am I the only one who thinks about it like that? I have yet to see anyone else discuss this aspect of the field of creation. So I hope to ask: if you do like to create, either as a hobby or a profession, what is the middle ground you meet to circumvent this looming tightrope? Apologies if this is the wrong forum to make this thread, but this subject does make me feel very blue, so that’s why I chose here. Not sure if the art forum warrants this hefty discussion.



utterly absurd
Toucan
Toucan

User avatar

Joined: 7 Feb 2024
Age: 18
Gender: Male
Posts: 261
Location: Wisconsin

22 Apr 2024, 11:46 pm

This may not apply to your situation, so I apologize if that's the case.
In my experience however, I don't have to push myself all the way through. If I push myself to start something, it's not long before I get really invested in it and I can spend twelve straight hours thinking about nothing else.
Sometimes I don't get invested in a project and that's when I conclude it wasn't the best thing for me to attempt anyway. But I have plenty of other ideas, so that's okay.
If I didn't push myself to start projects, I would never create anything. But I've never felt like I have to push myself all the way through.


_________________
"What do you care what other people think?" --Richard Feynman


walkingfundead
Emu Egg
Emu Egg

User avatar

Joined: 21 Apr 2024
Age: 21
Gender: Non-binary
Posts: 5
Location: The distant planet Eudora… just kidding.

Yesterday, 11:49 pm

I suppose that's a way to look at the process, just start and see if you get into it. After further marination, I think a better way I could've worded this is that I convince myself not to try, for a grab bag of reasons. All probably stemming from being depressed... but that's another underbelly.

Still, I'll give that viewpoint a try. Maybe I should dedicate a piece of paper to scribbling out whatever I can think of; with a little push, maybe that would go somewhere. Thanks for the insight.