Ever since I made this post, I have tried my best to follow through and “be the change you want to see.” I’ve made a lot of mediocre stuff, some bad, and a few I am proud of in those 6 months. I have spent most of my free time trying to make new OC specific to Lemmy.
However, I think that with the attempts to try to encourage others in this kind of creative endeavor, I have run out of steam. I will often sit down with a plan for a project, half finish it and then just delete it.
I am a musician and have never experienced creative burnout there, despite having done that for most of my life so this is a new feeling to me. I picked up a new creative hobby and I feel burned out in less than a year.
If anyone can offer some advice here, I would greatly appreciate it.
Might be time to step away for a while and let the batteries recharge.
Go out and do something you’ve never done before.
Creative burnout = “I’m turning the thing I like into a chore I loathe.”
Stop. Take a break. Creativity doesn’t flourish when worked.
I have no artistic or musical talent whatsoever, but I do develop software as a day job and as a hobby which has a bit of creative overlap.
For me, I just have to completely step away for a while and do something completely different as a palette cleanser. Sometimes that’s only for an hour, sometimes a week or more. Sometimes I never go back to it, which tells me I wasn’t that interested in it to start with. What I do know is that if I force myself to keep going when I hit that creative burnout stage, the results suffer along with my mental health.
That works fine for my hobby projects, but for work, I pretty much have to power through. Luckily, for my professional work, it’s more backend / business logic than frontend / UI which is where my creative burnout usually crops up.
May not be a universal solution, but stepping away and changing gears works for me.
I’ve been learning to write and the book I’m reading suggests doing Artist’s Dates. Maybe a combination of down time and these dates can help refill your creative well.
Edit: The book process is: Make a list of things that spur your curiosity(film, museum, paintings,etc…), while doing these things take notes on your ideas/thoughts and let curiosity spur some more questions.
As others have said, you need to take a step back, and find some rest
I’ll also add a thought : creativity comes from your lived experiences, the more you discover new ideas, exchange with new people, understand new cultures, the more matter you’ll have at your disposal to pick from when looking for creative solutions to whatever you’re working on. Go on holidays, visit a museum, buy a concert ticket, the more you put yourself out there to be available for new experiences, the more creative you’ll be.
I don’t think art works if you just do it for a reason like encourage others to post more. Do it for yourself. I think that works better.
