How do you self-motivate for your creative hobbies/arts?

[GayKitten]

Hiiiiii. I’m Kay, if we haven’t met.   Sitting here. Drinking my evening coffee. Feeling inspired by DaddysMonkey’s questions (and coffee-drinking contemplationzz) lately. Also feeling a little out of practice talking to people. ^____^

 

Question for those who are artists and/or have creative hobbies:

 

How do you self-motivate to create, especially with *any* kind of regularity? 

 

Background on my qwahn-duh-ree: so I make electronic music as a hobby, and I’ve been doing it entirely self-taught for like 12 years now, and it’s something I largely do to channel/deal with my more negative emotions and whatnot. And I have a lot of negative emotions! Like depressive emotions, and anxiety emotions, and dysphoria emotions, and dysmorphia feelings, and more for sure. So sometimes I have big bursts of creativity where I’ll make a lot of music, but eventually I’ll either get like too sad and get demotivated (to do anything), or I’ll get a really satisfying high from creating—and then have a crash not too long afterward, and then get too sad and get demotivated. 

 

This makes my music-making process (and thus my whole hobby, which I love!) really inconsistent and unpredictable! And that’s frustrating. It’s always been hard for me to get, like, consistent practice, and there have been looooong periods of downtime in my hobby. Just kinda a long term struggle for me to keep up with it, even though it’s a sincere source of joy in my life.

 

The professional artists I know block out time every day to work on their art, for obvious reasons—it’s their job! But that’s never been my goal, and I’m really bad at committing to spending any amount of time every day doing anything (besides going to work, which is WAY more time than I could devote to sitting pushing buttons on my synths, lol). So the whole “just commit to doing it every day!” thing isn’t effective for me.

 

BUT at the moment, I’m on my BIGGEST and MOST PRODUCTIVE creative streak I think I’ve ever been on! And I credit it to something extremely silly — wanting to work on “5 beats a day” everyday, cuz of that one frickin’ line that Kanye West wrote about MAKING 5 beats a day for 3 summers. About a week back, I had two days in a row of making 5 original beats a day, and wanted to keep it up as much as I could — so I settled for “WORKING ON 5 beats a day”. (I dunno for how long though, lol. Especially since it’s not summer right now where I am.  )

 

So yeah, the whole thing is really contrived and silly — I don’t even really like Kanye anymore! But I can’t lie, not wanting to break this streak is extremely effective at forcing me to make time to work on at least 5 tracks every day. It ends up being like 1-2 hours of really pleasant time in the evening, usually! I genuinely don’t know how long I’ll be able to keep this up, and I’m kinda scared of how ephemeral this made-up motivation is, but I’m gonna let this ride as long as I can. 

 

But uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhm back to my quh-wehh-shtee-ohn(s):

 

1. How do you other folks with creative hobbies keep it up?! What do you do to motivate yourself? 

 

2. Is it something you just kinda let yourself do when you feel like it (and if so, how regularly does that end up being for you)? 

 

3. Do you FEEL like you need to have some consistency/regularity in practicing your art? 

 

Just really curious to know how other creative peeps handle this! And also, I’m excited to learn about (or hear updates about!!!) everyone’s creative endeavors! 

 

~Kay 

[moonlightbae14]

hi there! i was able to quickly read your post and i have some answers based on my behalf.

 

1) as someone who enjoys art and creativity, i never pressure myself on doing my hobbies solely for the base of not wanting it to feel like a job. one way i do it is to listen to certain music or a song in particular. if it's not something that i hear, i also part-take in my hobbies when i feel down. it's my escape in a sense.

 

2) yes, i let it happen in the moment. there's also time where i feel the best mentally and wanna express it through my hobbies. i don't share them unless i completely trust the person i'm having a conversation with. i part-take in my hobbies because they are my way to express anything that's going on with me at the moment.

 

3) having no consistency is part of my shtick, otherwise it feels as though it should be mandatory/daily. for myself, it varies from every couple of weeks or even months. it's best to keep it fresh in my opinion. it's also my reminder that i get to decide when i should do it, not being demanded. if i don' feel like i can enjoy one of my hobbies, i'll put a pause on it and go to another one that might suit my mental state at the moment.

 

i hope this kinda helps, have a gn <3

[Lollipox]

1. Waiting for motivation to strike is a mistake a lot of people make, because that’s not how all people function. It sounds really artsy and inspiring, but it’s not the only way to get yourself to create. Whether it’s waiting for the motivation to exercise/eat healthier, tackle a personal challenge, or get crafty and creative- waiting can end up being a waste of your time.

 

Similar to how there’s different learning styles (visual learners, people who learn by doing, or people who learn better left to their own devices). It depends what works for you.

If waiting for motivation to strike isn’t working, then try just ‘doing’.

Consider to yourself “if not now, when?”.

And as I’m sure you will have experienced, the longer you wait, the harder it is to get back in the rhythm when you finally feel ready to do it. And you may find yourself having to relearn or pick up the habits you’ve no longer utilized, which can be off-putting to feel like “you’re not as good as you used to be.” For some, at least.

 

2. From about 11-22yo, I drew EVERY day. And if I didn’t have paper and pens, I’d draw on myself. I couldn’t fathom how anyone ever had “artist’s block” because there are SO many things to draw or imagine.

But then some stuff happened around 22yo that tldr made me die inside and killed my sense of wonder and imagination. ^^”

And I became one of the aforementioned ‘waiters’. Motivation never came to me. I barely drew anymore, and even if I did it was only if it had a purpose. Like it had to be “for something”. I couldn’t just create things for myself.

 

Until! About 1.5yrs ago I met someone who’s also very creative and loves to DIY, draw and paint. And she was always coming up with new things to use her creativity on. And I was just like “how does she pull all this energy out of her ass?”. I had all the ideas, but none of the motivation nor energy. So she was like an enigma to me. Lol

And I realised that all the thinking about creative ideas and projects really didn’t mean sh*t all. What mattered was actually doing it. Now I make an effort not to dilly-dally, and to begin creating my ideas even if I have a lot of reasons why I don’t want to at the time.

 

3. I think that making yourself do something that you might not really want to do at the time (context matters of course lol) is helpful for both personal growth and creativity.

It’s not about alotting yourself a specific time frame daily to get jiggy with your imaginative soul, but about at the very least making a start. Even if it’s only 15min, or writing down your idea in your phone or in your case maybe recording.

 

And if you don’t feel like your masterpiece is turning out how you want, work on something else for a moment to take a mental break. It’s okay to scrap things occasionally. It’s disappointing to have to let an idea go, but it’s sometimes worse to drive yourself bananas trying to get the result you want. I’ve torn up many drawings e.e lol

And I know I’m not the only person who starts a whole new art book just to feel refreshed and get away from the trash you’ve made in the old one (meanwhile it’s only 30% used lol).

 

And now a lil note about depression and mental health, because I think it might help give some perspective. (Not medical advice)

I’ll mostly refer to depression, because I think that ties into a lot of other mental health issues whether it’s the primary or secondary.

 

Depression is a disorder that works by trying to make you basically stop being a people (or wanting to be), right? I mean aside from the emotional stuff.

Normal things that are part of being a people include: Bathing or hygiene, sleeping, eating (at right times, or amounts), social interaction with other homosapiens, and so on.

And those things become a struggle.

IF you had a pet, and you noticed it’s stopped- grooming, eating, sleeping/ or is over-sleeping, and not playing or as active. You would be very concerned for it and know something’s not right. And if it was purposefully deprived of any of those things, you would see the way it affects those other normal habits too.

 

Because people are capable of complex emotions and the ability to percieve past, present and future- it messes with that too. So it can dampen your creativity, or get you thinking too far ahead about whether you’ll be able to succeed or fail (not for others, but yourself). Or just generally remaining stagnant, waiting for the motivation.

Sometimes the only way to push through that is to just do it. And hopefully it will help you remember why you loved doing it in the first place. ^^

Because depression is relentless. Lol

 

Anywhooooo e.e My apologies for the essay.

I had to scoot 2 cats outta the way to get to my keyboard just to ramble on the internet about motivation and art. They’re very upset so now I must bribe them with foods to love me again. : D lol

[maddycakes]

So, first, I wanna say that I totally understand your conundrum. As someone who used to really struggle with mental health, I think that addressing your depressive/anxious/etc thoughts via therapy or meds or however else is really the first step. When I was in college, I was the same way, having a few days of INTENSE OPTIMISM and MAXIMUM MOTIVATION/PRODUCTIVITY only to be followed by a week of doing literally nothing. When I took care of my mental health, things were much easier to balance and, while my days of working straight through from 4am to 10pm ceased to exist, so did my weeks-long periods of inactivity. 

 

1. How do keep up creative hobbies?  

 

People respond differently to different sources of motivation, and for me, the key is to make myself accountable to others. When I was in the aforementioned state of do everything/do nothing, I was sure that motivation was only Good if it was intrinsic, meaning I was doing something purely for myself because I wanted to do it or I was inspired to do it. This was super problematic for me because that's not the way my brain works. I respond much better to extrinsic motivators, things outside of myself that require something to be done. In my opinion, this is why DDlg is such a good fit for me. If I had to stay healthy and follow rules for myself, I would slack off. But since it's for my Daddy, I feel much more motivated to do that. To use this in creating, I like to get my friends involved. Tell them what I'm working on, when it will be done, etc., which helps me stay on task because when they ask about my projects I want to have progress to show. 

 

Another thing I like to use is those instagram or tumblr 30-day challenges. They are enough motivation for me to do something, but lowkey enough that if I forget or have a lot to do one day I don't feel bad about missing it. 

 

Finally, I always have multiple projects going at once (but not too many!). If I get bored, I can cycle through my 3-4 projects, but still end up back where I started in a timely fashion.

 

2. Is it something you do when you feel like it and how often is that?

 

Yes and no. For me, I do try to work on my creative hobbies at least every other day, but sometimes I want a break or have a busy week or just feel like I need a change and I always allow myself that space. My longest break from my main hobby was 3 months, but during that time I did other creative hobbies so that I could keep the creative part of my brain stimulated.

 

3. Do you feel like you need consistency/regularity?

 

Yes, but that's something I am trying to overcome. A hobby is just that. It's supposed to be fun. It's supposed to be something you enjoy doing. If you are not enjoying it, what's the point? The only time I'd say that consistency is a necessary part of my hobby is if I've promised to make something in a specific time frame. If someone says "I need you to make this by April 1st" and I say "okay I've got you" then I sure as silt better work on that project consistently. But other than that, if something isn't giving me joy at a certain time, I don't think it's necessary to force yourself. 

[DaddysMonkey]

Firstly , you’re so sweet ! I hope your coffee was as sweet or as bitter as you like it <3 That warmed my heart. I felt like my coffee rambles were annoying everyone so I chilled out for a minute T-T

 

1. How do you other folks with creative hobbies keep it up?! What do you do to motivate yourself?

 

I personally don’t have motivation issues with art , but I do have inspiration issues. I feel a lot of people tie these two things together or think they are the same but they aren’t. I can easily sit down and draw , even if I end up not liking the project I’m doing or how it’s turning out. Sketches and doodles are just part of the process, inspiration is what kills me. I like to do my projects with other people in mind. I don’t really have friends to bounce my art work off of , so I’m a little creep and find strangers to try to inspire me or off the wall movie plots to give me ideas. A lot of my motivation for art is to make people smile , and make them happy. It’s like cooking for me , I want people to eat it up and seeing their face light up when they look at it. I always try to remind myself too , there’s always someone worse than you , and there’s always going to be someone you strive to be as good as. Having a goal to get better really puts a fire under my ass.

 

2. Is it something you just kinda let yourself do when you feel like it (and if so, how regularly does that end up being for you)?

 

I’ve been doing a decent amount of commission work lately , so those pieces are definitely “worked on” more than me just having fun and drawing random things. If it’s for commission, I honestly get a little more excited about it. Even though it’s “work” , it feels more free to me because I’m genuinely just that excited to do something for someone. If I don’t have any requests in , I love doodling freely. When I have free time at work , I’ll fill a whole page with random sketches. If one specific sketch pulls at my heart ... I’ll just erase everything else and make that the main attraction of that page. There are days I don’t touch my iPad at all , and it’s not because I’m not motivated or lacking inspiration. Sometimes life just really gets in the way , I’ve picked up more hours at work and barely have time to breathe when I get home before I need to rest. And it’s okay to have those busy days and not do any art. I’ve learned if you beat yourself too much about art , it becomes less enjoyable and you’ll start to resent the activity.

 

3. Do you FEEL like you need to have some consistency/regularity in practicing your art?

 

I believe so. At the very least , once a week I try to sketch or draw if it’s just for fun. (Obviously when people are paying for stuff it’s work so you gotta do what you gotta do) I went through a really long period of doing absolutely no art at all because of some trauma that happened as a kid. Now that I’ve really been getting back into drawing and art in general , there is a burn out people can have. People sometimes feel the need to pump out mass amounts of art to be considered talented. Not the case , it’s important to let your brain and imagination rest for a little bit. Being burnt out with art can be really disheartening and make you feel like you’ll never get better. If you’re drawing every single day , your brain isn’t getting a chance to truly process everything when it’s awake and doing that same thing everyday. Our bodies create muscle memories , and that one flick of the wrist you can’t get rid of that cause a wiggly line you don’t like... could be solved with a two or three day break from drawing

[sprinklelove]

So, I have a variety of artsy/creative outlets - I’m not a self-described “artist” - however, I think it’s important to focus on that area of life - if you’re looking for steady growth or to have an artistic regimen of sorts, you could do an artist’s challenge unrelated to your “actual” work - like, “I’m going to write a mini song every day for a month and pick a different theme each day”.. or, something like that - lol - that way, you aren’t forcing creativity in your personal work - but, you’re still exercising your creativity in ways that strengthen your talent in the long run anyway

[maddycakes]

I personally don’t have motivation issues with art , but I do have inspiration issues. I feel a lot of people tie these two things together or think they are the same but they aren’t. I can easily sit down and draw , even if I end up not liking the project I’m doing or how it’s turning out. Sketches and doodles are just part of the process, inspiration is what kills me. I like to do my projects with other people in mind. I don’t really have friends to bounce my art work off of , so I’m a little creep and find strangers to try to inspire me or off the wall movie plots to give me ideas. A lot of my motivation for art is to make people smile , and make them happy. It’s like cooking for me , I want people to eat it up and seeing their face light up when they look at it. I always try to remind myself too , there’s always someone worse than you , and there’s always going to be someone you strive to be as good as. Having a goal to get better really puts a fire under my ass.

This is so true! There are plenty of times when I am feeling super motivated to do something but I have no inspiration for anything to do

[GayKitten]

Awwww thank you everyone for your thoughtful responses!!! Y'all gave me so much good stuff to think about, I'm sorry it's taken forever to formulate my thoughts to respond!!! <3 <3 <3
 

As someone who used to really struggle with mental health, I think that addressing your depressive/anxious/etc thoughts via therapy or meds or however else is really the first step.

...

A hobby is just that. It's supposed to be fun. It's supposed to be something you enjoy doing. If you are not enjoying it, what's the point?

Eek, I should probably clarify that I am both medicated and seeing a great therapist atm, so this was definitely not a veiled omg-I-need-help post -- though reading back through now, I uhhhhhhhh see how I may have given off that impression, lol.   

Y'know, that's an interesting question -- like, I kinda feel like there ARE reasons outside of pure enjoyment for me to do my music-hobby specifically! This is pretty gloom-and-doom, but it's one of the ways I kinda feel like I create proof that I exist? Like during periods where I'm not making any music, I feel like I'm almost missing a record of my existence, and that having recorded tracks/works in progress/collections of samples + effects like proves I existed. And there's also the aspect of music listening/history/etc. is a big passion of mine too, so to some degree working on my hobby is about understanding how the music I love to listen is created too. And there's actually something a little disheartening about that sometimes! Like I remember the first time I listened to the first album Actress put out, I was like "shit this has like ALL the sounds and textures and techniques and everything I've been trying to capture in my own music for years, and he just...came out swinging first-try with this!!!" And I would say that is humbling more than enjoyable, per se.

So yeah, I swear I'm not trying to just be a contrarian, but in articulating all this, I guess I have a lot of very existential feelings tied to music specifically, and going through periods of not making music (or making stuff I really feel like isn't worth saving/recording) can actually be emotionally challenging? And part of me is like, "this is good for you, even if it's rough or feels humbling or unrewarding"??? Sometimes, I wonder if it's even possible for me to have a simple, straightforward, I-just-do-this-for-fun hobby, since like.....this is a LOT of baggage to attach to something that, I agree with you, should be enjoyable at baseline, lolol 

 

 

Firstly , you’re so sweet ! I hope your coffee was as sweet or as bitter as you like it <3

...

I personally don’t have motivation issues with art , but I do have inspiration issues. I feel a lot of people tie these two things together or think they are the same but they aren’t.

...

I’ve learned if you beat yourself too much about art , it becomes less enjoyable and you’ll start to resent the activity.

<3 <3 <3 I drink all my coffee straight-black, and Mommy loves dark-roast, so it is ALWAYS bitter, just the way I like it ^_________^

That is SUCH a good point about motivation =/= inspiration!! I've been pondering this a lot since you posted it. That's a big part of my issue, I believe -- my music-making process is VERY unstructured, automatic, and chaotic. I literally cannot formulate a musical idea in my head, then enact it with my tools. I have to create by purely experimenting, especially since I have zero knowledge of music theory, and only rudimentary understandings of "proper" sound production (i.e. "making shit sound good together, instead of a wall of overlapping cacophonous frequencies").

So yeah, I think I really rely on/wait for "motivation" moreso than inspiration. Except when I hear something I reallyreallyreally wanna sample, and then I have inspiration to chop up all the sounds -- but even then, I really can't predict which sound samples will actually be the ones I like + use + find interesting in the longrun. But the more common scenario/struggle is to be like "okay time to sit down and.....make something I guess???" But right now, this whole five-beats-a-day-self-challenge is giving me the motivation I need/crave/am-desperately-reliant-on, and the sustained focus on a relatively small set of pieces I'm working on is ACTUALLY opening up new ways I can perceive to play around with my music, which itself is begetting MORE motivation to see how far I can go. And I s'pose this is just, like, a very novel way for me to experience a hobby.

And yeah, my therapist actually says the SAME THING about self-reinforcement of avoidant behaviors by finding ways to beat yourself up about it. (It's one of my biggest struggles, actually -- I am UTTERLY BRUTAL in my self-criticisms about literally everything all the time, no joke.) Always helpful to hear the same good advice coming from multiple trustworthy sources <3

 

 

if you’re looking for steady growth or to have an artistic regimen of sorts, you could do an artist’s challenge unrelated to your “actual” work - like, “I’m going to write a mini song every day for a month and pick a different theme each day”

This is a great idea, thank you! I totally feel like this is the sorta thing I stumbled onto with my five-beats-a-day thing!!! The tricky part is gonna be finding a good followup when I run out of steam for this, lol. I've been giving some thought to this cuz it's such a good suggestion.......I've come up with things like "use the same synth sound to do a deep-dive on the effects you can put on it" and stuff like that, but it can be hard to predict how long my attention/motivation/feeling of accomplishment from that will last. I almost feel like the trick for me is gonna be to pick a challenge/theme that is JUST VAGUE ENOUGH to fit with my, uh, "open-ended" creative process, while still being something I can be accountable to.

[maddycakes]

Y'know, that's an interesting question -- like, I kinda feel like there ARE reasons outside of pure enjoyment for me to do my music-hobby specifically! This is pretty gloom-and-doom, but it's one of the ways I kinda feel like I create proof that I exist? Like during periods where I'm not making any music, I feel like I'm almost missing a record of my existence, and that having recorded tracks/works in progress/collections of samples + effects like proves I existed. And there's also the aspect of music listening/history/etc. is a big passion of mine too, so to some degree working on my hobby is about understanding how the music I love to listen is created too. And there's actually something a little disheartening about that sometimes! Like I remember the first time I listened to the first album Actress put out, I was like "shit this has like ALL the sounds and textures and techniques and everything I've been trying to capture in my own music for years, and he just...came out swinging first-try with this!!!" And I would say that is humbling more than enjoyable, per se.

So yeah, I swear I'm not trying to just be a contrarian, but in articulating all this, I guess I have a lot of very existential feelings tied to music specifically, and going through periods of not making music (or making stuff I really feel like isn't worth saving/recording) can actually be emotionally challenging? And part of me is like, "this is good for you, even if it's rough or feels humbling or unrewarding"??? Sometimes, I wonder if it's even possible for me to have a simple, straightforward, I-just-do-this-for-fun hobby, since like.....this is a LOT of baggage to attach to something that, I agree with you, should be enjoyable at baseline, lolol 

That is such an interesting way of looking at it, I would never have thought of but it makes a lot more sense now with your original post. I would say the different aspects of the hobby (making, listening, researching, history, technique) would be like what I was talking about with taking breaks but still doing other creative things during those breaks. If you don't feel like making music at one time, you can listen to something new or learn a new technique and still (hopefully) feel like you are advancing your hobby. The more things you can attribute to your hobby, the better time you will have when you don't feel like doing one thing or another. 

 

But yeah, that sounds like a real quandary! 

[GayKitten]

I would say the different aspects of the hobby (making, listening, researching, history, technique) would be like what I was talking about with taking breaks but still doing other creative things during those breaks.

This is SUCH a good way to frame it Maddycakes, thank you!! Definitely something I will be reflecting on today.....as I sit outside (admiring how there is suddenly sunshine after sudden hail, wtf is Washington doing??), sipping my uhhhhh third or maybe FOURTH cup of coffee today?? ^-^

[LeftyGuitar]

Hello,

 

I know it may not seem creative at first, but computer programming can be creative. Especially with the things you can code or if you're an artist, you can draw and model and all that. Sometimes it can be hard to start or pick-up a project. Sometimes even it can be hard to finish a project. Game development is tedious. I've only made small games, but I'm working towards making a bigger one. A thing I like about coding is that I have more control over my PC. Learning different programming languages can also be fun and a good chanllenge. I'm trying to teach myself Ada and Raku as of right now. I've also dabbled with RPG Maker which is like a super easy way of making RPGs. I've also toyed around Dreams on the PS4. And of course Unity. Dreams is like Unity on the PS4. Its kinda cool. Because of the tedious nature of game dev, taking it one step at a time makes it easier.

[lawran]

These are some really interesting techniques mentioned above. I have a go-to technique of my own. My main hobby is creative writing and I've been writing for 5-6 years. However, writing was never as difficult as it got during the pandemic. My inspiration to write are my observations of the outer world, the crowded shuttles, human mannerisms, and everything public. I used to run my daily observations and interactions later in my mind, take a hawk-eye view of it and write something freakish. But with the pandemic and subsequent lockdown, the loss of interaction killed my writing as well. It became increasingly difficult to write anything. That is when I started immersing myself into more fiction and SF to replace the reality with an already created fictional world. George Orwell and Murakami are some of my favorite writers and I have always been enamored into the making of Animal Farm, 1984, and Wild Sheep Chase. I read these books and constantly revisited the highlighted quotes of Animal Farm among others to understand the possibility of such creations. I also read - Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep and re-watched the Blade Runner. Interacting with these characters and setting from my perspective helped me operate and write in a completely different setting than I used to, exposing me to new realms of writing.