How to Deal With and Prevent Creative Burnout
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**This is a revised post that was originally written for webcomic artists.
I decided to expand it to include creators of all large creative projects, including blogging, as a whole.**
Long-term projects take on many forms: be it art, writing or music. Anything that a creator pours their soul into day after day after day for long periods of time. This includes things that may begin as hobbies, such as blogging, that turn into something more serious over time. Because it takes patience, nurturing and dedication to see a long term project through, all creators run up against the dreaded creative burnout or writer’s block at sometime in their life.
Back when I started my first webcomic project, it came in a flurry of excitement… only to leave me overwhelmed and burned out within the first three months. From my experience, three months seems to be a fairly standard number for your first wave of “long-term project drop-outs.” By that time, a number of things may have happened with the creator:
Their initial excitement for the project has worn off- They may not be getting as much response as they had hoped they would
- They came out with a flurry of art at the beginning and worked themselves out of inspiration
- They discovered that the amount of work & time in upkeeping their project was more than they could handle
- They didn’t plan ahead for their blogging or storyline and have now hit a dead end in what to writ
- They’ve missed a number of updates or personal deadlines due to any of the above reasons and have lost confidence in their ability to continue the project
- Real life comes a-calling as it tends to do (curse it!)
In my experience, many of these feelings are perfectly normal for ANY long term art project you may choose to undertake. There are certain stages where every creator feels like throwing up the HIATUS sign and walking away in disgust at the pile of rubbish that they had gazed ahead at in starry-eyed wonder just a few months back.
If you’ve found yourself in this soul-telling situation, you’ll know the feeling I’m describing. You’re burned out. The project feels like it has no worth to yourself or any other breathing being on the planet. You’re the biggest failure ever in the eyes of the web community. And you just want to either fade away into obscurity or rip down your blog or Deviant Art account in a fury of frustration.
We’ve all been there, including me. I don’t go through this as often as I used to, for whatever reasons — but there was a time that I teetered on pulling my projects from the web. Then, at the last minute, someone would come to rescue my sanity and I would sit down and force myself to continue on.
I have to say that looking back over the years, I’m so glad that I never gave into my doubts and artistic frustrations. I would have lost out on so much… not just in my own personal artistic development but in all the friends I’ve made through my projects.
What do I suggest to prevent creative burnout?
As I said before, I think that no matter what we do, eventually we hit a point as creators where we question the meaning of our works. You could have a ton of people telling you that you’re the most wonderful thing since Photoshop… but unless you believe it of yourself, your writing, your art, your world or your characters, nothing anyone is going to say to you will convince you to see it otherwise.
~~} Have faith in your work. Remember to love your creations. Remember the wonder of exploring your characters, world, music or your writing, no matter what type it may be.
~~} Approach your work through the eyes of your audience. Shove aside all personal criticism and just look or listen to your work.
Sometimes I do this with my own webcomics. I’ll finish a page, put it away for a little while… then open it up again, pretending I’m a reader. You may think it’s silly, but to put yourself in the position of your audience looking at your work is very important. Sometimes I have a particular reader in mind when I do this (if I know a certain character is a favorite with a reader) – and I imagine their emotional reaction to what I’ve just created. Doing this helps me to appreciate my own work in a way that is outside of the Creator’s Cling.
~~} Make sure that your creative endeavors are not eating up all your spare time… if they are, you’re certainly going to burn out. In order to create, you must have input that sparks inspiration. This means that you have to go out and experience life, draw from it all that you can and bring back to the sketch pad, computer or scripting page.
Hang out with friends. Read a good book. Watch a good movie. Read other webcomics. Take a walk or play your favorite sport. Play a good game. Whatever inspires you and gives you new materials or an outlook. It’s important to have time away from creation and a balanced life outside of your work.
~~} Beside that, I think it’s very important to set realistic goals for yourself. If you find yourself working too hard to make self-set deadlines, then maybe you should consider cutting back your schedule. It’s far better to work a little less than to burn out and quit working completely.
There are only two reactions you can have in response to burnout when it rears its ugly head: you quit or you keep working.
If you quit, you run the risk of losing momentum for your project completely. So unless real life is really bogging you down, my suggestion is to fight the artist-blues and keep plugging away at it. In the end, when you can look back on the final outcomes of your hard work, you’ll be glad that you did.
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5 Comments on How to Deal With and Prevent Creative Burnout
Very true, creative authors, art-souled individuals like us cannot avoid facing a burnout. I always face them, and practical ways to overcome them in a artist point of view.
I sometimes cannot force myself to continue when a burnout occurs. What kept me going is your number one way : have some faith in your work. That keeps me up.
Thanks for your thoughts! Yes… an artist’s love of their work should be the number one thing that keeps them going. I feel if you’re doing it for any other reason, eventually, that will wear thin and simply not be enough to keep your soul filled when you really need it.
Faith and love in what you create should always be the biggest motivation.
Great article!! The most important thing for me are next things:
1. finding a balance in the project, and your time.
2. don’t focus on one thing for too long.
3. if you design something, leave it for a couple of hours/days, then open it again and see if you like to edit it. Maybe you’ll need to remove / edit / adjust things.
4. see what others (which don’t know anything about designing) think about your design. this way you can easily find out whenever your design is being “understood”.
5. try not to loose the important things in life; your wife, girlfriend, kids, job, house etc!
BioTecK’s last blog post..Fun Tag
Great points, Bio! I think it really is an individual thing on what inspires and keeps us going. Thanks for sharing some of yours here.
Character Development — How to Build a Relationship With Your Character — Wayfarer Wings sez:
[...] should go without saying that if you’re struggling with a bout of creative burnout, it’s not very likely that your character is going to be sharing much with you. You’re [...]