queenofthefuzzybugs
Well-known member
- Joined
- Feb 6, 2019
- Messages
- 36
- Points
- 58
I firmly believe this to be true. I'm going to use the anecdotal evidence of myself as an example.
When I was younger, for some reason, I kept trying to motivate myself to be creative by a system of internal punishments. Basically, if I didn't do XYZ then I suck, I'm a failure, I'll never amount to anything. I'd impose deadlines on myself and then fail to met them, hate myself even further. I found a thousand little ways to beat myself up mentally when I didn't meet my own expectations. (Don't even talk about OTHER people's expectations!)
My life wasn't horrible by any means, but I went through a long period of being deeply unhappy. I suppose it could be classified as depression or something, but I never saw a professional so who knows? All I know is I felt helpless and hopeless and getting up everyday and finding enjoyment in anything had become a big achievement for me. I knew something was wrong but I didn't know how wrong.
And yet I still was ruthless to myself. I didn't do my creative-whatsit because I feel down? EXCUSES! WORK SLAVE WORK! Every time I indulged in this form of self-loathing, my ability to create took another hit.
It wasn't until I had a 10 year bout of creative constipation that I finally figured out I was being stupid.
Stress kills creativity. Let me repeat that: Stress kills creativity. If you ever sat down in front of your computer (or for you hard-workers, paper notepad) and said "I need to write" but found your mind going blank as you stared at that white page..... then congratulations you've just experienced stress killing your creativity.
External stress is such a wide and varied topic I can't even begin to cover it. I will say, if you've got external stresses (doesn't matter the amount or why), give yourself some slack. Legit, it's ok not to be creative. If you don't find being creative, like writing, to be fun, don't do it. And don't feel guilty for not doing it. Go find something that eases your stress first and then come back to writing or whatever when you feel better. When you push yourself to create, to the point that it's not fun anymore, you're ADDING TO YOUR STRESS and that just makes it even harder to create next time. Stop the cycle. Give yourself a little grace and figure yourself out first. You can always come back to writing, drawing, etc. Whatever it is, you can come back to it.
Internal stress is something you absolutely have control over. Seriously, stop being so hard on yourself. You don't need to be perfect right this second. That chapter doesn't have to be flawless before you post it. It's okay to be bad at the thing you like doing, it's alright to make mistakes. It's fine if you write yourself in a corner 30 chapters in. You know why? Because everything you write, not matter how trivial, is practice. And PRACTICE is what makes perfect. It's a process, and every failure is something you learn from that makes you better later. You'll start bad, you'll get better, you'll look back and wonder how anyone liked your old works, and that's fantastic! Because it means you grew!
When I figured out to motivate myself by being positive (rather than negative) and mostly got my external stresses sorted out, I was on fire again. I've been writing consistently for well over a year. I've got a story going into it's 5th Vol, at 100+ Chapters (300K words). Don't even get me started about all the random stuff I write that have nothing at all to do with the story I'm posting. Sometimes it's hard, sometimes I'm bored, sometimes I do a terrible job of it... but even then it's ok. Because all that is just practice, and practicing makes me better at my craft. And so I love it even when I fail or struggle, because it's in the striving I improve.
What about you? How has stress killed your creativity? How did you overcome it?
When I was younger, for some reason, I kept trying to motivate myself to be creative by a system of internal punishments. Basically, if I didn't do XYZ then I suck, I'm a failure, I'll never amount to anything. I'd impose deadlines on myself and then fail to met them, hate myself even further. I found a thousand little ways to beat myself up mentally when I didn't meet my own expectations. (Don't even talk about OTHER people's expectations!)
My life wasn't horrible by any means, but I went through a long period of being deeply unhappy. I suppose it could be classified as depression or something, but I never saw a professional so who knows? All I know is I felt helpless and hopeless and getting up everyday and finding enjoyment in anything had become a big achievement for me. I knew something was wrong but I didn't know how wrong.
And yet I still was ruthless to myself. I didn't do my creative-whatsit because I feel down? EXCUSES! WORK SLAVE WORK! Every time I indulged in this form of self-loathing, my ability to create took another hit.
It wasn't until I had a 10 year bout of creative constipation that I finally figured out I was being stupid.
Stress kills creativity. Let me repeat that: Stress kills creativity. If you ever sat down in front of your computer (or for you hard-workers, paper notepad) and said "I need to write" but found your mind going blank as you stared at that white page..... then congratulations you've just experienced stress killing your creativity.
External stress is such a wide and varied topic I can't even begin to cover it. I will say, if you've got external stresses (doesn't matter the amount or why), give yourself some slack. Legit, it's ok not to be creative. If you don't find being creative, like writing, to be fun, don't do it. And don't feel guilty for not doing it. Go find something that eases your stress first and then come back to writing or whatever when you feel better. When you push yourself to create, to the point that it's not fun anymore, you're ADDING TO YOUR STRESS and that just makes it even harder to create next time. Stop the cycle. Give yourself a little grace and figure yourself out first. You can always come back to writing, drawing, etc. Whatever it is, you can come back to it.
Internal stress is something you absolutely have control over. Seriously, stop being so hard on yourself. You don't need to be perfect right this second. That chapter doesn't have to be flawless before you post it. It's okay to be bad at the thing you like doing, it's alright to make mistakes. It's fine if you write yourself in a corner 30 chapters in. You know why? Because everything you write, not matter how trivial, is practice. And PRACTICE is what makes perfect. It's a process, and every failure is something you learn from that makes you better later. You'll start bad, you'll get better, you'll look back and wonder how anyone liked your old works, and that's fantastic! Because it means you grew!
When I figured out to motivate myself by being positive (rather than negative) and mostly got my external stresses sorted out, I was on fire again. I've been writing consistently for well over a year. I've got a story going into it's 5th Vol, at 100+ Chapters (300K words). Don't even get me started about all the random stuff I write that have nothing at all to do with the story I'm posting. Sometimes it's hard, sometimes I'm bored, sometimes I do a terrible job of it... but even then it's ok. Because all that is just practice, and practicing makes me better at my craft. And so I love it even when I fail or struggle, because it's in the striving I improve.
What about you? How has stress killed your creativity? How did you overcome it?
Last edited: