I Couldn't Agree More.

art block, writer’s block, “art funk”, “burnout”, yada yada… it’s all the same thing, being a creator and wanting to create but having some kind of a wall preventing you from doing this.

this wall can take a lot of different forms, and i’m going to approach this post from the perspective of a visual artist, but no matter the medium, we all have a skill we’ve trained ourselves in and what I’m talking about will apply regardless.

Anyway as I said there’s a few different forms this wall can take. Here’s a few of them that I can think of:

Disillusionment with your current skill level

A loss of direction

Fatigue

Lack of drive

It’s really important to identify exactly what your wall is if you want to be able to dismantle it. This isn’t every way it can manifest either, just the most common ways that I see it manifesting, and you might have multiple at once!

Take some time to really self reflect on what the problem is if none of these are resonating after you’ve read the post, whatever it is you can find a way to manage it.

The most common advice I see for “defeating [creator’s] block” is committing to spending like five minutes a day working on something, anything at all. And that’s good advice! but not really for creator’s block, I think.

It’s GREAT advice if you’re lacking in discipline though, like I can easily get distracted and not work on things for months. So committing to work on comic related things for at least 30 minutes a day (and having this commitment be to other people that I’m checking in with each day, i think thats an important part) has worked really well for me, personally.

But I wasn’t dealing with any kind of a block, I just lacked discipline. I don’t think it’s very useful if for example, you hate how your art looks so you don’t want to draw anything anymore lmao

With that in mind, lets go through that list and I’ll try give you some advice from my experiences, and hopefully it’ll help give you the means to identify the problems you’re struggling with and find solutions to them if my advice isn’t quite what you need.

—

1. Disillusionment with your current skill level

So! it’s time to pull out everyone’s favourite graphic! this version was created by shattered-earth on deviantart, though the original is by Marc Dalessio

obviously this says art, but again this is applicable to all mediums. It’s an important concept to understand, the idea of a creator’s high vs a creator’s low depending on how developed your critical eye has become compared to your skill level.

If you’re not aware of it and don’t understand what’s happening, it’s REALLY easy to lose all motivation to create anything. Because why bother, if everything sucks? Definitely one of the most dangerous blocks you can run into, I think.

The solution, as with all of these walls, is to be kind to yourself.

Your critical eye improving is emotionally taxing, but it’s also an opportunity for great growth! It’s not easy, though. To get through it, you have to really confront what you don’t like about your work and target your weaknesses, and then you have to put in the time to try and improve them. That’s tough.

But self study doesn’t have to be a solo activity. Talk with your friends, seek out communities of creators, and follow resource blogs, channels, etc. I really think the best thing you can do is surround yourself with other creators, I’m in a few discords and hang out in the creative section of various forums etc

But this is really important: The act of targetting your weaknesses in order to improve them is going to make it REALLY easy for you to lose track of what you like about your work, and can in fact compound the issue and make you only focus on your flaws.

So, be kind to yourself. If you’re not happy with what you create, take the time to critically analyse your work. What don’t you like? What do you like? Don’t lose track of what you like while you study the things you’re less confident about, and with some patience and work your skill will catch up with your eye again.

I really can’t emphasise enough how important it is to not lose track of what it is you like about your work. The biggest motivation killer is always going to be falling out of love with your work, so do everything you can to prevent yourself losing the joy of creating.

Like, sure, a work might be technically perfect, but did you enjoy yourself while creating it? If you always ensure the answer to that is yes, the mismatch between your critical eye and your skills will be easier to handle because at least you’re still enjoying yourself, you know?

Keep reading

So I normally don't post personal stuff outside of my side blog, but I just wanted to thank dragontameroutoftime for helping me through a rough night I had last night. I really can't express how she helped me calm down when I was a sobbing wreck. Thanks for being an amazing friend!

Writing Tip #9

Have someone you look up to or respect read your work. It can be nice to have your parents and best friends read it, but face it, they’re prone to bias. You can still show it to them, but if you want feed back turn to someone else. A respected teacher, someone you admire on tumblr, or a friend you know will be brutally honest will all work. Just remember to ask nicely, they’ll be taking time out of their schedules to do this for you.

Give them a hard copy if you can or use Google Docs, it allows them to place comments so you won’t forget. Also, try not to be offended. You won’t be around to defend your work to other readers, so take it to heart. Don’t get snippy to that person, remember that you did ask them to do it.

Don’t get discouraged! There is always room to improve and so challenge yourself. Keep writing and don’t forget to thank your readers for helping you out. Maybe they’ll do it again.

I hate how there’s a fan culture where fan writing is seen as less valuable than fan art. Hold on with me here, I’ve got some coherent thoughts on this.

1. Creators of the original work one might be a fan of have explicitly said that they don’t look at or respond to anything written for fear of being sued. Like, shit. I don’t want to sue anyone. I want creators to tell me, “Oh, wow. You took my thing and made it amazing!” Fan art gets reblogged and commented on by creators because there’s no fear of law. Fan art gets more validation and praise than fan writing.

2. Popularity of fan writing increases when there is fan art dedicated to the piece. Fan art is popular no matter if fan writing is made from it.

3. In general, fan art is reblogged and liked more often than fan writing. Art is pretty and might occupy an “aesthetic” while writing is considered to clog up a dash with too many words.

4. Fan art is easy to engage with no matter the demographics of your audience. Writing will–at the very least–limit the age demographic. If you write for an older audience, younger folk might not be into it and vise versa.

5. And unless you’re super into supporting fan writing, you’ll probably not say anything about it. Fan art gets the bare minimum of “gorgeous.”

*Needs it. Must run to bookstore to obtain this awesomeness.*

I NEED TO FIND THIS BOOK!

OKAY HAVE YOU HEARD OF THE NATURAL HISTORY OF DRAGONS BY MARIE BRENNAN

NO! WHAT IS IT?! I MUST KNOW!!

P.S. sorry for public answer, forgot my settings were like that.

Me writing fanfic:

Too, many, commas,,, 

Is this ooc?? 

I used that word already 

Do people even blush this much?? 

*squints* Is that canon?

Tropes

 *cries while writing death scene* 

Wait what happened last chapter? 

I wrote like a thousan- 354 words!? 

*googles the lifespan of a tropical fish* 

have I spelt his name wrong all this time? 

Would they say that tho? 

Changes plot 539932 times 

Looses inspiration, goes back to tumblr

Writing Tips

Punctuating Dialogue

✧

➸ “This is a sentence.”

➸ “This is a sentence with a dialogue tag at the end,” she said.

➸ “This,” he said, “is a sentence split by a dialogue tag.”

➸ “This is a sentence,” she said. “This is a new sentence. New sentences are capitalized.”

➸ “This is a sentence followed by an action.” He stood. “They are separate sentences because he did not speak by standing.”

➸ She said, “Use a comma to introduce dialogue. The quote is capitalized when the dialogue tag is at the beginning.”

➸ “Use a comma when a dialogue tag follows a quote,” he said.

“Unless there is a question mark?” she asked.

“Or an exclamation point!” he answered. “The dialogue tag still remains uncapitalized because it’s not truly the end of the sentence.”

➸ “Periods and commas should be inside closing quotations.”

➸ “Hey!” she shouted, “Sometimes exclamation points are inside quotations.”

However, if it’s not dialogue exclamation points can also be “outside”!

➸ “Does this apply to question marks too?” he asked.

If it’s not dialogue, can question marks be “outside”? (Yes, they can.)

➸ “This applies to dashes too. Inside quotations dashes typically express—“

“Interruption” — but there are situations dashes may be outside.

➸ “You’ll notice that exclamation marks, question marks, and dashes do not have a comma after them. Ellipses don’t have a comma after them either…” she said.

➸ “My teacher said, ‘Use single quotation marks when quoting within dialogue.’”

➸ “Use paragraph breaks to indicate a new speaker,” he said.

“The readers will know it’s someone else speaking.”

➸ “If it’s the same speaker but different paragraph, keep the closing quotation off.

“This shows it’s the same character continuing to speak.”

Book Review 1: Seraphina by Rachel Hartman

I (again) apologize, as I've never done an official review or anything. Since that's out of the way I'll do my best to bring forward a decent amount of points on both ends. If I need to improve, please tell me. On to the review!

I'm a huge fan of the YA fantasy genre, if there isn't some fantasy in it then I'm likely to not even pick it up. Safe to say, Seraphina is fantasy through and through. Rachel Hartman brings in refreshing elements to a subject over-done in every form of media/genre: Dragons.

As a short summary, the story follows the young protagonist: Seraphina. She's delved out of her comfort-zone (and guiltily ignoring her father's wishes) and begun working at the palace. Before she moved in, the crown prince is killed and everyone believes it was the dragons that did it. Seraphina finds herself pulled into the mystery with the help of Lucian Kiggs, captain of the guard and nephew of the killed prince. The treaty between the dragons and humans hangs in the balance.

Without spoiling the plot too much, let's just say that the dragons (who we see mostly in compressed human forms) are a wonderful relief. They definitely don't feel human and don't have a perfect peace with the humans. The tension and distrust is felt from cover-to-cover, it's honestly wonderful because it isn't a stagnant world and its future doesn't depend on the protagonist to fix or cause trouble. For a fantasy world, it come off as extremely realistic.The world itself is a mix of medieval European and fantasy setting that pulls you right in. Nothing felt awkward or out of place.

Seraphina, herself, is also a well rounded character. She's not beautiful, socially exceptional, or even well known. She enjoys being in the background and prefers it. Granted, like most YA protagonists, she certainly could benefit from a few more flaws, but she's a model for many of the Mary-Sue cut outs being sold on the shelves. I'm also not one really for first-person in stories, but I actually enjoyed being in her head.

On the opposing end, the plot is a bit overused. Hero/heroine gets involved when country's peace is threatened and heads off to fix it. I personally felt like I had too many characters thrust at me at the beginning, it was hard to keep track of at first. And there were certainly a few scenes that didn't need to be in the novel at all (sadly they're spoilers so I can't mention them), but they only succeeded in making the novel longer rather than pushing the plot along.

As a final comment, I would certainly recommend it. I love it as a whole, which makes it easy to ignore the bad points. I'm certainly keeping my fingers crossed for a sequel and will probably read it again.