Dealing with "The Struggle", or how not to get distracted

[Gamerprinter]

Nope, no issue here. 90% of my maps are created in 4 hours or less, that 10% outside that have varied based on complexity, but I've never spent more than 4 separate days to complete a map. Noting that since 2008, I have over 1800 published maps, and probably a third of that of not yet published or never will be published maps. Once I sit down, to my preplanned time slot to create a map, I knock the map out. One of my incentives, is while I enjoy making maps, I more enjoy showing completed maps, so I race to map completion. I work at the speed, just slightly less than me starting to make mistakes - so I create art at a high rate of speed, trying to match my mental plans which exceeds my rate of creation. I use to run a graphic design studio for 22 years, as the only creator in the shop, with half a dozen jobs I needed to complete each day. I learned how to work fast. At this time, I cannot work slowly, and wouldn't work slowly. While I pre-plan my intent in creating a map, very often creative ideas occur along the way, that alters my original plan, but fitting a better plan conceived in the making.

GP

[Llannagh]

I don't know that's pretty much all I do. If you find the solution let us know. :p

Although I have found that posting WIP's here helps, and also has the added benefit of giving you notes on what you were doing and what you were going for if you share them in the WIP posts, so that when you come back to them its not as hard to pick up the thread.

I'll make sure to let you know! Posting WIPs helped for a while, but I stopped because I never finished them

For me it is usually one of three things; too many hours at work (the most common), frustration with the project not shaping up/moving along as well as I would like, or too many distractions induced by the project that end up sidetracking me. Always promise myself that I am going to get back to work on a lot of these unfinished projects, but it never seems to happen.

Yup, those are also some of the reasons I struggle with. I think they're connected: I work many hours, then I sit down to actually do what I would like to do but I'm tired and it takes too long for the workflow to kick in... or I get sidetracked by too many ideas at once and then don't know where to start and then it's easier to just watch or read something or play video games. (And then I feel stupid that at age 44 I often still can'T resist the pull of a good video game...)

Nope, no issue here. 90% of my maps are created in 4 hours or less, that 10% outside that have varied based on complexity, but I've never spent more than 4 separate days to complete a map. Noting that since 2008, I have over 1800 published maps, and probably a third of that of not yet published or never will be published maps. Once I sit down, to my preplanned time slot to create a map, I knock the map out. One of my incentives, is while I enjoy making maps, I more enjoy showing completed maps, so I race to map completion. I work at the speed, just slightly less than me starting to make mistakes - so I create art at a high rate of speed, trying to match my mental plans which exceeds my rate of creation. I use to run a graphic design studio for 22 years, as the only creator in the shop, with half a dozen jobs I needed to complete each day. I learned how to work fast. At this time, I cannot work slowly, and wouldn't work slowly. While I pre-plan my intent in creating a map, very often creative ideas occur along the way, that alters my original plan, but fitting a better plan conceived in the making.

GP

Good for you, man! My guess is, though, that through running a graphic design studio for such a long time you were forced to develop a workflow. Also I'm assuming that you have some kind of formal education in graphic design and thus have learned the basics.
I love how structured your approach to creating a map seems to be, while at the same time you're able to go with the flow and alter it according to what comes up at the moment of creation. That's a gift, or at least an accomplishment in itself!

The outer circumstances matter a lot, imo. Working in a creative job can be very beneficial, though I imagine that it can also get very tiring having to be creative all the time. In the end, it's about balance. I see too many people getting burned out by jobs they loathe but need in order to earn money. And I live in Germany, where the system is, despite our reputation for being very productive and efficient, is actually pretty fair compared to other hyper-capitalistic systems. Still I think that the general mindset should change to something where the word "work" isn't connotated as something negativ. To achieve that, people should be able to spend more time doing what they love (and get the chance to actually find out what they love doing).
There will always be tasks that are unpleasant but need to be done. But I think we have the technology to actually automate many of those tasks.


Ok, this thread has gotten a new trajectory, sorry about that! But what do you guys think? Would a change in society make it easier to create art?