I apologize in advance, because this is going to be a long post about my history in the creative fields and whatnot. I feel like its necessary since there's a lot to my particular problem, so hopefully you give it a read because it's pretty important to me. As the title says, I have trouble finishing anything creative. I've always been described by everyone close to me as being very creative, and I would agree. As a child I was always writing short stories and poems, and everyone in my family and at school thought I was a great writer. I also had great musical ability. I could hear a song one time and remember exactly how it went, and could hum it back or play it note by note on a piano (once i figured out the notes). I was always singing, and my parents told me I was great at it. Actually, they made me do chorus at school for 2 years, although I don't know how good I was and I never really enjoyed it while I was there. I also loved art, any kind really, unfortunately I wasn't very good at making it. I was terrible at drawing anything. I could remember almost any image, and visualize perfectly anything I wanted to draw, but I couldn't get it from my head to the paper (or any other medium). I was slightly better at 3D artwork, but always just ended up drawing boring, straight, geometric shapes and stuff (so many cubes). Despite all this, i never took writing lessons or classes, never learned to play an instrument, never took singing lessons or sang outside my own house, and never took any art classes besides what was required. And as I started getting older, I stopped writing, stopped playing on the piano, stopped singing, and stopped drawing. Years later after spending plenty of time on the internet i got interested in computer graphics (gfx) and started soaking up information like a sponge. I got involved in some communities, met and talked to all kinds of people, and got 2 really close friends who I would talk to on AIM for hours every day. I learned quick and eventually got pretty good with photoshop, making sigs and eventually larger artwork on places like deviantart. I was getting better all the time but after awhile the communities I was a part of started dying out, and my 2 friends drifted away and we no longer spoke. I also stopped spending so much time on the internet, and after awhile I just kind of stopped doing anything gfx related. I tried multiple times to make a sort of 'comeback', but never really had any success. Occasionally I'd still try to make some random things, but being so rusty I was never satisfied with the results and most of the time I ended up quitting halfway through making something. Recently, I started toying around with FL Studio making music. I read and watched all kinds of things and tried getting better at the program, and I mostly tried remaking some siimple-ish songs so I could just practice using the program. I got to a decent enough level where i started trying to make my own songs, of various genres, but it seemed like I could never actually finish a song. I'd start with a nice idea--a nice melody, or bassline, or just some cool sounds, or something. But I couldn't expand from there into a complete song, so i would just stop and start something new. I have scraps of music all over my computer now, and 0 finished songs. I couldn't even complete a full remix of a song, in fact. Lately I've been trying to get back into some writing too. I've been depressed for awhile and i've recently discovered that if I just write what's on my mind, I can write for hours and end up feeling much better. But i don't write in any kind of format. They aren't stories, or poems or anything, it's just like a journal I guess. It's not really meant to be read by anyone, especially since it's so personal. I really enjoy the writing though, and I'd like to write some more short stories or poems, but I can never really get started on anything. I just don't have any motivation to do so. I also recently got diagnosed with adhd. I'm pretty the adhd plus the depression are what's really causing all of this, since I have no motivation and no drive to do much of anything. I have medication for the adhd but it doesn't seem to help. It doesn't help me start a project, and if I do start something, I will still end up not finishing it and forgetting about it. And since I know a lot of you have probably been thinking about it while reading this, i've tried weed a lot of times to help me out. I've tried getting a little buzzed, getting totally baked, indicas and sativas, but nothing seems to really make any difference. Even if I get on one of those really creative or intellectual highs, most of the time I just end up getting lost in my own thoughts and don't really do anything besides just sit and think, then later end up wishing I had done something productive with all those thoughts. And weed definitely doesn't help at all when it comes to concentration or motivation. So that's pretty much where I'm at now. It really sucks. I'd love to get back into all of these things, especially the GFX. I feel like i'd end up a lot happier because of it. I know there's plenty of people here who are brilliantly creative and talented, and i'd love to hear what you all think. Any advice, tips, or comments would be greatly appreciated. ---- tl;dr version: used to be artistic, literary, and musical, but now I can't seem to get started on anything, and if I do i have no commitment and end up stopping or quitting and just end up disappointed at my work and at my failure. Weed doesn't help, neither do my meds for adhd. Any advice, tips, comments?
Start doing something again that you really like. from the way you wrote it seemed like "gfx" is the thing you were most into. I know what you mean and I've jumped from medium to medium before finding what i thoroughly enjoy doing, but you just have to keep creating until you find your favorite way. Don't narrow them down, do them all. Then stick with what you like. But if you force yourself to do something the results won't be authentic and you won't enjoy the process.
for FL studio, make all your tracks seperate. like create a whole drum track, then a whole bass line, then a whole lead, etc. then slap it all together and fine tune so it fits nicely. also this doesnt have to all be for just one song. when i used to fiddle around id spend one whole session just making up a bunch of drum tracks, and another for leads, etc. as for gfx, just try and find a new forum/hub for inspiration. i personally used to use the planetrenders forums, slashthree is a really great site for inspiration (and also if your just baked they have some of THE COOLEST digital arts on the web), and psd.tutsplus.com . and as for actual production of a work, its good to have a final image in mind, but dont set an actual end-point. just keep adding and fiddling until you like what you see. or post a wip (work in progress) picture on a forum and get other people to critique and add ideas
>_> typed out nice long responses for everything and firefox crashed on me. cool. I try not to force it. But if i do get that urge to create something, I usually end up stopping quickly after i start for whatever reason. Yeah, GFX was what I enjoyed most and I spent the most time and put the most effort into it, by far. But still I don't limit myself. I try to be creative in whatever way feels right at the time. But yeah I agree that you can't force creativity. I'm not trying to force it..I know it's in there..i just can't seem to get it out. I do make them separate, but even if i do get something that sounds nice, i only ever end up with like 30 seconds of a song and have no idea where to go from there. I guess I could give this a shot. Due to some drama in the distant past i avoid planetrenders just on principle, and I don't know the other 2 sites. I've been out of this game for so long I don't know anything at all about the community anymore. I used to frequent one particular gfx forum that was one of the largest and most highly regarded around, but the staff kind of disappeared and one day the site just wasn't there anymore. I can't even remember the name of it anymore. New tuts are always nice although I was always taught not to follow tuts much since you don't develop your own style or technique that way (in my opinion this is usually completely true). But it's nice to look them over sometimes and get some ideas. As far as your work process goes, that's pretty much what i (used to) do. I'd just have a general image in my mind (or sometimes no real goal at all) and work towards that, and anything I thought was cool along the way I would just leave in or work it in somehow if I could. WIP's, well to be honest I'm not a big fan actually. But they might help push me to actually finish something, so maybe i'll try that out too. Anyway thanks for the advice people. I'll try to keep it all in mind. Any other advice on motivating myself to actually finish something would be great, too.
Ok I'll give you a couple different pieces of advice not all of them may be possible. Take more Art Classes, or Music classes. It would make it so you do that stuff daily. And trust me once you get back into Art and really get into you start to learn all sorts of shit ideas just kind of start coming because you practice. It is kind of like a muscle. If you don't use it for a while you lose it. If you can't do that due to money constraints or lack of availability or something. Think about what you are interested in right now. For example you want to write possibly but you can't come up with stories. Why not write a story in a similar mood/subject as them. If you think about the stories you like and think of what you can add to them to make it your own. Your voice your input. You just got to think about it a lot and do writing excercises to give you ideas. Like just writing whatever you think at the moment and not censoring yourself. With music maybe learning a new instrument or a software? The stuff about writing can be said about a lot of other things as well.
Some classes would be nice. Unfortunately since I go to a community college most classes are just the basics. There are a few art/music/etc classes, but as far as the art classes go none of them really interested me that much, plus you have to take art 101 before taking anything else, and i'm sorry but after reading the course description I don't think i could subject myself to that kind of boredom. Music classes, idk. I should look into that. I don't play any instrument though so that's kind of a problem. The writing part..you'll have to forgive me but i haven't slept in like a day and a half now and I just can't figure out what your trying to say here. especially this part: "Why not write a story in a similar mood/subject as them." By them, do you mean the stuff I write when I'm feeling kind of down? If so, i've thought of it but never actually tried it for some reason. Next time I get in one of those moods i'll give it a try and see how it goes. Also for years I've wanted to learn guitar, and over the past few months got more serious about it. I have a guitar an amp already picked out and everything. Trouble is, I can't seem to find a reason to justify spending a few hundred dollars on something I've never really used before. I know a lot about guitar and kind of know some technique just from reading/watching, and i have the start of some nice muscles in my hands and fingers thanks to extensive guitar hero lol, but my fear is that I'll end up using most of my money on a brand new guitar and amp, and quit on that after a few weeks just like i seem to quit on my other projects. I feel pretty confident that i have enough interest and prior knowledge to keep playing around until i can become decent, but haven't really found any way of convincing myself of that yet. Good advice, I appreciate it. I'm seriously considering trying to get into a music theory class or something next semester. Music consumes most of my life yet I have no formal education about it.
I dont know shit about gfx but i do about music and if you're seriously interested in making your own music I recommend doing at least some basic music theory. Learn from classical music as the layout of the bassline/melody/harmony can easily be transfered to modern software music/beatmaking and/or the playing of a guitar. I was taught music theory when I was younger and the background knowledge is a great help as a base for ideas and for creation. Good luck with whatever you choose though, I know it can be frustrating as hell when you cant seem to finish things, I have the same problem at times.