Creators: Do you have motivation problems?

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Cyllya1
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22 Jun 2015, 3:01 am

Specifically, related to autism or comorbidities? How do you deal with it?

Everyone sometimes has writer's block (or other artform equivelent) or has to force themselves through a difficult part of a project... but I also have problems like autistic inertia, stress related to transitioning between activities, and executive disfunction. Sometimes I can also get depression-related laziness or anhedonia.

I have all sorts of artsy-fartzy hopes and dreams, but I graduated college five years ago and I've made what is essentially no progress. Everyday is another day of my life wasted. :( I did find that I can get myself to draw pretty easily using a software for Nintendo 3DS. It's easy to pick up or put away and has totally unmatched convinience (e.g. I can draw while waiting in line at the store or while procrastinating on getting out of bed), but I can only do so much with that software, and I haven't figured out how to make anything else that easy.

If you have problems like this, have you found anything that works for you?


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Aspiewordsmith
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22 Jun 2015, 10:45 am

I find that eating spacecake helps me with focus. People do not realise especially when I plan my next project and my own job but get accused of being delirious and taking things the wrong way by my own family. When I stopped I hated people and had post traumatic stress disorder flashbacks while I was waiting for my gums to heal after my operation for full dental extraction I also had neglected my domestic and personal hygiene and I had no motivation and had anhedonia due to being taken for granted for years since after 1975. I'm not recommending smoking weed or eating space cakes unless one has co morbid epilepsy, but I'm just saying that this has helped me.



invisibleboy
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30 Jun 2015, 4:56 pm

Yes to everything you said. I'm a very creative person but it's only when my hyper focus kicks in that I actually get anything done. What I try to do is schedule a time to get started, commit to working for 10 minutes, and if it sparks my focus, great, I'll get something done, but if it doesn't, that's fine, no pressure, try again later.


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Ailurus
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30 Jun 2015, 5:23 pm

I love, need and crave to create, but I can only get focused as long as my train of thought do not get interrupted. I have found myself being able to write a whole week-end without interruption, simply because the ideas kept flowing naturally, but, when I hit some kind of block, I get frustrated and that frustration is hard to overcome. Creation is made of a lot of very little decisions that I find extremely hard to take, because I want to analyze all the options. So far, I have found it helpful to daydream about what I want to create, but also about how I want to create it. What will be all those little steps that will get me there. That way, I deal with less frustration when I get to the most practical level. If I find myself stuck with a decision, I'll try to put it on the side and do something else. Usually, it'll remain in the back of my head and, at some point, in the middle of nowhere, the answer will come to me.

Creation is also an act of faith that requires a lot of self-esteem. I want the end result to be perfect, but I keep questioning my capacity to build something perfect. That, sometimes, make me puts all stuffs I am working on on hold for long times, because, what's the point if it can't reach my expectations?


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Sino
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01 Jul 2015, 6:55 am

Ailurus wrote:
Creation is also an act of faith that requires a lot of self-esteem. I want the end result to be perfect, but I keep questioning my capacity to build something perfect. That, sometimes, make me puts all stuffs I am working on on hold for long times, because, what's the point if it can't reach my expectations?

Perfect, how this describes my own difficulties with the creative process. (A high compliment, but ultimately we're all stuck in the same rut. Alas. :lol: )

I've heard the comparison made between writing and sports: they are both things you have to practice, until it becomes a muscle memory of sorts. I also remember one author - I've since forgotten who - stating that one should write "without hope and without despair", which is a zen-like state I've never willfully forced myself into (and certainly not on a schedule). I've written some of my better work under spontaneity, but it's always saddled with one or two problems that I'm unable to deal with the next day. So continues the vicious cycle: I revise, am dissatisfied with revisions, file it away indefinitely, get preoccupied with a new idea...and on. If this is ADD, it blows.



Kiprobalhato
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15 Jul 2015, 1:33 am

i find music soothes me when i get in the creative mood.

when i create, i can't sit still and have to go outside and waltz around i my backyard and pretend i'm a fairy.

frustrating. can't get anything done that way.

i've never had much writing inspiration.


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Kraichgauer
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15 Jul 2015, 2:35 am

I'm currently in a creative slump. I found that drinking doesn't help. But in all fairness, this is hardly the first time that this has happened to me, and I've always have been able to rebound when inspiration comes back, and start pounding the keyboard again.


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tinyteddy
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22 Jul 2015, 9:43 am

yes i understand what this is like. i love to do art, but i feel like i can only do it when im not at home. sometimes late at night i will do art when there are no distractions



Marky9
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22 Jul 2015, 10:38 am

My most reliable motivator is to keep whatever it is I'm working on within view. If I stopped due to getting stuck, sooner or later by constant getting a glance of my work the solution or a fresh idea will come to me.

If I stop due to fatigue, an unfinished piece that is in view will eventually itself compel me to resume work on it once I am rested.