k-l-neidecker

[k-l-neidecker]

“Some writers confuse authenticity, which they ought always to aim at, with originality, which they should never bother about.”

— W.H. Auden (via writingdotcoffee)

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The Homes of Hidden Animals Series by Jeniak

This artist on Instagram // Twitter

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catch, and release

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“Stop being aimless.”

—

Marcus Aurelius

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SimFarm

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Deus Ex!

“I wanted orange. It gave me lemon lime!”

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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.

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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

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[k-l-neidecker]

⚡GIVEAWAY TIME⚡

This week I’m going to giveaway E V E R Y T H I N G  digital that’s available in my shop - that’s $200 worth of tabletop goodies! Scroll to the bottom to see the full list of everything you can win ✨

HOW TO ENTER:

1. Follow me on tumblr!

2. Reblog this post!

3. Get extra chances to win by entering via my Twitter (@_r_n_w_) and Instagram (@_r_n_w_)

Each platform will have THREE randomly selected winners who will be notified via DM - that’s NINE WINNERS in total!

Ends 4pm GMT 21st August 2020

Good luck to everyone entering!! 🎲

WHAT YOU’LL WIN:

Players Pack

Complete set of 12 Class Specific Character Sheets (minimal & classic style)

Equipment Packs - The Full Set

Basic Weapons - Item Card Pack

Full Spell Card Set

Character Journal : Digital Edition

The New & Improved 5e Character Sheet (minimal, classic and fey fayre style)

Full Multi-Classing Pack (minimal & classic style)

Game Master’s Pack

All of our one-shot adventures:

The Tremor Train,

Spike Patch Grove,

The Fey Fayre

Game Master’s Kit Deluxe (minimal & classic style)

World Building Kit Deluxe (minimal & classic style)

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Do you have any thoughts to share about Ursula Le Guin? I read the Earthsea books and a collection of her short stories and it made me feel things I can't explain ( especially Tehanu.oh my god Tehanu was so beautiful). Nobody around me seems to know her work and that makes me incredibly sad. So how would you explain Ursula Le Guin to the uninitiated?

Here... enjoy this, and watch the video: 

https://www.loa.org/news-and-views/1372-neil-gaiman-on-ursula-k-le-guin-a-magic-of-true-speaking

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You ever do that thing where you’re telling a funny life experience story...

…and you realize partway through that actually the story is pretty fucked up and horrifying and you’ve just been conditioned by your trauma to find humor in these things, but then your coworker or whoever is just staring at you like holy fuck dude and then it gets kind of awkward for a minute. 

Yeah. oops. 

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hey guys did we actually cancel cringe culture or did we just replace it with the slightly more elaborate ritual of ascribing objective moral value to works of fiction and making sure anyone who likes something Bad knows they should be ashamed of it

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reading as a writer