thread: 2006-02-16 : Throwing It Open: Pulling the Plug
On 2006-02-18, ethan_greer wrote:
My creative process is fluid, explosive, and exciting. This is partially due to mental illness, and partially due to adjusting my habits to said mental illness for twenty-odd years or so. It's an ill wind that blows no good, as they say.
What this means is, when I sit down to work on something, I'll get fired up about it and the words (or in rare cases, pictures or music) will just flow out. Sometimes I start out fired up, and other times I force myself to work on something and through that effort become fired up.
For me, creative expression, particularly through words, is pretty thrilling. I wrote much of Thugs & Thieves, for example, in a state of mild exhilaration.
So what went wrong? Well, I have this achilles heel in my creative process, and it's a matter of external validation. I showed Thugs & Thieves to some friends, and they wiped their asses with it. Took the mickey right out of me.
Also to consider is the fact that around that time I had an intense mental breakdown. Suddenly, being an indie publisher became waaaay too much for me to handle. Still is, in fact. I've been receiving proper treatment for a few years, and have the self-awareness to choose projects that will move me and satisfy my creative needs without destroying me. Hats off to you folks that have published your games for profit; it's quite an accomplishment.
How can my story be of use to you, the reader? Well, here's something I've learned in exploring my own rather mercurial creative process: Always be creative. What I mean is, that any act of creativity will enable further creativity. So if you're having a hard time on your game, perhaps one of the best things you can do is express your creativity in some seemingly unrelated way. Set the game aside and go fiddle with a guitar, or a ukulele (Hi Clinton), or a keyboard or something. Draw pictures, doodles, whatever. Write poetry or micro fiction.
What happens is, you've got this tension—you want to work on your game, but it's not flowing. So there's a buildup of creative energy that isn't being released. Release that energy and you take the pressure off your game. You'll feel better, and the next time you sit down to work on your game, you won't have the negative associations with frustration and creative blockage.
This makes ecb go "its so true..."
creative energy blocked in one place still wants to come out.
This makes PK go "Yes, and..."
It's not just releasing creative energy, but it's also practice focusing it.
