Ivie on Creative Motivation

Emily Ivie, creator of the graphic novel The Locked Maze, talks motivation over at the reMIND blog. Excerpt:

When I first joined deviantArt five years ago, I weighed in on a forum regarding the ubiquitous lament of artists: motivation. It's a common refrain I hear, particularly from young artists, that they used to draw all the time and now they go weeks or months without inspiration. They are looking for some thrill, some newness that art used to give them when they were kids, but that kind of excitement can't last in the face of years and decades of doing art. Eventually, it becomes a job. And as with every other job, some people hate that, and some people care enough for the end product that they sail past the day-to-day disappointments.

I can't tell you at this stage in my life where I fall, as I am neither established and comfortable nor young and passionate nor even middlingly motivated. But over two decades of struggling with this angst, I do have a few pointers.

Read the first and second articles in the series. Though Ivie mines a topic plenty of others have gone over before, she still comes up with some gems. For example, she urges creative types to cultivate a fearless mindset by not "making fun of other people" and "realiz[ing] that everyone looks stupid on the way to achieving something amazing." She also reminds the perfectionists among us of Parkinson's Law: "Work expands to fill the time available for its completion." In other words, allotting massive blocks of your schedule to your latest project doesn't necessarily mean it will turn out significantly better in the end. Worthy council for neophytes and veterans alike.

(Picture: CC 2009 by jjpacres; Hat Tip: ollwen)