Are You Chasing Your Creative Dreams Yet?

HGohwell 2021-08-15 18:45:11 UTC #1

And if you're not, what's stopping you?

So, remember this time last year there was a thread about things you want to create but aren't ready to for some reason? Remember how I talked about wanting to make a proper card game series that actually reflects how card games are played in real life rather than the shounen bs 99.9% of anime pulls, more like a sports series than a fantasy series, but didn't have the confidence in my own ability to write it yet? Well, following a series of personal tragedies towards the start of the year (starting with the expected but still painful loss of my old lady of a cat many of you will have seen on the various pet threads and only getting worse from there) that forced me to take a step back and reassess things, I decided to just take the plunge and write the damn card games and with a dark, raw interpersonal, character driven plot. Because life is too short too doubt yourself.

So, what's your creative dream and are you following it yet? If you remember that thread from last year, do you remember what you said you wanted to do? Are you doing it? And if you're not, why not? What's your dream project and when are you going to be ready? And if not, here's the big question: are you ever going to be ready?

GumshoeComix 2021-08-15 19:37:30 UTC #2

well all I've really wanted to do is make my comics and sell them at conventions I try not to dream too big so I don't get dissapointed.
All that's really stopping me is printing that or finding a publisher who will take a story like this.
Since landscape (The widescreen format I've chosen) Comics aren't as common. A lot of printing companies don't take it since they'd need to buy whole new paper for it so they'd be printing at a loss. I found a few that do (like Ka-Blam) but Wow $$$
It would literally be cheaper to get my own printing press I'm not even exaggerating.

Publishers do print landscape like onipress has a few landscape comics but I'll either lose access to my IP or have to change the story. "to be more marketable" It's technically the easier route since they market for you but.. My dignity. ;;
And as for conventions, they're all closed till January ;;; Big sad

EDIT: did more researching, apparently I have everything needed to apply to image comics mfw

DokiDokiTsuna 2021-08-15 20:01:15 UTC #3

I actually do remember that...I think I spend too much time on this forum...^^;;;

Anyway...I feel like I'm always chasing my dreams, tbh. I don't have enough self-restraint not to. :9

I wanted to make comics, so I started doing that. Every year I have an idea for another comic, and I just start writing them, even if I have no time to draw them. Then I thought, "what if I wrote novels on the side, and used them to handle some of these extra comic ideas"? So I started doing that, too.

Then I wanted to animate, so I started doing that. Then I wanted to make music, so I started doing that (one of my biggest dreams as a kid was to have my own Vocaloid and make songs for her, and I basically achieved that last year).
Then I thought, "I have all these creative skills...a game would be a great way to put them all together. I wish I could make one..." Well, now I'm finally doing that, too. My first demo is already 30% of the way done.

Basically, if I want to do something, I usually end up doing it sooner or later. =/ Like you said, life's too short...and besides, it's not like any of these various things I do ever garner a lot of attention. ^^; It does suck, to be honest, but in a way it's freeing, because I have nothing to lose.
I have zero income and barely any reputation attached to any of my work, so I can do whatever I want.

That being said...there is one dream of mine that is still relatively un-chased: I think what I'd really like to be is the creative director of a studio, where I could hire a team of artists to work on all kinds of projects.
I love doing art, and I have billions of ideas, but if I'm being honest with myself, I don't have much in the way of work ethic. ^^; I rely a lot on hyperfixation and just plain stubbornness to get things done, and it works but it's not ideal.

But if I could ask people to work for me, that would take care of the problem, and together we could probably create lots more stuff.
Besides, I feel like I have a lot of good qualities that a director should have:
Clear creative vision
Experience with various art forms (so they actually understand what their co-workers have to go through, and aren't just blindly making demands)
Patience
The ability to plan ahead and set goals
Flexibility, especially when faced with time/budgetary restraints
A love for artistic collaboration (really, I do love it. I've only ever done it maybe twice in my life, but I had fun both times)

To make this dream come true, though, I kinda need money first (and lots of it), because I can't make connections with other artists to save my life. 6_6; It's not that I'm not friendly, or that I don't try when I meet someone I like; it's just that for some reason people don't 'take' to me.

I don't think I've ever had more than a loose acquaintance with anyone I'd consider an artistic peer (i.e. someone I might actually WANT to collab with). So it's money or nothing...and as I don't even have a job yet, that's a long way off. But you never do know what'll happen in the future...

Mallory 2021-08-15 23:36:53 UTC #4

I'm... sorta doing it? I started drawing my comic a year ago after waffling for 7 years, so that's kinda nice. I'm making inches of progress on my novel (a mash-up of Russian Revolution and sci-fi) which is also nice.

But I am in pain daily. I have nerve impingement in my neck on both sides. I can only draw for maybe 2 hours (3 on a really good day) ON A WEEKEND where I don't do anything. I cannot draw or write AT ALL when I work because I'm trying to give my poor nerves time to rest. And if my nerves aren't bothering me, I probably have a migraine and can't look at a screen. It's actually really distressing because I want nothing more than to spend 8 hours a day drawing and writing. I have so many ideas, so much desire to put it to paper and I just... I can't, physically do it.

This is probably going to be with me for the rest of my life, because I have family history of it. I wanted to be a director or a producer but that's never going to happen now because if I put myself under that stress, I will just be even more in pain and will not be able to do anything at all.

I try to look on the bright side and be like "well slow and steady right haha" but I honestly wish for nothing other than to be able to actually have a damn physical ability to pursue my creative dreams properly. So if you have the physical ability and you are not pursing your creative dreams... go and f**king do it. Because when it's taken away from you, like it was from me, it will be way too late.

Kaydreamer 2021-08-16 02:24:35 UTC #5

My big creative dream has long been to write the stories and share the characters which have been rattling around in my brain for over a decade now. So the fact that I've finally started is the realisation of that dream, though there's a looooooong way to go.

That said, I want to make telling those stories my full-time job. That's going to be a little more tricky, but there've been some promising happenings.

I have a few Patrons.
My comic is growing much faster than I thought it would.
Someone on Webtoon liked it enough to stick it in the fantasy collection during the Canvas Festival, and leave that on the front page for a week. Which really helped its growth.
All of the above is pretty mind-blowing for me, especially given that it's my first try at making a comic.

So while I'm still a long way off making my full-time comic creator dream come true, I'm off to a more positive start than I thought would happen, and that's fuelling me to commit to making this work.

rajillustration 2021-08-16 03:20:09 UTC #6

I think quarantine put a lot of that into perspective for me. Had to really look at my art and say "what was the reason I decided to learn this crazy difficult practice in the first place?" and it was storytelling. But storytelling illustration was one of those things I've put off because of timing and life stuff. Seemed like a good time to start posting the stuff I had done on my own privately but knew that wouldn't be a good fit for traditional publishing without a great deal of editing.

In the end I'm really happy I did because publishing it here in a low-key/low-risk space has made me more aware of not only the things I want to improve with my storytelling while chatting with all y'all here and on different discords, but has given me some more confidence in my ability to promote--which honestly I'm still not good at, but I'm getting better every day.

Still have a lot of dream stories I want to write on that list, but I'll get there when I get there. For now I'm just focusing on finishing the stories I got TBH my "to write/draw" list is so long that I dunno if I'll live long enough haha.

justusjagreen 2021-08-16 03:46:45 UTC #7

Are you looking for writers

VibrantFox 2021-08-16 05:07:39 UTC #8

money. or at least that's one thing. if financial stability wasn't a concern i'd probably pour a lot more time and effort into the stories i wanna tell but i've got to focus on what pays the bills. there's also need for a stable environment where i can actually sit down with a clear head to create but it's getting there just slowly.

i am taking baby steps towards it though it's not been as liner as i'd like since i've had two instances in the past where i'd lost essentially all of my work and thus had to start from scratch so that's been something of a motivation killer but i'm getting reorganized again.

i think so far i've at least managed to organize a list of all the stories i want to work on and gotten basic single sentence summaries jotted down just to keep mental folders organized for which story's which. beyond that i've been making the general outlines for each of em; marking down story beats, making notes of all the characters, and logging scenes that havent been given spots on the timeline so i know whether i'll keep em/toss em/ or save em for something else

i think another thing that'd be useful in making things easier would be a support circle or something because no matter how much folks yak about being your own cheerleader and whatnot it's still very much necessary

and like to folks who are able or more willing to just make their jumps (saftey net or not) i respect it, it's cool! it's just everyone's got their own approach so i hope folks like me who're easing into things don't feel obligated to dive head first into stuff if they're not ready

ar-ninetysix 2021-08-16 05:53:51 UTC #9

Well, my creative dream is to eventually get into the business of making music for money, whether that's my own personal stuff being sold or commissioned music for other people's works. I'm not currently doing that, but I am working up to it.

Ngl I'm already halfway there, I've basically been making music for myself for nearly a decade lmao

Anyways, I don't have the equipment necessary to reliably make things whenever I want atm and that stuff costs quite a bit of money (for me anyways, otherwise it's fairly cheap for music software). Been experimenting with a lot of digital amp plugins lately, that's been fun. I just gotta spend money to make money, but I didn't have much money to begin with so...it's been an uphill battle lol all I need is what I'd consider my bare essentials, and that shouldn't take much longer from now. I'm hoping to get everything up and running in few months~

I wanna make albums of weird J-rock and metal inspired music with occasional elements of ambient, electronic, and orchestral styles. That'd be the dream! And OSTs for the comics I wanna make would be fun too. If I can earn money doing both to feed back into buying more professional gear and software to expand the potential soundscapes I could come up with.. man, that'd be super exciting... but I feel like neither would do well enough to live off of them alone and that's where doing commission work would help immensely.

So yeah. Music man wanna make music to get money, but music man with no money need money to make music

jensrichard77 2021-08-16 06:44:07 UTC #10

Yes I am!
Always follow the open doors in you life they say, and the more I work with my creative work, more doors are opening for me.
I have great creative friends and I'm proud of my work with my teams. I even make money and have upgraded my little home office. Things are great and I only hope that I will be able to expand and enjoy my ride.

My dream is to make a unique timeless story with a great cast of characters for all of you to enjoy.
My other dream is to have great fun with clients that are happy with my providing, and so far that's what I have.

I wish you all good luck with your dreams too, you just have to be open and flexible to make it happen.

Caro 2021-08-16 14:11:51 UTC #11

@HGohwell Congrats on starting a card game series! That feels like such a good goal to have and it sounds like its going to be really cool! I'm also so sorry for your loss, I know how hard it is to lose pets. But the good thing is you made this little being as comfortable as you could and gave them companionship and a happy lil life. Its the best any of us can do.

I actually just had a conversation about this on a podcast recently essentially about how nobody ever feels ready and with so many aspects of art in general, but specifically comics, there is no better way to 'get ready' than by just starting and allowing yourself to be bad for a while.

On the topic of my creative dreams, I've basically been actively chasing them for the last decade when my husband and I first met. We've been pushing each other and our comics together since and pretty diligently working on them daily for the last almost decade and we both do it full time now. We're in a very very very unlikely position though.

I do have other dreams that I simply don't have enough time for right now while I'm working on two different books for two different publishers. I've started a bunch of horror comics that I can't prioritize right now because I have to focus on the paying work but as soon as my current projects are turned in I'd like to pursue horror a little more seriously. I have to be prepared for it to make me less money though and build up a body of work right now that could support me for a bit while I pursue my less marketable works.

I also really want to start writing novels this year. I also would really like to make a short horror film next year. I get to try it out a bit for a music video I'm directing for a band and I feel nervous because I DO NOT feel ready but, like I said before, the best way to get ready is to rip the bandaid off and actually do it.

Another thing I've been working on is playing music. I started learning bass and guitar maybe three years ago and have started writing music a bit. I don't know how seriously I can pursue this one but its a nice hobby at least!

I finally bit the bullet this past weekend and started a podcast! I didn't feel quite ready for that either but the response has been really good so I'm thinking maybe I was ready for it but afraid of failure.

HGohwell 2021-08-16 15:47:28 UTC #12

Well, at least that's a good starting point then! It's good that you've found somewhere to try.

Glad someone does and I'm not just reminiscing all by myself over old threads.

I've had to force myself out of this over the years from back when I was first writing and would just never finish anything, so I've sort of stopped doing that and learnt to figure out which things I really want to do and which is just a passing idea I can let go. But I'm glad it works out for you.

I feel this so much. Wanting to do something and just physically not being able is awful. And yeah, I can imagine "slow and steady" while yeah solid advice is probably really frustrating to hear when you can't really do anything but.

Haha this is why I had to take a step back and think ok which story is it I really want to tell. If this was my last story which do I really wat to give a chance.

I think baby steps still count as steps. Lots of people just put it off completely all together, after all. I don't think anything is as linear as we'd like it to be unfortunately.

Thanks! It's currently in that weird impatient stage where I really want to get posting but know I need to keep building up my buffer which is honestly the worst. And thank you, she was an old old lady so it wasn't unexpected and we did out best to keep her comfortable until the end, but it still hurt.

fleurravenbooks 2021-08-17 11:56:21 UTC #13

Actually yes, after years of telling myself no one wants to read my work , i don't know what took control of me and i just made wattpad (not using it anymore) and tapas. Now im writing my novel and hoping there will be people that enjoy it.