Back after a very long time. How do you deal with burnout?

[TheDoublekey]

Hi everyone! I'm finally back after a long long time here on the Tapas forums. I've missed this place quite a lot, so I felt like making a little comeback post would be cool. The past few months I've been dealing with a little bit of depression and this didn't help my burnout, as my personal situation led me to abandon my project for a while. I just felt like I had lost all passion and motivation to keep writing and drawing the story I had previously loved with all my heart. I fell out of love with my characters and I started seeing my writing as shallow and sloppy. As a result, I tried to force myself into writing in order to progress with the story (or the remake, that is) and failed miserably. I was creating something that felt very different from what I had initially envisioned.

I've had a terrible crisis with writing in general and haven't been able to produce anything new, but now I feel energized and ready to start working on it again. I probably won't be posting any new episodes, as I still see that as a chore, but I will keep working on my own terms and post the story whenever I feel like it, without imposing restrictions on myself.

So my question to y'all is... has something similar ever happened to you? Have you ever felt like abandoning your craft or at least taking a break from it? Let me know if you've ever dealt with such a deep burnout and what you've done to overcome it. Let's chat!

[thournewrites]

Absolutely! It was similar circumstances for me. My mental health took a hit while I was working on a different project and I lost passion for it, couldn't get myself to work on it. Ultimately I had to reevaluate; what can I handle, what brings me joy, was the feeling something I could work through. I ended up realizing the project I was working on before was too much for me and I was going through the motions with it. I ended up walking away with a lot of experience though. I know my strengths and weaknesses with my work better, what work flow works for me, what I can manage and what overwhelms me.

Having a good schedule and a plan and taking the time to sit down and figure out what I did and didn't like about a project even if I didn't like the answers really helped me a lot. And be kind and patient with yourself, we're all only human !

[TheDoublekey]

100% agreed! We all have to be patient with ourselves and take our time. Our body and soul are one thing and sometimes they both just need some rest and recovery. I don't know how to explain this, but everything I did felt worthless and didn't have the same beauty as before. I think what solved my problem was shifting from taking this as a job to taking this for what it is: my passion. This means I can take all the time I want and I shouldn't feel pressured.

[Shanny8]

Definitely. I'm still "not back" to doing my webcomic, but planning to actually start working on pages this coming fall/winter...the past year or so I've been mainly working on standalone pieces, trying to keep my motivation to art and enjoy the stuff I'm working on.

For me it was a combination of burnout/injuries coupled by some family losses and periods of depression & stress from work being piled on me at times from my FT job(the burnout had been off and on since 2018- finally hit hard in 2019; the depression hit in 2020). I was finally able to shake a lot of that off last year- especially after I moved to a new place(seems like a change of scenery helped further change my state of mind)...and while I did kinda get down on myself for not doing a lot last year, it couldn't be helped(for the record, I remastered a comic book issue, worked on a [paying] logo/design project, did standalone pieces, & put together my art workspace so that I could stay motivated).

This year I've been working on the standalone pieces & dealing with financial issues to which I just found some solutions for...now that my stress levels are dropping, I'm able to push through the last bit of planned projects so that I can get back to working on my webcomic.

Still being a little cautious and take much needed rest periods between these projects so that I dont burnout again; not being able to work on art- while seeing my peers doing stuffs, sucks.

[Leyelle]

I switch up what I'm working with usually. And I'm basically eternally burned out at this point since haven't had a vacation in like three years lol. My biggest method is to keep working on new ideas or cycling between my projects to keep my brain a little more stimulated

[Emalie]

The truth is that it has happened to me many times, but this is something I want to do more than anything. I'd like to finish my comic before I lose motivation. I have the script, I need to draw it, it won't be an abrupt ending. It will be the first time I draw a story in its entirety. I love it, I like how the plot develops and I have learned a lot from it. I have many chapters done in advance and that has allowed me not to give up on my story and take breaks.

I'm a little tired, but with the firm intention of continuing until the last panel. I honestly feel like I need to draw three or four chapters to finish the comic, little by little and with the time I have at my disposal.

I have considered that if I work on another project again it will be a much shorter and simpler story.