Sober creative dilemma.
 

I have some projects. And deadlines for them. They involve some drawing. I have been trying to make something happen for over a week... I got nothing. Not a single thing. I exercised, read, walked, looked at images, listened to music, got out a bit. This tiny bit of art ability is pretty much all I have. If I lose this I have nothing.

In the past this is where drinking came in. Did I throw what little ability I had away with the bottle and pills?

So what do YOU do when your creativity dies? Because mine is evidently in the dirt, and I've got the sketch book to show for it.

is there anythign that stimulates the creative urge for you? I dont have a good answer to this myself other then i've heard it before about people loosing there creative edge when they quit drinking. Tho i've heard the opposite too.

I lost a few things along these lines when i quit drinking a few abilities i once had or in my case maybe i never really had but booze allowed me to cope and pull it off. took me a dang long time to be ok with that. It is still worrisome for me too.

I hope you can get your mojo back with this creativety.

I know tho in my expierience working with creative people I could never rush them to be creative. I ve always had to just allow them to take there time till the creativeness started to flow.

rushing someone who is an artist to do anything is a recipe for disaster i've found it has to come about in its own away and flow if you will.

Sometimes wanting it to come makes it not come more, if that makes sense, Sleepie?

I know it's hard, but try to relax as much as you can - maybe even use a guided meditation if that helps?

You can goof off and draw for fun too - that can often get the creative juices flowing :)

I find my best work comes to me when I'm relaxed and not uptight.

D

Having had the same experience I'm telling you it will come back. I've always been creative and when I was drinking I "lost" that ability. Really being the only thing that gave me joy. Most of the last 9 months being sober it would come and go, often in surges and then nothing, no inspiration at all. Now it's pretty constant. It takes time for the brain to heal. Give it some time. Writers have writer's block and they don't destroy themselves. Each time you drink you set yourself back to square one and repeat the pattern. Get outside in touch with nature, get your hands dirty, plant some flowers, that's creative and will help open you up for more. Good luck!

I ain't about to be a model or a scholar with the little lump of attributes I got in life here so if my small creative ability is out the window it's not going to be good for me.

Getting this out helped a little so I have a small sketch idea, just dragging my feet.

Dee I was thinking the same thing, I know I need to relax. It's also more than that though, I need a little inspiration. Not a lot, I'm not trying to be Rembrandt here but a little. Thing is as you probably know, it's tough to know where it's going to come from. And hard to generate it willingly.

Usually the way things go is very organic, I just kind of do my life and then poof things happen.

Maybe stay in bed in the morning an extra hour, zooming in and out of dreams. I know someone who talks about the 9th hour of sleep as the time when creative dreams come -- after all the head trash is over and the mind is rested.

Also, on the days when I need and want to settle down to make something, putting anything between me and the empty paper is a bad idea. Even if all I get down is words that'll be crossed out later, if I don't fiddle around with the task I get seriously into the anxiety-about-one's-own-procrastination thing. Then that becomes a major distraction in itself.

PS I'm quite sure, even if you're not, that you didn't lose your artistic talent with the booze & pills. :)

...I got 99 problems and a drink ain't one :lmao

That is an interesting concept. I don't think I've ever slept for more than 6 or 7 hours in a row ever in my life :-)....as an adult anyway...

Whenever I'm stuck on a writing project I force myself to do a draft. Even if it's not at all compelling and I'm sure not the direction I'm ultimately going to go. Working through it once and then sleeping on it will often give me ideas the next day, even if they're completely different from what I did the first time around.

Or I do the opposite and procrastinate until just before the deadline and turn in something frantic because I no longer care about the quality. :dunno: Yeah I need to work on my process too. :)

LOL Fantail!

Maybe I do need to just put marks on paper.

This--I also had to "retrain" my muse and it took some time and effort.

Sober creativity is a muscle like sobriety.
Patience and the blank paper / draft plus time everyday
just there doodling if nothing else works like your stair stepper over time.

I am creative but an arts and crafts kind of creative. I love to scrapbook and I used to do it when drinking :scared:

I worried about being able to be creative and feel uninhibited enough without drinking. It took some time but it happened. I think our brains will and do recover but we need to give it time.

I still get blocked sometimes and I find that working on something small and inconsequential, like a tag or a bookmark, helps to get moving onto a bigger project.

You are so talented, sleepie, you may struggle with blocks but I think all creatives have their blocks from time to time. Maybe it is part of the process.

You will get there, your light is too bright not to be seen :scoregood

When I was in college I LOVED to write, when others in my class would moan about doing a paper I perked up and was excited, my professor often commented on me becoming a writer, that was many moons ago, children, house, bills, work, just life in general pushed that passion to the side, not to mention the alcohol, several times I decided to start writing again, and nothing would get from my head to the paper, I tried going back to things I used to write about but nothing seemed to flow anymore, it was suggested to me to write about my current situation, the road I have been down and the way alcohol made me feel, bearing my soul to the paper, this got me thinking and coming up with all kinds of things I want to say about what I am going through. Maybe drawing your soul on the paper can get other things moving along, take an emotion you have or had about how alcohol really makes you feel and draw that emotion as you see it. In bringing writing back into my life for me anyway, being able to honestly write about myself and what I am going through currently is helping me form new ideas about where my writing is going. Good luck kiddo, keeping my fingers crossed for you

I don't write, but I have. I am a musician, and an abstract creative thinker. I know where you are coming from. I have ADHD as well. My inherent abilities are what make me and my art who I am. I avoided ADHD meds in the past because of how they affect my mental processes, that actually "are" who I am, mentally and creatively speaking. Alcohol, marijuana certainly enhance, in a certain way, how I approach my craft. But I don't believe that the substances ever "added" to what I already possess...my experience and my opinion. Sometimes there is just a dry season, and they can last for a bit. I agree with the idea that "forcing it" won't make it happen. It has happened several times with me that, when I just let go, did it for fun and didn't "look" for anything to happen, things started to happen. Think back to why you do it. Maybe even walk away from it for a few days...hope this helps.

Alcoholism

Sometimes it helps me to create my space with extra care. Coffee, art supplies all set up, kick-ass tunes that are special to me all cranked up, and usually a practice canvas for farting around with first.-kinda like inviting creativity in to visit.

Did you draw the rabbit? It is really different in a cool way.

No, not at all- that is from an animated film :)

This concept really had me down for a while. I was blaming sobriety for my lack of creative spark. And then it allowed me get stuck looking at what I "lost" when my relationship with alcohol ended...

But on further reflection it seems that the same thing happened with my creative spark time to time when drinking. It's just that I wasn't nearly as bothered by it because I adequately distracted myself and checked out with a drink, and another and another and another, in my hand.

I agree with Dee. Try to relax. (Easier said than done...)

Take care!

Practice. Do the odd things. Go find a little plant, something 2" tall, sketch it.

Get the pencil moving. Creativity may jump up and ambush you.

those projects have been sitting for over a week now. I drew a couple things and tried to sketch but it's really just... there's nothing there. It's total crap when I force it.