You can't learn how to be creative from anyone else. You do your own thing. But I still think there are some common traps people often fall into, and that if you avoid them you can get a better headspace for being creative. There are some patterns you see over and over again from people trying to start creative projects, especially big ones. There's the excitement at the start that quickly dies down, there's the usual procrastination and non-motivation... And when you actually succeed and things get "serious" you run into a whole new set of problems.
Beware that this is a snapshot from my mind in 2025 and no certain science at all (I usually don't want to give names to my theories because I start to believe them too much, but this time it felt worth it). Also beware that it may be biased by the fact that I've been producing games for the last 4 years, and some of the problems below may have nothing to do with for example musicians or writers because of this. This also isn't a list of solutions, it's more of a short bible (ambitious much?) to read through when you're stuck on a project and want to be reminded of what hurdle you might have created for yourself this time. The common problems are kind of categorized by where in a project's lifecycle they appear, but also a bit loosely. So, here are the states that people often seem to get trapped in, and that you probably want to get out of if you want to create something unique and make it the best it can be:
I. Getting started
If you don't start, nothing will ever happen...
Procrastination
You believe you need some specific thing, either resources or status or time or contacts or anything else, before you can get started on your project. And if this thing is impossible or hard to get, you conclude it’s reasonable to give up and do so. If it’s a bit easier to get, you may still procrastinate it and it’s probably a sign of you starting the project for the wrong reason, which won’t make you able to pursue it long term.
Unconscious self-limitation
You don’t believe you can be a person who does big things, which probably comes from what you hear other people around you say and have heard them say your whole life. You haven’t ever paused to question your own beliefs, and the beliefs of others you’re bombarded with every day, so you automatically think average (because that’s what the average person thinks). So you probably won’t become a person who creates something truly unique and impressive, because that’s usually not the default way of being among the people around you.
Dreaming
You feel inspired and have lots of ideas, but you think about them and talk about them instead of getting with them.
II. A long-term process
Anyone can start a project and then give up as soon as they lose interest, but with a sustainable process you'll get further...
Result orientation
Just working on a project for the sake of doing it isn’t enough for you. You do it to get a result, which means you’ll stop if you get a bad result, or abandon the project quickly if the process isn't fun and you don't get immediate results.
Doing it for someone else
You do what you think you should do, or create what you think other people want to see. This could work at some level, but it rarely works in the long term because it’s not necessarily the same thing as what you like to do, so you’ll probably get tired of it after a while.
Sensitivity to criticism
You change your mind based on what other people think, or get too emotional from negative criticism. So your project is doomed to fail if you get criticism, which you often will get if you try to create something unique.
Toxic productivity
You do too much, because you think you need to, or think you want to. You believe maximum productivity over everything else is a good strategy to get a project done. This doesn’t have to be an obstacle, it can also be what gets you through to the end of a project sometimes… But in the long term burnout lies around the corner. You have to know your reason for being productive and not fool yourself.
Getting comfortable in your ability
You’ve achieved some success (maybe even just a little of it) and start to believe what people say about you. Or you’re so satisfied with your results, regardless of anyone else seeing it, that you start to believe you’ve reached the peak of your ability. Then you slowly stop developing and creating new unique things, because you’re comfortable.
Trying to live up to an image
You’ve released something to the public and received some praise for it. Now you think you need to publish more of that specific thing people liked, either because they tell you to or from your own logical conclusion. You slowly stop developing and slowly stop creating new things, because you think you have an expectation to live up to.
III. Judging the quality
It doesn't matter how much you create if it isn't any good...
Over-self-criticism
You’re too self-critical. You don’t judge yourself objectively. You exaggerate the bad parts of what you’ve made, and this probably comes from your emotions more than from logical facts. Your brain will try to trick you that they are logical facts though, and this kind of warping of thoughts is very hard to spot. This means you won’t correctly judge the quality of your work and therefore won’t be able to make it the best it could be.
Following default opinions
You follow the public discourse too much and take what others say too seriously. Even when it’s not about you and your project. You believe what the majority says is the right way to go about something, is the right way to go. Which means you won’t make what you yourself think is the best. An example of this would be to watch music mixing tutorials and then thinking you need to follow the same steps as the guy in the tutorial does, just because he says it's the correct way.
Taking criticism too literally
You take what others say to you too seriously. You either want to be accepted by people, or you automatically just do what others say you should do because it sounds good when they say it and you think it’s a good idea (this goes for both positive and negative comments). Which means you won’t make what you yourself think is the best. An example of this could be if someone says you should play more guitar solos in your songs or that you should play less crazy drum fills, and then you feel like you need to do it just because this one person said it.
“Darlings”, excitement and stubbornness
You get too emotionally stuck on keeping your favorite “darlings”. Maybe because it felt exciting when you created that thing, or because you’ve put so much time into it that it feels wasted to throw away. Or you’re too stubborn in believing that some “anti-darlings”, that could actually potentially work, won’t work, maybe because a similar thing didn’t work for you another time or because a similar thing hasn’t worked for anyone else. This means you won’t correctly judge the quality of your work and therefore won’t be able to make it the best it could be.
Self-blindness & lack of perspective
You get too stuck in the details, because you work so intensely on your project, and you don’t take breaks to get perspective or ask people for honest feedback. You never see your work from an outside perspective, because you’re always inside the work. So you can’t see clearly what your project actually is, and therefore can’t judge its quality correctly and won’t be able to make it the best it could be.
IV. Finishing
Finishing is the true test of your abilities, and what lets you move on to new things...
Over-ambition
You plan unrealistically, without regard to your current ability, so you get unmotivated when you realize the project is much more difficult than you thought it would be. Or, you get reasonably far into the project but then don’t know how to limit the scope, kill your “darlings” and stay realistic when you realize how much bigger the project turns out to be than you first thought, so it explodes and you never finish it. Or maybe you are that type of person who dares to actually spend 10 years on something to make it work?
Project abandonment
You either grow tired of your current project, or get too excited about a new one (these two often coincide), which leads to you abandoning your current project. This is very common because starting something is often more fun, and easier, than finishing it.
Perfectionism
You’re never satisfied, so you never release anything finished, you just work on it forever.
Lastly...
Nothing in this post will make sense if you’re creating art for the sake of something else than the art or the enjoyment in the process of creating it. Even if you can become good at creating art as a side effect of trying to reach financial success or something like that, those driving forces could just as well lead you to becoming worse at it if the market suddenly wants something else than great art. And even if you have a firm belief in the creative craft, you can easily get swayed towards external rewards as soon as you realize how good they feel. You can easily drift towards them without noticing it, and you can also start to believe that these rewards are actually important in order to reach high quality in your art. Your brain will try to fool you into thinking that success and validation are actually objectively good things to pursue, because your brain wants that stuff no matter how intellectual you try to be about it.
So if you start convincing yourself about how you still love “the craft” and that having fun while doing it is still what’s important, but that right now it actually makes sense to strive for some external rewards in order to be better at that craft, remember that it’s not true. If you for example want to turn your creative work into a living, and then think that to fund your work you have to earn money, and your idea of making money is to put out work you’re not 100% proud of, you’ve missed the point. Don't forget what it's all about.
So, this post isn't for you who want to succeed, it's for you who want to create something cool.
(Backstory to this post: I had an old note in my phone that said "kbrecordzz book 2026", apparently in 2023 or something I felt like 2026 would be a good time to assemble the contents of all my blogposts into a book of some kind. I started writing, but making a whole book felt wrong. Why drag people through reading a 100 page thing? The blog already exists for that. It felt much better to summarize the most important points in a shorter post, which turned into this one. So I guess this is the kbrecordzz book!)
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