A RL friend of mine recently asked me a question that kind of made me squirm a little. He's a pretty awesome artist over on DA (Mostly Transformers and Valve art) and he tends to get itchy if he hasn't worked on something creative in a certain amount of time. However, he's been bouncing between game addictions on Steam lately (Terraria, Left 4 Dead, Team Fortress) and he was concerned because he hadn't really felt inspired lately and therefor hadn't worked on anything. So, he asked a simple question...

"Is it better to force yourself to work on something creative even when you're not feeling terribly inspired, or is it best to wait for inspiration and not do something your hearts not in?"

This started a small war in my brain. On the one hand, my dad gave me a pretty solid work ethic when it comes to actual work and accomplishments. I strive to be pretty professional when it comes to whatever job I do, and like to be seen as a dependable person.

Outside of work, however, I'm pretty well known for being forgetful and procrastinating. When I'm relaxed, I like to relax all the way. This carries over into personal projects more than my work ethic I'm afraid. Sooo, if I'm getting paid for something, I'm all over it. However if its just for fun or myself (like the Damned World project) I tend to only do things when the mood hits me, which is few and far between.

Soo, siding with my work ethic despite the hypocrite it made me, I told him it was best to work through these little slumps and make yourself move forward... you can always go back and improve or redo artwork if you're not satisfied with it later. Hopefully he can stick with that better than I have to this point...

Anyone out there have an opinion on the matter they want to share?



PS: This hopefully means I'll get off my butt and continue my story...