Discouragement is a Part of the Creative Process

Have you seen those author memes? The ones where the author goes back and forth between hating and loving their work. This post is basically about that. 

There are different types of discouragement. You might be discouraged by failure or other external influences. You might be discouraged by the long wait times involved in producing games (see this post about doldrums). Those forms of discouragement are frustrating and difficult, but for me nothing compares to the internal discouragement that is bound up with the act of creation. 

This form of discouragement is disconnected from whether you have received outside validation. Your game may be doing well with playtesters, but that doesn't stop your brain from telling you that you will fail. For me, this discouragement occurs at two points in the creative process: At the very beginning and at the very end. At the beginning of the process I am excited to run with a new idea—until I look at all the work I will need to do to make the game actually good. This is especially hard if I have just wrapped up a design that I feel is pretty good. To start back at square one with a not-yet-good design can be hard. Especially when there is no guarantee that the design will ever become good. (Some design deserve to be abandoned; read more here.) 

The other point where I get discouraged is at the very end. I have done most of the creative work and what's left is the professional work needed to get the design in front of publishers. Finishing projects can be difficult because it means admitting that they are as good as you are capable of getting them (and if they are rejected, it can feel like it is because you aren't good enough.) Plus, the end of a project means you have already done the fun stuff, so now all you have to look forward to is the hard stuff. 

Whether or not this is exactly true for you, it is human nature to be discouraged by our own creative output. Artists are stereotyped as moody for a reason. So, what can you do?

First, learn when you are likely to experience internal discouragement in your own design process. Try to differentiate from other types of discouragement. Learn to recognize internal discouragement as it arises. Then learn to set it aside. This may take external motivation, like an accountability partner or a commitment to a playtesting group. 

For me, my internal monolog looks like this: "I know I feel like a failure and I don't want to work on this game anymore. BUT, I always feel this way when putting together submission materials, and that feeling has no relation to the potential success of the game. So I am going to do the thing, even though it sucks." Then I get my husband to check my work, because sometimes really not wanting to do a thing makes me worse at proofreading.

The point is how you feel doesn't necessarily correspond with the quality of your work. Every creative person feels discouraged while creating. Recognizing this type of discouragement for what it is is a necessary step to becoming a better creator. 

ShippBoard Games is a board game design blog that updates most Mondays.