Reader question: What is your Why?
Or: how do you get things done
Hallå my pals!
Jonas here with another issue of Indie Notebook to get some ideas out of my noggin, and to inspire you to do the same.
This weekend I went on a little vacation with Héloïse to Strasbourg. There was a small game dev meetup, we met some new folks and I played Line Wobbler (a 1D game). It was a swell time!
Today I will answer another reader question! This time it’s from Ash, long time reader and regular in the comments section.
Question #2: What is your Why?
“Friedrich Nietzsche said “He who has a Why can bear almost any How.” Indiana, what is your Why? What makes it easy to pursue your crafts and wake up every morning? Why do you do what you do, and how did you set yourself up in such a way that the answer to that question is easy?”
This is a great question! Or well, it’s actually several questions. Sneaky. But that’s fine! I’ll answer them one by one. :- )
WHAT IS YOUR WHY?
I don’t know how to put it into words yet. I know my heart knows, but my brain doesn’t fully know it yet. I think I’m just doing my best to try to interpret the heart. That might be the Why - to understand it as deeply as I can.
It’s possible that I might have more than one Why as well.
During Write of Passage, a writing course I did last year, one of the assignments was to list my 12 favorite questions. Questions that I want to become an expert in.
This is what I wrote back then.
How can I make my creative work more deep and meaningful?
What is the stupidest (not the best) solution to any given problem?
How can I become more confident in my interactions with other people and in my opinions?
What is worth talking about?
How can I get people to listen and care about what I have to say?
How can I be more present and listen more patiently?
How can I make myself more motivated to go do things outside the home?
How can I be a warmer more caring person and show that through my creative work?
Do I have to be funny all the time?
Can we make things in a better way?
How do we decide what to make?
Why does nobody listen to each other? (and to me)
It’s a little embarrassing to show them. Some of them I don’t feel all that strongly about, I’m still narrowing the list down and trying to find better questions that I care more about. You might recognize some of them from old newsletters and blog posts.
WHAT MAKES IT EASY TO PURSUE YOUR CRAFTS AND WAKE UP EVERY MORNING?
To me it’s hard to help myself from making stuff, it’s just what I love to do. I love it the most when I get to make stuff in an exploratory way, where some important part of it is still unknown and the real meat of the challenge with it is still about figuring out what it all means and how best to communicate it. As long as I get to explore in that way I feel excited. But of course there are times when that excitement dwindles out and it becomes a struggle.
For instance, Surmount is getting quite tough to work on, the reason that I’ve been able to work on it 7 hours per day for more than 3 years is because I’m making it with a friend and we made a promise to work a certain amount of hours per week on it and we decided to share the ownership 50/50. It’s extremely effective, I see myself as a slacker, I “stayed home sick” from school regularly, and I still took occasional “sick days” from work when I lived in Sweden (everyone does that). I feel way more responsibility for Surmount because I made a promise to a friend, that’s different.
But in the long run I don’t want that kind of contract to be my tool of discipline to preserver. I think a better, healthier long-term approach would be to find or shape a project to nourish my natural excitement.
Don’t take me wrong, there’s a lot of joy in making that game. The issue is that the way game development tends to go is that I have to spend countless days fixing and re-fixing the same parts just to get it to work, there’s not much I can do to avoid that situation (at least not for this game).
Something I believe is way more suitable for what I’m excited about is comics, I just write them and draw them, nothing except for that holds me back. In order to make it suit me even more I decided to go with strips instead of a graphic novel. That way I get to focus a lot more on thinking of fresh new ideas all the time and I can gradually let the series evolve and stretch its own boundaries, whilst also getting to complete neat little strips that should even be able to stand alone, out of context. So far it’s just a theory, because I’ve only written about 20 strips so far and only drawn two sets of fingers. It seems like a plausible theory though, I’ve made it as easy on myself as possible so I can focus on what nourishes my creativity - exploring emotions and ideas, joking around, thinking about deep shit and just messing around and making pretty stuff.
WHY DO YOU DO WHAT YOU DO?
To be honest, I think I do what I do because it is what I was surrounded by as a kid. One of my earliest memories is discovering video games for the first time at my friend’s house and being completely blown away by the fact that you could make this little guy run around inside the telly. That, and reading Dragon Ball, completely hypnotized, it felt more real unlike any other story I had read, it wasn’t like the cartoons and movies I usually saw, their worlds were habitable through the main character, time was actually passing, same thing with Calvin & Hobbes.
I think it’s similar for everyone who ends up doing anything. They were surrounded by and sucked into something during childhood. At least that’s the case for me but maybe this was a too literal answer to the question!
HOW DID YOU SET YOURSELF UP IN SUCH A WAY THAT THE ANSWER TO THAT QUESTION IS EASY?
I’m gonna choose to interpret this as “how did you set yourself up to get things done,” cause I suspect that’s why you’re actually asking this question.
There’s a couple of things I’ve found helps me get stuff done.
Aside from setting a schedule (1 newsletter per week), note taking might be the most helpful other thing I do. I’ve got a couple of different formats for doing it.
I carry a small notebook with me most everywhere I go so I can sketch something incase something strikes me or just keep it by the side of my bed.
I keep a “spark file” on my phone, which is just a long text document where I throw in any random thought or idea that strikes, I start a new one every year.
I’ve got an “input log” on Notion, which is a database similar to my spark file except it’s a bit more structured. There I keep notes on anything I’ve read, watched or played (blog posts, articles, books, comics, movies, youtube videos), and collect other random ideas as well. For instance if I ever get stuck on what to do I can search for “game ideas” and a bunch of my old ideas will pop up. It’s more useful for writing though, when I wrote Tech Is Lovelier it was very useful cause anytime I was working on it I could search for words like design and tech and find lots of old stuff I had already read and added some of my own thoughts to already.
These are some of my most recent entries. It’s powerful to have all these notes available, I rarely get the blank page syndrome when I write. It’s often the opposite, I’ve almost got too many dots to connect (currently got 900 entries there).
It doesn’t matter so much the format, it’s just so satisfying to see my collection of thoughts grow, new connections get made and to quickly jot stuff down before I forget. This is a huge part of why I get stuff done, I get myself all jazzed up thinking about this stuff and then once I sit down at my desk it’s such a relief to finally get to turn all those thoughts into something.
Note taking is a step between doing nothing and making something, I’m always in the mood to make a note and from there it’s a much easier step to actually sit down and make something. That’s why I think it’s so important for anyone who does creative stuff to take notes, it’s useful no matter what craft you’re practicing.
That might not be exactly what you asked for. Your question felt a bit more philosophical, it was just too hard for me to answer it from that angle today. Hope this helps or inspires you in some way anyway! Thanks for posing these questions! It was fun to take a crack at ém. :- )
Thank you all for reading Indie Notebook! The best way to support me right now is by sharing this newsletter with a friend. More questions are also always welcome!
Take care and have a creative week.
That's fun!
> That might not be exactly what you asked for
I predicted that you wouldn't be completely happy with your answer, and that I may be happier with it than you ;) Because when I've been most at peace with myself, the answer to that Why has been "because I like to."
> Your question felt a bit more philosophical, it was just too hard for me to answer it from that angle today.
I think perhaps humans can spend too much time philosophizing to the extent they forget the joy that drives them. You answered with joy, Indiana, and that is perfect for me.
That is: joy with your friends whom you work with, joy from your childhood memories, joy from your sketching and notetaking, and an underlying joy that must make everything *be*.
> During Write of Passage, a writing course I did last year, one of the assignments was to list my 12 favorite questions. Questions that I want to become an expert in.
Those questions are beautiful. It reminds me of a personal experience: when I would write one exciting idea every day in my notebook. There was an underlying joyful person writing. It didn't feel like what I wrote mattered - as long as I loved doing it. Reading your questions reminds me of that joy.
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I realized something about myself relating to this question.
I have an inner child transcending my emotional attachment. An inner child that has all of my experiences, but approaches everything with naivety to be open to that which surrounds us. My most hard times were when I discouraged this inner child. This was when answering Why felt pointless. My most fun was when I encouraged this inner child. This was when answering Why was easy.
> I think I’m just doing my best to try to interpret the heart.
:)
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Thank you for taking the time to answer. I wish well for your comics, your game, and you!
My sense of what seems to drive you - coming from the outside - is also tied to the exploratory side of things. I personally like that; this kind of approach can lead to very genuine, unexpected and mysterious art.
Rick Veitch, who might be my personal favorite, also seems to approach a lot of his art much like an explorer.
You really approach this Notebook from a place of openness and vulnerability, btw. The way you openly write about your own (past) insecurities and stuff. It's kind of rare. Hats off!