Curry Zawa Kaoru's Creative Counseling - “Creating things is a hassle I'd rather avoid.” Sometimes seeing other people have fun is enough.

To put it bluntly, someone who says things like “I don’t have the passion,” or “Creating something feels like an insult to serious creators,” won’t actually start creating, no matter what I say.

I don’t mean this in a mean way. Creating things is such a hassle that it’s really easy to make excuses not to do it.

Even I don’t draw unless I have pressing deadlines or personal reasons.

Unless you're burning with the desire to bring your favorite ship’s wedding to life at any cost, or your very survival is at stake, it's only natural that you can't quite muster the motivation to start drawing.

If anything, your indecisiveness is actually a very healthy approach to enjoying content.

I’m a loser who never leaves the house, and yet I sometimes watch stuff like Yuru Camp and think, “Wow, camping looks fun.” Sometimes I even think about trying it out myself.

However, when it comes down to it, my butt is still basically welded to my chair, because I know I wouldn’t actually enjoy it if I went out there.

But that doesn't stop me from enjoying what I imagine it'd be like. It's like how the day before a trip is sometimes even more exciting than the actual trip. Sometimes the idea of doing something is way more fun than actually doing it.

I know if I actually tried camping, the bugs would creep me out and I'd be plagued with a devastating lack of cute girl friends to do camping things with―and most importantly, I'm not a cute girl either, so my own presence already ruins the fantasy! The reality is, I wouldn't enjoy camping. Not even the Yuru kind.

So actually, it might be that the best way for you to enjoy doujin and fanworks is imagining how fun it might be to make them, rather than forcing yourself to try it and hating the whole experience. 

You might be sick and tired of your current half-assed attitude, but you won't even make it past the first page if you try drawing with your current motivation. You'd have one sad first draft, abandoned like a digital cigarette butt.

Instead of burning out whatever motivation you have now, keep fanning the flames until you find something that makes them really catch fire.

I was in middle school when I first thought about making doujinshi and joining fan events. It took me 20 more years to actually make it happen. It was all thanks to a certain sword giving me the motivation that I was actually able to make something.

By that time, I was already a manga artist in my 30s. I should have already known what a hassle it is to make manga, and yet I still decided to draw manga for work, make doujinshi as a hobby, and then go to work in an actual company on top of it all.

When your passion is set ablaze like that, you almost wish you could find someone to put it out for you. So just keep your spark alight until you find something you'll happily burn out for.

To be honest, I can understand watching a fun little show like Yuru Camp and wanting to go camping, but I’m truly baffled by the idea of reading about the suffering of people who message this Creative Consulting column and thinking, “That looks fun.” It makes as much sense to me as someone seeing an incident on a dangerous mountain and deciding they want to go winter mountaineering themselves.

Before I became a manga artist, I thought the idea of having deadlines was really cool and professional. Now? I hate them.

Maybe you're not actually taken with the idea of creating something, but with the struggles and triumphs that come with being an artist.

There's nothing wrong with that. Ever since I started creating manga, I realized I don't really enjoy the process of drawing itself, but I love the sense of accomplishment that comes with finishing a piece of art. I love being complimented on my work, and I especially love seeing the royalties in my bank account.

However, these don't come until well after the work is done.

So, why not try completing a drawing and posting it to pixiv? It doesn't matter what it is.

Even if you end up hating the process, you might find yourself in love with the sense of accomplishment, the likes, and the comments.

Or you might find that no one looks at your work after you post it, and join all the other creators who are suffering in my inbox.

On the other hand, you might find yourself making another creator suffer when the drawing you did just for the sake of drawing gets more likes than something they poured their heart and soul into.

Once you actually try it, you might realize that creative work is a fight to the death. If you’re not into that, watching from the sidelines and dreaming about how much fun it might be is more than enough. 

↑ Feel free to send your troubles in languages other than Japanese, too.

The popular column Curry Zawa Kaoru’s Creative Counseling has been made into a book titled Otaku no Tanoshii Seisaku Ron (The Delightful Art of Otaku Creation, Bungeishunju).

In addition to fan-favorite episodes such as “Coping with fanwork taking a little too many liberties”, “When you can’t get feedback in an underdeveloped genre”, “Is 40 too old for doujin events?” and “Understanding the troubles and contradictions of killing off your favorite characters”, the book also includes brand new topics and advice!