Just realized I gave up on being a cartoonist about three years ago
I was cleaning out my closet last weekend and found a box of old sketchbooks from 2021. I used to draw a daily comic strip about my cat and my terrible apartment in Cincinnati. I had this whole plan to post them online and maybe get a book deal. I did it for about six months, then just stopped when my work hours got longer. Looking at them now, they're not great, but they're funny. I feel kind of sad I didn't keep going, even just for myself. It wasn't about being famous, it was just a thing I liked doing that I let slip away. Has anyone else found an old project that made you wonder why you quit?
oh man, that hit hard. same thing happened to me with writing - found an old half-finished story and it was like looking at a time capsule. @milesk27 is totally right though, the "just do 10 minutes even if it sucks" approach works. i started setting a timer and drawing for exactly 15 minutes before bed, no pressure to make it good. the sketches are still rough but at least im doing it again. better to have a messy hobby than no hobby at all.
Found my old guitar in the basement last month. Used to think hobbies were a waste of time if they didn't make money. Holding it again made me realize the doing was the whole point.
Exactly. The whole money thing is such a trap. We're taught that if it doesn't have a dollar value, it's not worth doing. But that ten minutes of bad playing is where you actually feel something. It's the opposite of a waste.