My current hobby situation

The only constant is studying Polish for 1-2 hours a day. On a few days it's all I have time for. Even though I work part-time, sometimes I get an urgent task, plus I like to walk for an hour or two and cook my meals.

I kind of picked up the guitar again when I got inspired by a song, but after about a week it's getting boring, and I'm not sure what to do about that.

I tried to start writing again, but got interrupted by an urgent work task, and upon returning to the draft, I hate what I've written and don't see a direction to continue.

I also have been trying to come up with an idea for a videogame which would be and would feel feasible on my lonesome. I've been going through ideas from bigger to smaller, and I've arrived essentially on a dialogue (interactive fiction) with a single person which is possibly a demon who's trying to tempt the player or uncover their story. I don't have anything more concrete than that. And even though that's the most realistic idea so far, it's also the hardest to get excited about.

Meanwhile, my humble skills (if you can even say that) are continuing to decay. Not to mention the time I invested in studying drawing and other art, which could potentially be useful with all that, but I can't even start coming up with ideas for that.

I know this sounds pathetic, but I feel like my potential is constantly draining away.

I don't know if any realistic advice applies to my situation. It just seems that telling this to the world is better than nothing.

I'm not sure if I understand how your potential is draining away. I don't mean to invalidate your feelings though. To me it seems that you are trying different things and exploring your potential.

I'm a writer and an artist. I have to set aside a project fairly often. Sometimes when I come back to it I'm just not in the same head space I was in when started the project. Depending on my mood or assessment I take it in a new direction or set it aside and try something new. It's an adventure.

Thank you.

I don't think I've done anything art-like in almost a year, before last month hadn't written anything for a couple years... And I just haven't finished anything in my entire life... aside from a short story many years ago and some drawings, of course. I think I don't have any practice in the most important skill of all - finishing a project... I mean, it doesn't make sense, but I just feel that I don't have what it takes, maybe because of my mental health.

Finishing a project is a difficult hurtle for many people. One thing that helps is to break the project into smaller parts. If your are writing a story take it a chapter at a time and celebrate that progress. Even us mentally ill people can do it. We may struggle harder, but it's doable. Part of my problem is that I start beating myself up for not finishing what I started. I try to reframe this as "I haven't finished it YET."

I agree with Shazerac. Don't give up on yourself. Maybe you can find a buddy or a group to work with. I started a group with fellow writers, for instance. You sound talented in lots of areas.

It sounds like you are taking on too much to the point it overwhelms you. Focus on one task for one week, then build on it.

I keep planning things, but rarely, if ever, get started. A big part of that is my OCD and the situation I live in. But I haven't given up, and don't you do it, either.

I'm wondering if your group is off- or online.

I've been thinking about making a topic on here just to ask for advice about my projects and ideas. I quite honestly don't trust specialized sites, but at the same time that could be too specialized for here. At the same time I'd have a place to at least lay out my thoughts, if nothing else. I know, I could be doing that in private, but for myself I seem to constantly skip over important points, assuming that I would understand myself... and it kind of doesn't work out like that.

Hobbies should be fun. I have a lot of things that I enjoy for awhile and then get bored with, but I just try to enjoy them at the time. There is no need to finish every idea. For example, I love to crochet, and I have dozens of projects I've started and then put aside. But it's fine with me. I just do whatever project piques my interest at the time. Don't be so hard on yourself!

ArcheM, my writers' group is off line. But we do have groups here for people with different hobbies.

I agree that hobbies should be fun, not a chore. And we don't have to be really good at some hobby!

This isn’t uncommon at all. There was actually a thread about changing hobbies in the BP forum. I’m the queen of getting obsessed and then dropping it within a week. Adult coloring books, a book that’s 3937 pages long, oh and I made like 10 scarfs for people last week and stupidly didn’t charge anything. That one put a hole in my wallet but oh well. It was worth keeping me busy I guess.

You’re not alone on this topic and there’s nothing wrong with it either! ❤️

I think I've been mocked too many times on the Internet for being a jack of all trades but master of none. And in real life... if I share a project I'm working on I feel like I've let people down when I don't finish it (so I've stopped talking about my hobbies anyway). Plus, maybe I should worry, before another decade of my life passes as a flat line.

On the other hand, excessive worrying hasn't really brought me anything.

I find i do my best work spontaneously (writing and art). Planning time just seems to end up with lackluster results.

I want to agree. I used to go around with lists of ideas which needed to mature, but when I thought they had, what I ended up with were compendiums of things that meant a lot to me (it was hard to change them), but were impossible to fit together, or lost coherency because some key concept had been lost in time.

I wish I actually knew how to apply this realization.

At the same time, it's not like it's a bad thing for an idea to mature. It just hasn't worked out for me for some reason.

I was falling asleep last night and had a realization. I've made a couple productivity apps for myself, which I would consider a non-trivial undertaking, and I don't know whether that was required, but I started with a 100% clear idea of what they were supposed to do. Whereas when I try to write or do something as complex, and creative, I'm much more vague. Maybe if I could find at least one element to which I could stick with absolute rigidity. Plots, personalities, mood - all hang in the air, to the point that any meaning to me dissolves.

But the opposite of this seems to contradict my previous post... Or maybe not... If I actually take the first, germ idea and have it as the rigid line...

hello ArcheM.....

do the things which make you feel good it, if you like to write but you don't have much time or as you said that was interrupted by an urgent work task, if you like to write you can be a writer anytime you have to put a small dairy or may use your mobile also whenever an idea comes to your mind write it on same time so that it will have to you when you need it. and whenever you get free time you just see it and add some more content to it.