How do you fall back in love with your craft? Did you even like your craft to begin with? Who decides to become a self-made artist? Why couldn’t my passion be lifting weights monotonously or making an exuberant amount of money with very little effort?
I have no idea, but you’re here aren’t you, with all that wonderful creativity that- let’s be honest, you wouldn’t trade for the world.
Happy Sunday everyone! Welcome back to the RoundUp, A series where I scour the internet for answers to common questions that tend to plague creatives and present my findings here.
Today’s question is:
How do you fall back in love with your craft?
Answer: When your brain gets quiet again.
Our first creator of this article is Linda Sun, a Youtuber that I found back at the start of lockdown (which was six years ago!?). Her youtube channel @lindasunyt has amassed over 1.58 subscribers and her videos can be consistently described as feel good, introspective and wildly motivating. Although her content leans more towards fitness, food and navigating adulthood, her video editing, voiceover narration and overall approach to being grateful for life and living is infectious and a wonderful accompaniment while you’re eating dinner or doing household tasks.
A core part of Sun’s brand is her healing journey with food and fitness and how she chooses to move her body in a way that’s fun and rewarding. She’s competed in the London Marathon, the Berlin Marathon, half marathons, Hyrox and is currently training for an Ironman. Between fitness and food content, she has travelling vlogs - Seoul, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore. A long scroll down to the start of her channel and you’ll find clothing hauls and ‘what I eat in a day’.
Although perhaps creative-adjacent, Linda Sun’s story details someone who shunned away from something passionate - fitness - and returned years later to form a healthy relationship with her craft.
“Your body will change throughout your life, your worth does not” - Linda Sun
Sometimes we warp our self worth with the state of our creative projects - and how can we not, it’s a piece of our identity, a very deep and personal piece of our identity. But sometimes it’s good to peel yourself away from your desk and realise that it doesn’t have to be that deep, it doesn’t have to impress anyone but yourself and once you allow yourself to take a break if you need it, motivation and curiosity will return, if given the right elements to blossom.
***
Viral ice-skating star Alysa Liu captured the hearts and interest of the internet at the Olympics a few months ago. At 13 years old, she was the youngest ever US women national champion, she then went on to be a 2022 world bronze medalist and a 2025 - 2026 grand prix finalist, finally winning gold for America in 2026 at just 20 years old.
And at just 20 years old, she’s developed a perspective that can best be described as optimistic nihilism. Her ubermensch-like ability to detach herself from her art and do it for herself is something that people much older than her have struggled to do. After burning out and retiring from skating some years before, Liu returned to the skating rink for herself, to simply have fun - and by having fun, she won a gold medal.
At the ISU World Figure Skating Championships she’s stated that “I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t retire for a little bit, so I just am glad that I listened to myself and do whatever cause it just works out in the end”
And it did work out for her. She’s been in Teen Vogue, Time Magazine and Sports Illustrated. She is the new Brand Ambassador for Louis Vuitton, as starred in Laufey’s Madwoman music video and presented an award at the American Music Awards.
“I wouldn’t tell my younger self a thing, I want her to go through all that because that’s the only reason I’m here”
-Alysa Liu, Rolling Stone Interview
Perhaps all you need to fall back in love with your craft is a little rest.
How do you fall back in love with your craft?
Burnout and artists’ block are real things, it often means that we’ve spent too much time creating our art without flexing our consuming muscle.
In the middle of re-writing a draft, it’s embarrassing to then switch to the masterpiece of a book that’s been edited fifty times over and marketed with your person in mind. Suddenly, your afternoon writing session seems amateur and basic by comparison. It’s easy to close the laptop and shun away from your art, wondering where you got the audacity to keep writing and how on earth you’re going to get it back.
But sooner or later you find yourself drawn back to your manuscript, a moth to a flame, re-reading your past work with such speed because you just couldn’t let it die. And that’s the truth of it; you fall out of love by mid morning and return after dinner, sleeves rolled up and ready to write into the night, because at the end of the day (no pun intended) this is you.
Comparison is fine if it helps you realise what you might need to change. Copying the greats, investigating why the band in the same genre as you is headlining, wondering how that sculptor is affording their studio, these are all seeds that will grow into insights as you go about your craft.
Comparing yourself to the yet-to-be-published writer next to you who’s putting in more consistent hours than you are will have you reflect on your writing habits. Comparing yourself to a published author, twice your age will rob you of the genuine fun you’re having.
Because at the end of the day, you don’t create for an audience, or a market, or a deadline, you create because you picked up a paintbrush/pen/pan/pick/ (say that three times fast) when you were bored and created something wonderful. And you’ve been chasing that feeling ever since.
Falling in love again with your craft is inevitable. Creativity is disinterested in the hive of productivity; it rejects the notion of optimisation and demands rest when it is needed.
So rest.
And anyway, there’s always tomorrow.
***
Thanks for reading! It’s nice to meet you! It’s been a while since the last RoundUp, we’ve been testing out new articles, so it’s glad to see you back here.
You can find the creatives that were mentioned in this article down below, if there’s any topics or people you’d like to see me cover, let me know in the comments. (And if you’d like to be featured, let us know too!).
Thanks again for reading and remember - be kind to yourself!
Catch you later,
Kaye
Make sure to check out the artists mentioned!
Linda Sun:
Youtube: @lindasunyt
Instagram: @lindasunyt
Alysa Liu:
Instagram: @alysaxliu
Ready for more?
Read the newest issue of The RoundUp: How do you create consistently?
Read the newest issue of The Practise: The Artist’s Way: Week One
Read the newest issue of The DeepDive: The World Needs What You Make
Read the newest issue of Futureative Favourites: July 2026 Edition
Front Row is your backstage pass to our essays, workshops, and online summits on navigating the future of creativity. Built by, for & with independent creatives.
We’re also publishing on: Instagram | YouTube | TikTok | LinkedIn | Threads