Happy November everyone! We’ve had a few new updates here at Futureative. We officially (re)launched our brand on Substack, introduced our summit series for 2027 as well as new series on our page and participated in AusArt Day 2026! (Or you can just read our new Now & Next article)
With all that new information it’ll be good to read something familiar, so welcome back to a new episode of The RoundUp.
If you’re new here, welcome 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. It’s the tenth episode, and I have not run out of creatives, nor confusing questions, and today’s question is:
“Is creativity supposed to be this hard?”
Answer: Yes and no.
Bestselling author and creator of The Poppy War Trilogy, Babel, Yellowface and Taipei Story, R.F.Kuang has been dominating the literary landscape since she finished high school. The most astounding aspect of her writing is her ability to fully encapsulate a specific genre and find ways to broaden it.
As a lover of The Poppy War, the research and world building that went into that book is phenomenal and to learn that it was published just before her 22nd birthday is amazing and very intimidating.
In an interview with David Purnell, Kuang articulates that “easy writing fails”, taking inspiration from Several Short Sentences about Writing by Verlyn Klinkenborg, she states that when writing is easy and you’re in the ‘flow’ state:
“you’re repeating discourse that you’re seeing around you…hard writing is when you actually have to sit there and do the messy, nail biting, teeth pulling work of really thinking about what word combination do I need to articulate this emotion…that is where the most interesting, impactful writing comes from”.
Creativity is hard. If it’s hard it’s working. Artist’s block is your brain ruminating with your story, finding the deeper layers, pushing past the cliche because you know there’s something undiscovered three failures ahead.
With 190k subscribers on YouTube and a prolific writer and filmmaker, The Ash Files is who you want to go to for serene, calm cinematography paired with insightful musing about life, or to get step-by-step guidance to complete your next film or book.
In her video entitled you have the story. this is how you finish writing it, she laments “you become an adult and you’re apparently just expected to know when it’s time to make a change” the same thing can be applied to creativity. “Adulthood has very poor chapter breaks” we’re all just trying to do our best and make do with what little understanding we have of the world and our place in it.
The Ash Files makes a distinction between ‘What do you want to do with your life?’ and “Would you choose (what you’re currently doing) again?’ I think that’s an important shift of perspective.
Oftentimes with creativity, the road we take to our finished film/book/podcast is clumsy and looping and more often than not ends in a dead end.
It’s a hard uphill trek that’s unforgiving, entirely self inflicted and very confusing to onlookers - but at the end of the journey, nothing is wasted and when ego and pressure melts away, you realise that it was fun, it was interesting and at the end of the day, you’re exactly where you need to be.
So, why does creativity become hard?
In my experience, creativity gets hard - meaning it gets tedious, irritating, repetitive and boring usually because of one of two things.
Burnout
Ego
The beginner creative is talented enough to see their vision, but not practised enough to bring it to life. That discrepancy causes a rift between what you want to have created and what you end up with on your page. The reason that the best writing, painting, acting you’ve ever done is when there’s no strings attached. You’re creating for the sake of creating, and when you do that, making mistakes is part of the process rather than a waste of time.
Monetising your hobbies, or even spending a little too much time scrolling reels on instagram will have you qualifying, scrutinising and abandoning your vision little by little. How could you not, when everyone around you seems to have started years later and actually taken their practice seriously, when it seems like you’ve just been wasting time?
But time is never wasted (unless, yes, you’ve just been scrolling reels). Lessons are always used, and you can never beat a person having fun.
Having genuine fun with your art, treating it like the outlet of play that it is will give you the satisfaction and motivation to continue.
Burnout occurs because you’ve been asking too much of your artist. Take some time off, spend some time reading and watching rather than writing and acting. Dip into a genre that you don’t want to create, so you can enjoy the piece of media without an analytical lens.
Ego is the brother of perfectionism, and just because you suffer for a work of art does not mean it will be good.
You can make a wonderful piece of art and have a healthy sleep schedule and proper meal breaks and see your friends. It’s entirely possible.
Let go of the idea that your first song, artwork, novel, event will be great. You can settle for good. You can settle for completion first and then learn and move onwards.
It’s alright to write something forgettable. No harm, no foul.
And anyways, you learnt something from it.
Thanks for reading! If you’re looking for very similar advice, I recommend you check out a few of my other RoundUp episodes: How do you fall in love with your craft? And How do you *stay* in love with your craft?
While I have you, it would mean a lot to us at Futureative if you check out our page - check out other series, see what our online summits are about or get to know us a little better.
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
Where to find these RoundUp artists:
R.F.Kuang
Substack: Rebecca F. Kuang ✴ Instagram: @kuangrf ✴ Tiktok: @therfkuang
The Ash Files
Website: theashfiles.com ✴ Substack: ASH ✴ YouTube: @the.ashfiles
Instagram: @the.ashfiles ✴ TikTok: @the.ashfiles
Continue your Front Row journey
Read the last issue of The RoundUp: What if it all works out?
If you enjoyed this article, you might like to explore the last RoundUp article. In it I go through the journeys of comedians Grace Reiter and Julia Dicesare as they go from TikTok sketch comedy to Netflix stars.
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