It can be frustrating to “hit the wall” in your creative output, but — speaking from experience — that wall isn’t a wall. And once you realize what’s happening, you’ll feel much better about your journey as an artist.

As creative people, we often feel exhilaration when our brains are storming, our synapses are firing, and our output is exciting. These are the moments we live for!

But it’s not constant. Sometimes, creativity comes much slower. During those times, it feels as if we’re not progressing, and the excitement that comes from finding something new is a long-distant memory.

If you talk to many artists during those times, they’ll tell you their creativity has “hit the wall.”

But speaking from experience and perspective, I can assure you this is not the case. What you’re experiencing is not a wall but a plateau. It feels as if you’ve come to a full stop because you’ve stopped experiencing that exhilarating upward “whoosh” of creativity. But you are now on a horizontal plane.

That’s an important distinction. You can move forward on a horizontal plane. It may not be as thrilling as a vertical “whoosh,” but you must move forward.

After all, this is where you learn about yourself as an artist. This is where you build speed. And muscle memory. This is where you master all the things that became apparent during your last explosion of creative energy.

Moving forward is the only way to get to the next “whoosh” of creativity. Trust me; the burst of artistic energy after a long plateau is a satisfying experience.

Don’t get frustrated about “hitting the wall.” See it for what it is — a preparation for the subsequent big explosion of creativity.

Jumpstarting creativity

Here are some excellent strategies for getting your brain working again after you feel as if you’ve hit a wall:

This is when creativity seems to be at an all-time high everywhere you look. From carved pumpkins to costumes to haunted houses to the really scary stuff like, well…

One of the benefits of publishing comics on Substack is its powerful SEO capabilities. Since comics are image-based, they’ve traditionally missed out on such opportunities, and this platform nicely compensates for those deficiencies. The only problem is that most of us are ignoring this step entirely.

Post Settings

Many creators rush through the next step — the Post Settings — after formatting a comic update or a newsletter edition. After all, it’s the same old stuff we hate: Tags, social-media previews and SEO options. But spending a few minutes here can help drive your work to new eyes — and that’s the reason we’re all on the platform in the first place. If you look at the Post Settings, under the scheduling data, you’ll see two important fields: Social preview and SEO options.

You’ll notice that it’s already populated with content from your post. It uses the first image in your newsletter — cropped according to a preset in your settings. The text is pulled from your subhead. If there’s no subhead, Substack defaults to the first sentence in your post. None of these are optimal.

Merry Christmas — and Happy New Year! Set down the sunblock, and step away from the pool. It’s time to start planning for December and January.

I know it’s hard to get into the spirit, but this is the time to start working on merchandise for the holiday shopping season. In recent years, webcartoonists have offered an increasing complement of holiday goodies that have ranged from specialty T-shirts and mugs to holiday-themed greeting cards. And let’s not forget to add calendars to that list. Those will start appearing in stores by November — at the latest!

So, let’s take a closer look at some of those specialty products and how we can start working now to be ready to compete when the snow falls.

Patreon’s Collections feature enables creators to group and catalog content. This is a tremendous step forward for how comics creators can use the crowdfunding app.