I find many “creative” pursuits, such as writing and computer programming, to be both extremely difficult and rather exhausting. I’m often good at them, but they’re so much harder than anything that’s merely a matter of mastering and executing specific algorithms. In other words, I can’t brute force my way through writing a story the way I can brute force my way through a video game, by trying over and over again until I finally get it right. If I get stuck, I’m really, really stuck, and there’s no FAQ I can go read which will tell me what my next sentence or line of code ought to be. (Which is why I mentioned GameFAQs.com as one of the things I like about video games.)
I don’t know much about drawing, though. I never had much interest in it before...
I recommend it, personally, but that’s my hobby, and won’t be universal. There are lots of drawing tutorials available for all levels of expertise and assorted styles and at varying levels of step-by-step detail, and it’s more than a little easier to assess a ballpark of objective quality in drawing than it is with writing. If you like to write, you could do your own webcomic (although I don’t know how well you’d react to keeping an update schedule, you’d be in good company if you didn’t stick to one); that’s a good way to get in regular practice and improve. If you don’t like to write and have halfway decent art, it’s not hard to find a writer willing to collaborate.
I recommend drawing from real life. I don’t think people get stuck like writer’s block. You may get stuck at a plateau of ability, but that might be OK, depending on the level.
Playing a musical instrument is quite amenable to brute-forcing techniques* (as you might guess from the multitude of musical-instrument-simulating videogames).
*You would still need instruction to get started, and for specialized tricks, however.
I find many “creative” pursuits, such as writing and computer programming, to be both extremely difficult and rather exhausting. I’m often good at them, but they’re so much harder than anything that’s merely a matter of mastering and executing specific algorithms. In other words, I can’t brute force my way through writing a story the way I can brute force my way through a video game, by trying over and over again until I finally get it right. If I get stuck, I’m really, really stuck, and there’s no FAQ I can go read which will tell me what my next sentence or line of code ought to be. (Which is why I mentioned GameFAQs.com as one of the things I like about video games.)
I don’t know much about drawing, though. I never had much interest in it before...
I recommend it, personally, but that’s my hobby, and won’t be universal. There are lots of drawing tutorials available for all levels of expertise and assorted styles and at varying levels of step-by-step detail, and it’s more than a little easier to assess a ballpark of objective quality in drawing than it is with writing. If you like to write, you could do your own webcomic (although I don’t know how well you’d react to keeping an update schedule, you’d be in good company if you didn’t stick to one); that’s a good way to get in regular practice and improve. If you don’t like to write and have halfway decent art, it’s not hard to find a writer willing to collaborate.
I recommend drawing from real life. I don’t think people get stuck like writer’s block. You may get stuck at a plateau of ability, but that might be OK, depending on the level.
Playing a musical instrument is quite amenable to brute-forcing techniques* (as you might guess from the multitude of musical-instrument-simulating videogames).
*You would still need instruction to get started, and for specialized tricks, however.
Indeed it is! I can play the piano at the “talented amateur” level. I enjoy it, and like performing, but it’s damn hard to make money doing it.
Have you tried programming in a language with an interactive interpreter, extensive documentation and tutorials, and open source code?