I Have No Imagination. Help.

Hey everyone,

Not sure if this is the proper sub-forum, but I came to a pretty depressing conclusion around a month ago or so and I felt like sharing it to see if anyone has any ideas to help me. As you might have guessed from the title, I don't really have an imagination.

I honestly have no idea why I hadn't realised it before, me being 19 by the time this is written, but my head is basically a desert. It's very well illustrated when I for example play Minecraft. In that game I can't play creative mode, because of the lack of objective and the fact I have no idea what I can do when I can do anything. Same goes for Lego's: infinite possibilities but zero inspiration. I just never understood it.

This goes back to my childhood even. I've never really seen the world in a different way than it "is". I remember once having written something about a shark murdering a dolphin at age 6. Seems realistic and "as is" when you know that sharks are killers, but don't know sharks are actually scared of dolphins.

It's really bringing me down, because I feel like I'm missing out on something. I wanna be able to write and create things out of nowhere: music, stories, art, you know the deal, but at this point in my life I can't do that and everyone knows how frustrating it is to want something you can't do. :wallbash:

An imaginationless baby. It even sounds depressing.

I also don't know how to play pretend or stuff like that, which is quite important because I only have myself and my plushies, who are all just plushies and have no personalities, because of the reason stated above. Do you guys know how I might trigger my imagination, is it something that can be taught through something or do you think it's just not a part of my being? I hope to god it's not the latter.

I hope you can help me. Thanks in advance.

- Finn

Hmm, difficult to answer as obviously I can't relate to the way you think since I'm almost constantly lost in my imagination, but I'm going to take Minecraft as an example. When I'm in creative mode, I try to remember something I saw once, like a building or structure in a video game for instance, and then try to build it. Along the way, I might think of some addition I want to make or some way something could work differently. And then I might try to put together some situation in my mind where I think of something happening or think of like a game I could make based experiences and things I've seen and then try to build that as well..

I'm going to stop there for now. Can you see where I'm coming from? Does this sound like something you could do? Or can you just not think of anything to make or are not interested in making things? Hope I did help but it's kind of difficult to imagine someone not having an imagination

Everyone is gifted in some way. Not everyone will be an amazing artist or musician or even have and incredible imagination. But that doesn't mean you can't immerse yourself in someone else's imagination. For example, do you enjoy movies? Getting carried away by some music etc these are ways to engage your imagination through the talents of others. How do feel when you read Abdl fiction, do you enjoy it? Can you identify with it? If you can, then your using your imagination. if none of this helps, and your still staring blank faced at a wall right now, then :dunno:
But I suspect you've got more imagination than you give yourself credit for.

@Ozbub: I do enjoy all of those things, but as of late I've been really envious towards anything creative. It doesn't really help me, but I can't not feel inferiour. As far as envisioning goes, it's either fragmented or not there and when it's fragmented, it's things I've seen before.
@Milko: I kind of see what you mean, but for some reason my brain doesn't like to deviate from what's "normal", so even when I'm brave enough to actually "craft" something, it's never something absurd or whatever.

The thing is that I feel like it's a blocked off part of my brain rather than non-existing. I just don't know how I can unlock it, but I'll try out what Milko said.

Question: if any of you have plushies, which everyone should have by the way : if they have an identity, how did that come into being? Where did the character spawn from? I have a white tiger called Snowy (profile pic) and I adore him, but he's really just a stuffed animal now instead of a companion and I want to change that. Any ideas?

Re your tiger, do you or have you had any pets before? If so you could start by interacting with your plush the way you would one of your pets (that is in a nice caring way lol) and if you start to talk to your plush, it will begin to feel like there is a relationship there.

I read fantasy books are a big help then I dream from there kind of what if this happend.
Mabey get into some kind of roll play. MLP or something like that.
Lets name your plushes hold each one and what do they remind you of.
It's in there lol.
Good things your way as I get on my star rider take vroom

FinnTheSnuggly said:

Question: if any of you have plushies, which everyone should have by the way : if they have an identity, how did that come into being? Where did the character spawn from? I have a white tiger called Snowy (profile pic) and I adore him, but he's really just a stuffed animal now instead of a companion and I want to change that. Any ideas?

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Seriously, don't give your plushies identities. I made the mistake of giving all my childhood plush different names, personalities, and voices. I didn't put effort into creating them, it just -happened-. Then I had to give away 3/4 of them away last year when we moved into a smaller house, which felt like throwing away all my best friends. That caused me to start sobbing uncontrollably and my entire family to reprimand me with "why don't you just grow up; you don't need hundreds of stuffed animals."

It's hard to be a creative person. It seems like fun from the outside -- you get all these cool ideas and characters and worlds in your head -- until you realize you have to work for hours a day for several YEARS before your drawings look anything like the images in your mind. Being an artist is not a cushy job. You have to constantly be putting pen to paper to get all your ideas out and some of the best ones get left by the wayside because you're frustrated with your own lack of skill. You will become very familiar with your calluses. You'll constantly compare your work to others' and feel inadequate, especially when you see artists/writers/musicians who are already making hundreds of month while still in high school, while you might be like me -- stuck with art school and college bills and without a single commission. Art doesn't pay well, either -- many artists have other full-time jobs to support themselves and rarely make above minimum wage on art alone. Remember that the next time you read a book or see a drawing.

Even if you're not an artist as a career, being creative has many downsides. Sometimes an idea will pop into your head when you're driving your car, or working with heavy machinery, or something else that requires attention, and you can't write it down right away. Then you either end up breaking something as you try to develop the idea, or forgetting the idea completely as you refocus on your more important "adult" tasks. Both are terrible feelings. Exercising your imagination often comes by way of daydreaming, which is inappropriate in many adult situations. ("You're getting paid to sort papers, not zone out" etc)

This post be more autobiographical than anything but that's the gist of it. I've heard many other creative people with the same complaints.

FeekaDimension said:

Seriously, don't give your plushies identities. I made the mistake of giving all my childhood plush different names, personalities, and voices. I didn't put effort into creating them, it just -happened-. Then I had to give away 3/4 of them away last year when we moved into a smaller house, which felt like throwing away all my best friends. That caused me to start sobbing uncontrollably and my entire family to reprimand me with "why don't you just grow up; you don't need hundreds of stuffed animals."

It's hard to be a creative person. It seems like fun from the outside -- you get all these cool ideas and characters and worlds in your head -- until you realize you have to work for hours a day for several YEARS before your drawings look anything like the images in your mind. [...]

Click to expand...

That's like saying not to fall in love because there's a risk to get heartbroken, or that it's not worth aspiring to something because it's going to take time and effort to get there.

Surely an emotionless, grey life puts us at very little risk to get hurt, but I don't think it's enough of a reason to choose it upon one fulfilled with affection and passion!

It's not easy to make a living out of one's creativity, that is true, but no one said one can't have a nice, well paying job that he enjoys for other reasons and then express his creativity in their free time without having to deal with the boundaries of customers/employers' requests.


On a totally unrelated note: 1.000th post!

Expression is not about income it's about outcome.
Find what you can do and exploit the crap out of it. You have gifts we all do. Stop worrying about other peoples gifts and discover what yours are....then others may be envious of you.

I've heard it said that there are no new ideas, at least not in literature. It's just the way we reassemble the parts. As a concert organist and performer, I've played some of the most difficult compositions, and people in my audience have asked me if I've composed any pieces and the answer is always no. I'm a much better re-creator than creator of music. I improvise all the time and play all sorts of things out of my head, but I have no desire to write them down.

In literature however, I've written a number of short stories and a novel. These things just come to me. I think creativity is a part of the personality, something we're born with. If you don't have that much, I don't think it matters. Great imitators are just as valuable. If that wasn't true, we wouldn't have any of the great classic performers. We wouldn't have great dancers who follow the directions of the creative choreographer. Everyone has a role to play.

I also would suggest that the less your worry about it or force it, the more likely something creative will happen. I can't force a story. I have to wait until they come. It's then that I have to find the discipline to write them out. In the end, it all works.

The fact that people are even trying to help me out with this and taking time out of their life to write something means a lot, so thank you all for that.
I also didn't expect daddy to be here, but it's obviously an open forum so I should've expected that.

It's a really interesting position that I'm in, because something happened that made me realise that life is (obviously) very finite and I want to be able to look back on my life when I'm old and say: I've lived a fulfilling life. I've made something of it. I can't say that right now. I honestly don't think I've ever really achieved anything significant. I've just existed. That being said, I've never really had any adversity in my life either, so this is kind of new.

The thing I think will help me with it is being able to come up with music I can personally enjoy and that others will say is good (yes, I know other people shouldn't be a factor in personal happiness, but I really can't not think they do), but I really don't have a clue how to write stuff. Improv I can get away with, because I know what sounds good in response to something, but making something out of nothing is just... hard. Undoable almost.

It's probably annoying to hear me complain about something that for most people seems like an arbitrary thing to even be sad about, but I feel like a legless person wanting to walk. I'd sell my soul for the insight I need to create. I don't even know if I'm doing this for the right reason. I'm just bitter and envious to the nth degree. It doesn't really help that everyone here seems to be within the upper realms of intelligence. That's obviously not your doing, but it's just another thing to be envious of.

You don't know what your life is going to hold your only 19
I have seen so much you will too.
Just try new things some you may like some you will let go.
Just try.
Every one matters here your posting gives us a chance to post our feelings so never feel bad for posting . Without every ones in put there would not be a ADISC.
All the best.

@Foxkits I'm very much either a non-active or overdrive and the following freak out kind of person. For some reason I freak out about life and where it'll take me and if it'll be worth remembering and all that jazz, even though my life really only has just begun. That's apparently something other people don't do all that often.

Here's my brain doing a few backflips, but bare with me. People have a tendency to just live and as much as that makes for a nice life, it doesn't really contribute to excellence, I feel. I could be wrong and feel free to disprove me on that if I'm wrong, because it's kind of a destructive way of thinking, but I can't help but feel that when you just live life, you implicitly accept mediocrity and I think that if you accept mediocrity, you've also accepted defeat.

These thoughts are kind of a recent development, because I too accepted life as it and let it run its course basically, until I met my little sister, who is quite literally everything I strive to be and she's 5 months older than I am. She's really making something of her life and I've literally been existing for the past 19 and a half years. I need to change that. I'm also absolutely not blaming her for me being what to some might seem as moronic with these kinds of ideas. That's my own doing. Just to clarify. I love her dearly.

Now I seem like a twat. I like that word. What were we talking about again?