Okay, I’m going to immediately contradict my title and admit that I don’t know the Ultimate Secret to thriving as a creative. But, I do know what has worked for me this year.
One way has been to take a step back from creating artwork as a hobby.
I know. It might sound a bit silly if you really think about it. As you may already know, I started off my career because I was drawing for fun and as a stress-reliever. And then drawing became my job! And all throughout 2020 and 2021, I realized that not only was I drawing for work, I was also drawing so many comics for Cat & Cat Comics on my Instagram and extra behind the scenes content for my Patreon, that my entire day was just tied to art and writing. I’d just be drawing and typing from the moment I woke up until I went to bed.
My wrist finally told me enough is enough and decided to force a break back in 2021, and I needed to take a hiatus from everything except books (because deadlines don’t stop, and my stubborn brain did not want to delay any of my publications). Then my burnout kicked in, and my creativity took a huge nosedive.
As I watched my Instagram slowly fizzle down in growth because I stopped posting, I remember wondering to myself if I should force myself to just power through. Was social media fame really worth it? What about all of the work I put in?
But personal life events made it really difficult emotionally to focus on creating new content, so instead I doubled down on completing artwork for the books I had already written, perhaps a sacrifice that helped me continue to produce books despite everything.
Enter 2022.
A whole new chapter in my life.
You know how in some books, you see the end of a chapter, wonder what’s going to happen next? The next page is blank, and then you see the beautiful new chapter, with the number at the top and the title right below, and new words to hungrily read.
For me, that’s how it felt. A blank slate as the new year started with fireworks crackling in the sky. It felt foreign and familiar. Someone told me that how you spend your first day of the new year represents how you’ll be spending your entire year, and while obviously a superstition, as I stared up at the bright lights with new faces around me, I wondered if maybe this was going to be home.
I began a new normal in my daily life.
Injuring my hand and going through one of the lowest points of my creativity shook me to the core, and I knew I needed to change something. My life was also filled with so much change in the last few years, as I’m sure it was for so many during the pandemic, that I craved a sense of calm and stability.
Instead of focusing so much on my online world, I quite literally went outside and touched some grass. While work was still important to me, I realized maybe I needed to take a step back and just do enough to keep my books moving forward, but spend the rest of the time focusing on rest and healing.
Playing the violin again unearthed my love of music that had lay dormant for a while. Sometimes I’d be playing with the keys, bass, guitar, and drums, and I’d remember how all of these instruments feel like they’re having their own conversation through music.
Learning a new language became been a stimulating and exciting new challenge. I know Korean and English already, but it’s amazing how some languages have ten different ways of describing one thing, taking into account all of the little nuances.
And as cheesy as this sounds, I started to let go of some of my rigid plans and instead say yes to unexpected decisions. I’m not saying I’ve gone full main character and let my hair fall free as I prance around on the beach or anything like that ha. But just saying yes to little things that I might normally say no to, like ditching my work schedule to meet up with a friend.
One weekend, I took up an offer to spontaneously drive down to San Diego and look at some red pandas. Another, I spent the whole evening watching Shawshank Redemption for the first time, and instead of playing the film in the background while I draw, like I usually do, I really focused on it and was surprised at how beautiful this medium could be for storytelling (I can imagine my sister’s sarcastic, “Woww.. sooo spontaneous….” right now!).
This is the total extent of my spontaneity, but I swear this is a lot for someone like me hahah.
Of course, I still worked! But I explored new cafes and spaces in Orange County and LA, trying to get myself to be more active and present.
Some of my fondest memories of this year have been work sessions with other creatives, either just silently sitting there doing our own thing or having pleasant and surprising conversations about life, hobbies, dreams, and work processes.
One downside of getting out more though has been that my online connections have definitely taken a hit. And I don’t mean social media clout. Maybe this is for a separate post, but I realized that for me, it’s easy to connect with people online if you talk every single day or often together through text or voice chats, but also equally easy to get disconnected if life gets in the way. As I spent more and more time offline, I found that these connections lost some of their strength — a bittersweet, but understandable realization.
My community here in the SoCal area, though, has grown in ways I couldn’t have imagined. I’ve met other creatives: photographers, filmmakers, actors, producers, and other artists. It’s so inspiring to see people so passionate about their work, even though the journey can be uncertain or hard sometimes. I’ve also met a lot of non-creatives, too, who have stretched my perspectives and encouraged me to bring intersectional elements of different fields into my work.
But what’s probably been the most grounding is having my entire family all in one place. My sister and my parents, and then my “extended family” of close friends being nearby … all of these have helped make this place rapidly feel like home.
Okay, but let’s talk about work.
2022 has been a year of so many things to celebrate work-wise, too! I launched Book 2 of my Cat & Cat Adventure series, and I was able to go in person to sign some books at Vroman’s Bookstore, in Los Angeles.
I finished all of my writing and artwork for A Sky of Paper Stars and Cat & Cat Adventures: Journey Into Unibear City (Book 3 of the series).
Not only that, I wrote a whole new book concept for a YA graphic novel, too!
And for the first time, I can proudly say that I’ve changed from finding validation through social media as a measure of success in my creative career, and instead re-defined success for myself as an author and illustrator.
Every year that passes where I get to do this full time, really being able to thrive financially and emotionally, has been the biggest blessing of my life. I don’t know what the future holds, but every book I create feels like a part of me is being released into the world, and it makes me so happy to see them on the shelves, in people’s hands, and being read in countries I haven’t even been to yet!
So 2023 Goals?
I know not everyone is into making resolutions for the New Year, and I think for 2022, I just wished for lots of naps, laughter, and being able to embrace uncertainty.
There are so many things I want to do in 2023:
Figure out the future of Cat & Cat
Continue to work on my new books
Start writing several more books
Get to A2 level in my target language
Learn how to properly ice skate
Strengthen my community here
Embrace love
Back in 2021, I was so worried and unsure about 2022. But as I face 2023, I’m feeling extra pumped and ready for that next chapter in my life.
Still, at the end of the day, I know that none of my plans are probably gonna work out the way I expect them to. So maybe I’ll just wish that my 2023 be filled with lots of love, exciting book birthdays, and a supernatural confidence in myself that I can achieve those lofty dreams that I didn’t even dare to dream before. Gonna manifest them for this new year! x)
