10 tips for making daily creations
I asked for your best creativity tips and hacks and you delivered. Here are the top ones received so you can make the most of the MÖRKTOBER season. Make it dark. Make it weird.
Tips and advice
On Monday, I asked for your best tips, hacks, and advice for making the most of MÖRKTOBER. How do you keep up with daily prompts? What tricks can you use when you run out of ideas? Where do you find inspiration?
Here are some of the top pieces of advice received. Many are from users on the MÖRK BORG Discord server’s #mörktober channel. Others are from comments on last week’s request post.
Note that quotes have been lightly edited for grammar and punctuation.
1. Make a box and fill it.
The first piece of advice is from me! This year I’m writing my MÖRKTOBER stuff in my favorite notebook — no typing or layout.1 I made boxes for each day that are roughly 16:9 aspect ratio and labeled with with the prompts. With two boxes per page, it seems much easier to complete the exercise daily. Just fill the box. It also stops me from writing too much and limits scope creep. When the box is full, I stop. Making it 16:9 makes it easier to snap a photo and post online if I’d like to share.
2. Have fun.
User TheRealJangus on Discord suggests: “A big one for me is remembering to have fun with it. If it’s not all fun and games Jangus goes crazy.”
3. Set limits for style and time.
User Leechtown suggests setting limitations: “I use the same set of brushes, palette of colors, and layout each time. The scatter brushes don’t give a lot of detail so I can’t make it too complicated. Give myself half an hour to do them so that I commit and go.”
4. Don’t be hard on yourself.
User splurgy suggests showing yourself some kindness: “Don’t be too hard on yourself regardless. Makin’ something is better than nothing.”
5. Make a plan, but remember Rule 00.
User gorb snaeb has proposed Rule 00: “MÖRKTOBER is not an itch.io jam. Don’t stress about missing a day.” It’s extremely good advice, but having a plan is good too:
My way is to set up the 31 prompts and then each day I figure out what I’m focusing on in an app or notebook. If I’m stumped, I find inspiration based on media, folklore, a dream you experienced one time, or some odd moment in your life. When in MÖRKTOBER, I keep thinking of don’t stress about anything else. I celebrate October for the horror movies, shows, TV specials on Halloween, spookiness, the joy of MÖRK BORG, and autumn. I do set up as my personal Rule 00: Don’t think about deadlines like an itch.io jam. You can submit your work on November of the next year!
Also, in a digital art program, you can setup your main file as a template to make each day easier and quicker to publish.
6. Remember the point.
Billy Blue suggests remembering why you are making stuff in the first place: “This has been a fun one so far. My main bit of advice is to just have fun with it. If you put too much pressure on it you miss the point, which is just to be a little bit creative every day.”
7. Make it legible.
MÖRK BORG isn’t exactly known for being easily readable, but Cookie suggests that you should still think about legibility when making your creations:
I can recommend “The Ten Comics Commandments” from Comic Lab.2 This advice will help you not only enjoy making something for your creative self, but also how to step it up whenever you feel like, with advice so simple as, “They wont read your comic if they can’t read your comic.” regarding legibility. Something sometimes a bit challenging on some Borg designs.
I agree with this and have been trying to use more simple black text on a white background when releasing new Exeunt Press materials.
8. Have a unifying goal.
Murkdice (of ENNIE-nominated Murkmail) suggests picking a larger project and then using MÖRKTOBER to work on it: “My best advice is to have an overarching goal, it keeps you motivated to keep producing stuff each day when you’ve got a bigger project to work towards!”
That’s what Johan Nohr and Chris Bissette are doing this year with their daily collaborations on a project. It’s Chris’ fifth serialized adventure so he knows a think or two about releasing things one day at a time. You can read more about his process (and see his tracking spreadsheet) in a recent Patreon post: Writing Mörktober.
9. Use the creator kit.
This year, I wanted to make it easier than ever for everyone to join in the fun and participate. Understanding how hard it can be to get started on that first prompt, I made the MÖRKTOBER Creator Kit.3 It’s a slim 20 pages, but includes quite a few tables that will help spark your creativity. It’s particularly focused on helping to make items and monsters, but I think it would be helpful for almost any other creation too.
Ithaquas Bane on YouTube recently posted an overview of the creator kit that is quite thorough. The video is linked above if you’d like to check it out.
Also, special thanks to Francisco Lemos for making the creepy art used throughout the creator kit.
10. The best time to start is today.
Did you miss the first day or week of MÖRKTOBER? No worries. It’s chill, not a challenge. Start today and make something. I promise that the act of making something every day will be a new and rewarding experience. Missing a few days at the beginning doesn’t matter at all.
What are your best tips for making daily writing, drawing, or creation a habit that sticks? Do you think events like MÖRKTOBER can help build these habits?
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- E.P. 💀
Currently my favorite notebook is the Leuchtturm1917 120G Edition — black, A5, with 203 numbered pages. The paper is a super heavy 120 gsm and feels great. I’d love to get the yellow/orange “Rising Sun” color next. Not sponsored.
I wasn’t familiar with Comic Lab, but I think I found a summary of the commandments.
There are free community copies of the kit, so feel free to grab one of those!
Great advice from everyone!
What helps me is setting a goal of just doing something for 5 minutes. Then most of the time after the 5 minutes are over I will want to continue. But if I really don't have more time that day or if I don't want to continue it is also fine to stop.