It Won’t Finish? Okay, let’s look at that.

So, story time!

About 5 years ago, I had this very frustrating thing happen to me over and over again when it came to my IP.

I’d say, “Hey, I want to design X. I will do it this month!”

Well, the month came and went, and my IP didn’t get designed.

I’d get upset and I’d think, “Hey, I wanted to design X last month. I even said I was going to do it. I’m good at finishing. What happened?”

What you can’t see today, but I can tell you about, is that whenever I opened up my bullet journal to work in it, something other than what I meant to work on got worked on instead.

It happened for about 3 years, almost 4.

When you open up your sketchbook or you take out your digital tablet to draw, sometimes, you are going to end up drawing something other than what you wanted to work on for your IP.

You’ll draw fanart of your favorite TV series!

You’ll doodle a cute fish in a fishbowl of a tank instead!

You’ll noodle around with something else on your desk.

A lot of people say it’s procrastination.

And technically speaking, you are procrastinating!

But.

What is showing through your behavior?

You needed to imitate someone else’s art to internalize good design.

You needed to relax and draw something for you.

You literally needed to focus on something else, not your IP.

That is okay. This speaks to your immediate need.

Sometimes we have this huge, invisible queue where you have all of your “I need to do” or “I want to do stuff” from years past jamming up your art.

It’s crazy. It’s happened to me with my art too.

Just a few months ago, I drew something that I should have drawn at the age of 16! It’s 20 years later, so you can do the math on my age at the time of this page’s creation!

I looked at that bullet journal spread and went, “what?! Wow, this looks perfect! If I had drawn this 20 years ago, I would have been so happy.”

You need to know that somewhere deep inside, you’ve got a queue of things you wanted and needed to draw ever since the day you became an IP creator.

“Sarah, every time I’m stressed, I doodle the same d*mn cat — a calico — on my notebook. She’s everywhere. I named her Mocha when I was 5, when everyone else could drink a mocha but me, because I was too small! I feel guilty. I should be working on our company’s IP, but every time I get stuck or I don’t want to, Mocha shows up. She’s everywhere these days! My team keeps suggesting that I take all of them and make a flip book out of them!”

Sometimes, finishing off our first IPs from when we were kids really helps.

There is wish fulfillment. We feel the same delight we did when we were that age, “trying to draw the d*mn thing.” It really makes a difference.

I have found that after going through my personal queue of things to draw, I have gotten clearer ideas for my current IP.

If you feel like you don’t have any other IPs from the past haunting your steps, then it may be a different thing.

Maybe you need to pay more attention to your own health.

Or maybe you want to spend time with your new grandchild who was born a month ago.

It could be something like that too.

Listening to what you need now is very important to your IP’s completion.

You know, sometimes, if you are in a state of grief or mourning, everything stops. Take time to heal, and then see if your IP will finish.

Other times, you don’t want it to end, so you linger.

In cases like this, don’t force yourself to finish. Give yourself time.

You never know. Tomorrow, you may be fine with finishing. Give yourself time to soak in life around you, so you’ll be ready to finish when it comes.