No energy, no creativity?

I remember a time... I could spin stories without end, draw the whole day long and ideas kept coming no matter what I did.

Today I feel like all this energy is gone. I have ideas, but they are fleeting, when I sit down to write them down my mind is emptying itself before I can get hold of one of these thoughts. With drawing it is the same. Of course I can redraw the lines and curves I am so used to but getting anything original and new done, seems impossible.

But when I get the work of anyone else in my hands no matter what, I immediately can add tons of content to it. Also when I have someone around whom I am talking to. Hell I get more work done while having a good talk at the same time than when I work alone. It feels that everything is there, but I can't access it anymore.

I talked about this already with other people, some say that I have to start something new, just draw or write without trying to achieve anything and to see if I get somewhere with it. Other told me that alcohol can help to get things going.

First of all: alcohol is never a solution.

Second: If working in a team helps you, you should gather a few people and create something together. Maybe that will refresh your creativity and you'll be able to make things alone again. Doing something different is always a good choice.

Maybe you did this for too long and it became dull. So you should try some variety of new activites and stop writing/drawing for some time. After a few weeks or months you will have enough energy to start working again.

Take a week off and play a game instead. That's what I did when I wasn't able to focus.

First, chemically speaking, alcohol IS a solution - it's not a good idea to deal with any degree of burnout, however. The creative sparks one finds while inebriated seldom amount to anything better than a hangover; far too often those ideas lead to injury or property damage... :p

Me, I would recommend basically taking a day off to sit down in a park and watch grass grow and people walk by. Just get at least one day of *rest* for the ol' grey matter. Entertain creative ideas as they pass by, but don't hold on to them; write them down if necessary, but don't consciously dwell on them.

If you still feel uninspired and locked down the next day, go watch the clouds drifting by, or feed the local birds or something. Go play a tabletop role-playing game or silly card game with friends. Just don't force yourself.

Ya, I have done all this. And working in a team doesn't help me at all. I noticed, that when I have a random casual talk with someone unexpected either on a visit or on the phone, that things start flowing. But if I repeat that on purpose, it doesn't work.

Yes, I had a burn-out years ago, but that felt different. At that time I was unable to get up from bed or get to work without a call from my colleagues. I had no energy to do anything, but at the moment I can work, just can't get anything original together.

If I draw whatever comes to my senses, I am usually drawing skeletons of animals whatever that means, but it soothes me to draw bones and joints and claws, especially from bats and birds.

Sounds like depression to me.

Seems to me you already have all the answers. Have more random conversations, travel to new places, look at other people's art and use them as a base to add your own ideas. We cant get inspired without new experiences! 

To add onto this: One thing I started doing was forcing myself to take breaks every 1.5 - 2 hours (depending on when I finish the current conversation or event I'm working on). That seems to have helped some too. Sometimes these breaks are nothing more than get up and check the weather, walk around the place for 5 minutes, then get back to work.

Story of my life xDD

I'm bad. I don't take breaks very often. But when I work a fulltime/close to fulltime job, those few precious hours after work I feel I NEED to pour everything I can into them. Any advice how to find that recharge time when time is already so limited? (i get my hour and a half break on Saturday for anime >,> )

I think that this could apply to a lot of people here, whether it's a job or school taking up a chunk of their time. It really feels like finding relax time is a luxury that is beyond my grasp when I think about how much I want to accomplish in a day. (The advice would be... Don't make games, run a webstory, do commission and work a job at the same time. Whoops)

Not that I really mind. Working on art actually relaxes me a lot. Though sometimes I wish I could work in more structured breaks than my about once a month collapse into lazy nothingness for a day. :/

@makio-kuta: One thing I started doing was forcing myself to take Sundays off of game making and just play a game or read a book or watch a movie instead. Seems to have worked pretty well, and now I know to schedule everything around 6 days a week instead of all 7 days.

I usually solve this by giving myself some time to play some game/visual novel or just watch anime. Seems to work most of the time >o<

One day of rest a week became the norm for a reason.  I've also found that it needs to be a complete disconnect, no even thinking about what you'll be doing when you get back to work.

I realized that I get creative, when I have no time. Today I was invitation to a BBQ. I had some time left and so I corrected a few illustrations from yesterday. When I had like 10 minutes left I suddenly got a huge burst of energy and not just that, I had many ideas and solutions for my game. However I have returned and now that I have all time in the world, all my ideas are gone (except the bits which I wrote down in the day).

Sounds like procrastination to me. I say that because I'm a procrastinator. Without a deadline or anything immediately on the line, there's no motivation. But when push comes to shove or someone's depending on you, on goes the afterburners.

People say take a break, but if you're like me, you'll just take a break forever. It's better to address the issue by either learning how to be more productive or put yourself in an environment that motivates you. Having someone act as a team lead for you is good since they keep tabs on you, as is contributing to other projects.