How can I overcome builder's block?
I'm in a slump and it sucks. I've so many unfinished cars for races I end up not competing in. It's like I have some type of "writer's block". The cars are stripped, some are painted, but I stall out at the axle work. I know I've gotten better at making my cars faster because of race results in the past year so I feel like my axle work has improved......I just wish I could stay on track through an entire build again.
Anybody else go through this kind of cycle?
Discussion
Here's what I do: I just drill cars and then tape them back together. No weight, no axle work, just grab a handful of cars and drill them. Do a quick wheel polish to smooth them out, then set the cars aside for a day or two, watch some racing.
Whenever I drill, I just go ahead and smooth down the wheels with a file and Dremel with a polishing pad to spin the wheels ...... takes me about a minute, minute and a half, done.
Now go grab ONE car and do the axles: swap em, polish em, oil em, whatever. Tape the car back together and test it out. If it rolls okay, call it good enough for now. Set it aside, and go do something else.... come back to it later.
Its slow going, but you're not burning yourself out on panicking over "OMG I NEED to get this car done RIGHT NOW!!!"
This used to happen to me a lot, especially after tough losses. Unfortunately I have no space for a test track so I can only learn from race results. It's been a LOOOOONG learning curve because of it. My disability also often affects my mood and ability to build. I was endlessly frustrated. But then I found joy in the building process, and now I regularly have 4-5 cars I'm fiddling around with at any time. This includes recycling or retooling previous builds that have raced. Also, build a racer out of your favorite casting(s) just for fun. Especially childhood faves. At least take it apart and see what you've got to work with. I also get fired up when I find a race where I can be creative (like IDR's Fallout Frenzy). I also take breaks. No building, no tourney sign-ups... Just watch the racing for a while. Find that reason why you began building in the first place.
What works for me is I do everything by stages on different days. Today I take the car apart, drill rivets for screws. The next day, wheel farming. The day after that I polish axles and so on. You'll find it refreshing having something to work on every day. It has to be a short but productive task to keep you wanting to do more without burning out
I haven't built one in many months.
I'm just basically lazy.... I have so many project cars and so little enthusiasm lately. I don't usually build until a race is announced but I have a tackle organizer full of polished wheel sets and a bunch of drilled cars. I usually just focus on one aspect of building until I actually need to complete a car. I'll spend 2 days or so watching YouTube and polishing or the same wheel and body farming. I've had limited success with full customization including paint and decal work and that's probably my biggest block so now I just don't even bother. If the host requires specific things I may or may not participate. I've built some fast cars, some slow cars and some that inexplicably start out fast and true but after some 20 or more trips down the track, start swimming like salmon going home to die. I built a sweet olds 442 for boomtown that was really impressing me and the day I was going to send it off I ran it down the track and it was horrible. I put more time and effort into that car than any other and it ended up in the joust bin. The worst thing is I can't for the life of me figure out what went wrong. I'm rambling and not helping you at all, I hope you find your muse again.
I usually start on a car with no idea how it'll turn out. I mostly let the ideas come to me as I work on it. Very few of my cars have been planned out start to finish. Obviously if I signed up for a race with a specific theme, I stick to that, but otherwise, I start with a blank canvas and just let my creativity (what little I have lol) flow. But I enjoy working on cars. I have a partially finished road course track that hasn't been worked on in almost a year, so I get it. I enjoy building cars more, so when there are cars to be built, that's what I work on. Deadlines are very important to me, so if I have signed up for a race, getting a finished car to that track on time is my #1 priority. I don't know if any of this helps, but maybe a few different perspectives can show that everyone has a different process and mindset. When a hobby becomes like a job, it's no longer fun. So, do the things you have fun doing and forget the rest.
I start with the axles first. I stopped with the paint jobs, although I have a whole air brush system set up. It became too time consuming for me.I use customized decals when possible. I try to keep it simple, speed first, looks second. Go back and work on one car and try to make it fast. Don't be too hard on yourself. My motto is "have fun wit it". Hope this helps
A very offbeat suggestion, take a car and build it completely wrong
I mean everything short of wasting paint & deco (make sure you can reclaim any weight). Then test it. Watch it fail. Call the car every name in the book and make up new words. Laugh at it.
Seems like you need a radical reset and if you can find the humour in the effort, that'll shake loose the doldrums? All the best