Bored Panda got in touch with Nadia again to learn more about her creative process and herself! Seeing all those creative doodles, we got curious whether the artist faces some challenges in creating them. Nadia replied that the most challenging part of the creative process for her is mostly finding time for it! "I have a day job and a family so I try to squeeze in my doodles early in the morning (mostly) or late at night (not very often as I´m not a night owl, sadly). I do get stuck for puns sometimes but I try to make lists of ideas when they come to me so that I have a bunch of ideas to go back to. I also get funny and fab suggestions from my followers, which I always appreciate. In my mind, everyone is creative, the trick is to make room for it."

Besides all the challenges that come along the way, there definitely are pleasant things about creating. Otherwise, why bother? For Nadia, the most enjoyable part of the creative process is the "Can you guess tomorrow´s wordplay?" - doodles without captions that Nadia posts for her followers to guess the pun before it´s out. "It´s so much fun seeing if people make the same associations as me! And oftentimes, they come up with even funnier puns! I don´t have time to do it every time but I try to get those Stories out at least a couple of times a week."

No matter how engaged and motivated you are, sometimes burnouts are inevitable. Nadia shared that she has not experienced that yet, since she's only been creating these doodles for 6 months, although she thinks that most creative people go through a burnout phase in life. "It seems it´s what happens when you make stuff you are passionate about, but you don’t always take time for self-care. And actually, I do get panicky from time to time, when I realize I need to produce content to keep my output up and there just isn’t enough time (GAAAAH) but I try to give myself a break then and not be too hard on myself if I don’t post for a few days!"

As for her future plans, Nadia shared that she is going to try and keep her Instagram page going for as long as she can. At least, she promised herself a year. "My @surrealians account is purely for fun at the moment, so at some point, I will have to be sensible about it and start selling some printed t-shirts or something but I´m so not an entrepreneur in that way. I just want to do the creative stuff! If anyone reads this and wants to give me some sound business advice, I´m here! On that note, I´ve gotten a lot of questions about creativity through the years so I´m now training to be a creativity coach (@nadiatolstoy). I truly believe creativity and play bring joy, and I think everyone deserves to feel that joy!"