So many artists and writers gripe and moan about how hard it is to make art. They bitch about the market, they whine about ‘block’, and they suffer under the lash of Impostor Syndrome. Don’t get me wrong, being an artist is not an easy road and should never be trod lightly. I just think that too many artists get the problem on backwards. The big, bad world is not out to get you. In fact, until you become at least somewhat famous, it won’t even know you exist. The problems we have, we make for ourselves. Conversely, the successes we have, we also make for ourselves. Things to avoid:
Avoid ‘goal setting’. Most people set unreasonable goals, or set their goals too far out, or create hazy or non-specific goals. There is no way to reach these kinds of goals, all they do is make you feel like a failure. Instead, create simple, repeatable, incremental habits. Simple habits are easy to remember and easy to complete – you come away a winner. When you get good at one level of the habit, scale it up. Keep doing it. At the end of a year, you’ve accomplished your original goal without even noticing. Just make sure this is the path you want to take to become who you want to be.
Stop beating yourself up. We all write crap. We all make lousy drawings. Every one of us screws up our projects at first. I’ve got news for you – that’s the only way you learn how to be great. Don’t worry about it. If there’s no salvaging the drek, store it away where no one will see it and start on the next one. When you do get good and start drawing attention to your work, there will be plenty of jealous morons who’ll tell you you’re a lousy artist. Don’t listen to them, and don’t be one of them.
Quit comparing yourself to others. You don’t draw, write or sing like anyone else, and you never will. No one else can do what you do. Besides, you don’t know what they’ve been through to get where they are. Don’t compare your first halting steps to anyone else’s finish. As the saying goes – the only person you should compare yourself to is who you were yesterday.
Never ‘create for the market’. There is no market. If you’re trying to emulate what’s popular today in any field, you’re already way behind. If you try to do what others have done, you’ll never find your voice. Write what you want to read, paint what you want to see, design the things you feel need to exist. Not everyone will like what you do. So what? Some will, and they will find you if you’re persistent. Those people are your tribe, your market. Create for them.
While many artists get all wrapped up in negative thinking and Impostor Syndrome, which is very damaging – others get high on forced positivity and excessive optimism. That can be just as damaging if left unchecked by logic and realism. We fool ourselves and set ourselves up for failure if we refuse to accept certain truths. Things to accept:
Everyone has ‘dry spells’. Call it what you will: writer’s block, resistance, getting stuck – we all go through it. Every great artist has suffered the same pain you do. The difference is, they didn’t give up. You shouldn’t either. Get your butt back in the chair, take a deep breath and start again. Usually, the way to conquer the dreaded blockage is to put your head down and keep working. If you let it sit more than a day or two, you start to become afraid of your own work. It starts to look insurmountable. That’s just wrong. If the work isn’t going where you thought it should, correct it, start over or just push through to the end and see if you can salvage something. You can always edit a bad page – you can’t edit a blank page.
‘Overnight success’ is a lie. Everyone goes through a learning period – some take months, most take years. You need to allow yourself time to try things out, make mistakes, recover from false starts. The more you labor away in obscurity, the better you get at your art. Picasso did it, Hemingway did it, you can do it.
Try and try again. Yoda was wrong. Okay, it’s true that you need to stop analyzing everything at some point, and ‘just do it’ as Nike says. But doing everything off the cuff almost guarantees doing a half-assed job. You need to try new things, keep improving and keep exploring in order to keep your art fresh. And especially when the work is fighting you, as it will sometimes, you need to try new approaches and new ideas, always looking for the breakthrough.
This is your job. If you’re serious about your art, it’s no longer a hobby and you have to stop thinking of it as a gift you give to people. Your art is something society wants and needs, and you need to take that idea seriously. You need to be paid for your work. I’m not talking about ‘selling out’, I’m talking about marketing. You want your work to reach a wide audience? No one’s going to do that for you. The moment you start charging for your work, you become a business. Your art is your product. Learn how to be a good businessperson.
It’s not my intention in this blog to drive anyone away from doing their art – quite the opposite. I want you to take off the rose-colored glasses and see the truth of what it means to be an artist. Stop being victimized by all the bone-headed assumptions that ‘normal’ people have about art and artists. Don’t let anyone tell you how to do the work you love – even me. This artistic life is not simple, it’s not easy, it’s not for the easily discouraged. But it is more fulfilling and more thrilling than almost anything else you can do. Go forth and create boldly. The world needs you and it needs what you carry.
Be well.
bcd