One of my friends recently remarked how they suffered from ‘artistic impotence’. I blame being around creators of all sorts over the SFX Weekender, but it still got me slightly riled.
For the record, I don’t consider this friend an idiot (though I might tell him otherwise to his face just for shits and giggles). Said friend has certainly dabbled in various arts and from what I can see, there’s possibly some potential there. Potential, because if he doesn’t work at it, he’s never gonna be good, never know if he has genuine talent for it.
The nub of my problem is that I honestly do think this is a case of wanting to have created over wanting to create.
You see, it’s easy for friends to see my iota of success and imagine it going places. I love that they might think that, and whatever my annoyance, it’s nothing personal against them. What seems to be forgotten is the years I’ve put into my craft: the years I spent lugging a laptop with me on visits, the times I rose two hours before everyone else, in order to get some writing done. I’ve spent years working at being a better writer, and not everything I’ve turned out has been good. In fact some of it has been pretty crap. They know, they’ve had to read some of it over the years.
Now this was just an off-hand comment, so I certainly don’t hold any bad feeling towards my friend for it. I’ve made plenty of off-hand comments in my time. No, my issue is more a frustration at those who continually look at creators and sigh “I wish I could be like that but it’s not worth even trying”.
If you want to create… then create. Don’t worry about a business plan or how crap your initial work is. Don’t lament how others seem to be seeing success, you just get ink on page or type on screen and keep working at it until some sense of style or talent emerges.
I’m actually genuinely surprised how riled this got me. You’re never going to know how good you are until you really try. You’ll never improve until you dedicate some time to it. And if that all seems like too much hard work, then the creative arts are not for you – no hard feelings. You either enjoy the process or work hard and enjoy the results. You can bitch and moan as much as you like so long as you continue.
Don’t let anyone tell you creating art is easy, because it’s not. Now go create!