Hmmm, how to start. For me, writing something is usually incredibly exciting, all the possibilities open up before me and I'm excited to see where the story will take me. As I write more and more of it, routes I could have taken fall by the wayside as the plot becomes clearer and more set and when I've reached the only about a third of that big bag of potential I've had, has made it onto the page. That's exactly when I get the "post-finishing-blues", that's when I sit there, looking at it and thinking, well, this is shit! But then I start the next project and get sucked into the excitement all over again and the cycle starts anew. I'm so focussed on creating, that I don't have time to worry of whether I'm any good, because my goal is to finish this. I approach every new fic or every new idea as a kind of adventure and experiment. It doesn't matter if it goes wrong and I think it's shit because think about Edison and how many lightbulbs he had to try out before he found the one that worked.
If I do struggle it's because I can't quite figure out how to spin something and what I do is ask other people. This isn't a writer's support group for nothing. Everyone here is super helpful and one is stuck, everyone is full of advice and encouragement. Sarcasm doesn't help anyone and isn't part of concrit, nor should it be part of a beta. We all want to grow as a community and I think we did. This is a beautifully welcoming place, where everyone is welcome to share in the joys of writing and it doesn't matter if you consider yourself a writer or not, it's all about the ride of creation and that's pretty much WHY this place is so amazing!
What I want to say to you, and I don't even know whether anyone really cares, but here it is:
You got out of bed that day, you are creating something that comes out yourself, something that will be part of you and that wasn't there before. It doesn't matter whether it'll change the world, or if it "only" made you happy when you created it. What matters is that you created something. Think about how many people get up and dream about creating things, every morning they get up and then they decided not to, they decide to wait, because they are not good enough, they decide to not create something, because some twat told them they were not good enough. But you created something.
Every human being in my head is a piece of art, everything you achieved makes your more interesting and adds a facet to who you are, things you create are a part of that and you should never ever let anyone tell you that you are no good or worthless. You are the person you have become, you are loveable and wonderful.
It doesn't matter if people don't like what you create, or if that nagging voice says "you suck, stop creating" because it's just not true. People have different tastes in things all the time. How sad would it be, if there was only one thing we would consider beautiful or useful?
I know people often say they don't want to be a great writer, they don't want to create art, but frankly, we all do. We all want to create art and be great writers and do you know what the beauty of it is? Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, each and every one of us can decide for ourselves what we think makes a writer great. Does it make a writer great if they win lots of awards, does it make them great if they are published? Does it make them great if the story we just read changes our perception of life, or shows us parts of ourselves we don't like? What about if the story makes you laugh and makes you wear that tiny smile of "I've read something I enjoyed" all day long. Does it make it art or not? The point is, it doesn't matter! The value of writing is what we allow it to be, what we judge it to be.
If someone walks up to you and tells you everything you do is shit, go tell them to go fuck themselves. Yes, positive validation is nice, but frankly, if someone has nothing better to do than make themselves feel better by bashing something someone else created, they don't deserve your time or your attention. The only way they get attention is through being dipshits, because they have no other way to validate themselves.
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Date: 2012-01-31 08:55 pm (UTC)If I do struggle it's because I can't quite figure out how to spin something and what I do is ask other people. This isn't a writer's support group for nothing. Everyone here is super helpful and one is stuck, everyone is full of advice and encouragement. Sarcasm doesn't help anyone and isn't part of concrit, nor should it be part of a beta. We all want to grow as a community and I think we did. This is a beautifully welcoming place, where everyone is welcome to share in the joys of writing and it doesn't matter if you consider yourself a writer or not, it's all about the ride of creation and that's pretty much WHY this place is so amazing!
What I want to say to you, and I don't even know whether anyone really cares, but here it is:
You got out of bed that day, you are creating something that comes out yourself, something that will be part of you and that wasn't there before. It doesn't matter whether it'll change the world, or if it "only" made you happy when you created it. What matters is that you created something. Think about how many people get up and dream about creating things, every morning they get up and then they decided not to, they decide to wait, because they are not good enough, they decide to not create something, because some twat told them they were not good enough. But you created something.
Every human being in my head is a piece of art, everything you achieved makes your more interesting and adds a facet to who you are, things you create are a part of that and you should never ever let anyone tell you that you are no good or worthless. You are the person you have become, you are loveable and wonderful.
It doesn't matter if people don't like what you create, or if that nagging voice says "you suck, stop creating" because it's just not true. People have different tastes in things all the time. How sad would it be, if there was only one thing we would consider beautiful or useful?
I know people often say they don't want to be a great writer, they don't want to create art, but frankly, we all do. We all want to create art and be great writers and do you know what the beauty of it is? Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, each and every one of us can decide for ourselves what we think makes a writer great. Does it make a writer great if they win lots of awards, does it make them great if they are published? Does it make them great if the story we just read changes our perception of life, or shows us parts of ourselves we don't like? What about if the story makes you laugh and makes you wear that tiny smile of "I've read something I enjoyed" all day long. Does it make it art or not? The point is, it doesn't matter! The value of writing is what we allow it to be, what we judge it to be.
If someone walks up to you and tells you everything you do is shit, go tell them to go fuck themselves. Yes, positive validation is nice, but frankly, if someone has nothing better to do than make themselves feel better by bashing something someone else created, they don't deserve your time or your attention. The only way they get attention is through being dipshits, because they have no other way to validate themselves.