redasuki:

juliedillon:

the-spring-glade:

glyndarling:

hazeldomain:

writedreamlie:

lizardywizard:

juliedillon:

note to self: just because someone did the thing you were thinking about doing, and did it way better than you could ever hope to do, doesn’t mean it would be stupid or pointless to go ahead and try to still do the thing anyway. 

Also, when it comes to creative things? There really is no “better”.

Sure, someone might be more technically accomplished than you – you might not be able to colour as nicely or craft a sentence that rings as poetically – but art is only really secondarily about that. It’s firstmost about what you, uniquely, have to express, and how the precise way you express it might be what others need to relate to it – even if it’s less flashy, less “beautiful”, and gets fewer notes.

I promise you this: there are obscure fanfics with only a handful of notes that are the read-and-re-read favourites of someone too anxious to comment. There are drawings done by 14-year-olds in poorly-blended markers that are someone’s favourite because they spoke to something that nothing else did. There are covers of songs where your voice cracks and you cringe every time you hear it but someone thinks the way it cracked just at that moment added beauty to the song. There are angsty three-line poems you wrote at 4am that someone once called “pretentious emo trash” that are loved by someone else going through the same thing as you.

And I guarantee you, there is something unique about your art. Even if you’re “saying something someone else has said”. Even if you’re the thousandth person to take on the subject. Even if you feel like you’re not at all unique. You’re bound to express something, however subtle, that didn’t exist until then.

Art is about connection. And the more you create, the more chance you have of finding other people who experience the world the way you do.

“But the one thing that you have that nobody else has is you. Your voice, your mind, your story, your vision. So write and draw and build and play and dance and live as only you can.“ via @neil-gaiman

The “two cakes” theory of content production. 

It was only yesterday that I was lamenting thing I no longer felt allowed to do because someone had done similar.  

I ought to read this post daily.  Maybe twice daily.

I hate to be negative because I fall into this problem myself but the issue with the two cakes theory is that when one thing comes out that’s highly successful and amazingly popular, then anything that comes out after that that looks similar is partly going to be seen as riding the trend and it’s the second thing that certain audiences are going to get all snobby about because now they’re looking for things to nitpick about to compare to the first one to showcase why the first one is superior. For an example, look at the release of Paranormal Activity and then look at the shitload of found footage movies that came out shortly after it.

Okay, but those “certain audiences” of snobby nitpicky people that you’re mentioning are never going to be happy no matter what you do.  You’re never going to make everyone happy. Being successful as a creative person is about finding the people who do like your work, rather than worrying about satisfying people who don’t. 

As long as you are creating something from the heart, and aren’t making a literal copy of something or relying solely on cookie-cutter gimmicks, the right audience will find you. Don’t shoot yourself in the foot before even you begin. Give yourself and your ideas a chance. You may not always be the first out of the gate with an innovative concept, but what you do still has value, because it’s your unique voice and perspective, and no one else can offer that to the world but you. You never know who out there might really be needing to hear your voice. 

And to go back to the cake theory, it’s not like one person made The Best Cake, and now every other cake made after that has been considered an inferior copycat. You’ll probably find a lot of people who prefer your honest and delicious cake over the frilly fancy award wining cake. And if some asshat gets all snobby about your cake, then guess what? He doesn’t get any cake. 

“Art is about connection.”

“Being successful as a creative person is about finding the people who do like your work, rather than worrying about satisfying people who don’t.”

“Art is about connection.”