You've just gotta fight your way through.

[chanaleh]

This has stuck with me since tallou shared it to Facebook about 2 weeks ago:

“Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know it's normal, and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.”
― Ira Glass

From this video segment: http://youtu.be/BI23U7U2aUY
Nicely typeset here, if you can access it: https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/293156_10150290719459626_795709625_7387707_7099296_n.jpg

That said, I think I might sign up for a writing class. Yes, I know you don't need to pay someone to jump-start your writing process, but I feel like some structured guidance would help me at this point in my creative life, and that's worth investing in.

No news on any other fronts at present. Just lots of emotional Sturm und Drang whose mere reflection is by turns producing in me black despair, blank exhaustion, marble resignation, and red-raging fury. (Perhaps instead I am meant to take up painting, or sculpture.) My assigned part in this drama seems to consist mostly of waiting it out to see where I am at the end. Please send healing vibes, if you have them. And maybe cookies, kthx.

Comments

[desireearmfeldt]

*hug*

[jelazakazone.livejournal.com]

I saw that a couple months ago and it is hitting me right now. I am reposting Ira's words. Thanks for posting it. (here via friendsfriends)

[magid.livejournal.com]

Thanks for this quote.

Fine Print First

[cycon.livejournal.com]

*love & hugs* You are not alone.

I once found in the Waltham library a fasciating volume called The Early Asimov", featuring stories of Isaac's that had not been collected in any other books. Many of them are not very good — at least, by the standards Asimov fans usually expect — but through the collection of them you can see his growth as a writer from merely a rabid fan of SF to one of its masters. A very convincing and concrete example of exactly what Glass was talking about. :)

Re: Fine Print First

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

I think I've read that one. And yeah, his early stuff's kinda crap, which I suppose gives me some hope for myself. 'Cause, well, a lot of my stuff's kinda crap.

[jehanna.livejournal.com]

Sending you good wishes. *hugs*

[moria923.livejournal.com]

This is how I often felt about voice lessons. I take them because I want to be able to sing like the singers I admire. Then I start practicing and . . . well, you know. So I think I get it.

[awfief.livejournal.com]

Think of it as a "personal trainer" for your writing. No shame. And it's a GREAT way to meet other writers, and perhaps after the class is over you'll have a few great friendships, and/or a writing group.

[tapuz.livejournal.com]

*virtual cookies*

[taylweaver.livejournal.com]

If you want to encourage yourself to produce quantity (rather than quality), and if you are into writing novel-length stuff, there is Nanowrimo in November. (nanowrimo.org) It forces me to write at least one novel a year, and that is a Very Good Thing for me.

I hope you find the class that is right for you.

Also, sending hugs your way for the other stuff.

[c1.livejournal.com]

I had a drawing professor who had the same attitude: for the entire course, we never drew on anything other than tracing paper, because the point was to be able to go back and (infinitely) revise a drawing. Our initial attempts would be utterly wrong. In time, our revisions would culminate in a drawing in which, if transferred to a sheet of glass (and held up to the object), every line would match up perfectly... but it would take about a dozen sheets of trace to get there.
Alongside this, his other attitude was that we'd never get good until we'd done dozens upon dozens of drawings: "so we might as well get started". But it's true, and because of his guidance, I draw and see so much better than before.

I just had a moment in the studio this afternoon: I finally figured out how to get rims and feet of bowls to come out the way I want. It "only" took me about a year and a half, but it did indeed happen.

[lillibet.livejournal.com]

I think a lot about practice, because it's something that I'd like to teach Alice and something that I really never learned. I think that it's actually hard for people who are generally good at everything. Maybe I'm projecting here, but look at you: you're a smart person who did well in school, you sing beautifully, you act instinctively, you are naturally creative, you write well, you can cook delicious meals, etc. Of course there are things you've gotten better at over time, things you've learned along the way, but the act of sucking at something again and again and continuing to do it anyway and to find the joy in effort and in incremental improvement--I think that's really hard.

I wish you perseverance in new directions.

[sanpaku.livejournal.com]

What would you like to write?

Hope the rest is feeling better soon.

[brass-rat.livejournal.com]

*hugs*

[weegoddess.livejournal.com]

I um, might just happen to have this open in a semi-permanent tab. And one of the things that I find most inspiring is to listen to really old Beatles recordings, pre-1964. And then listen to them again in 1965. And then in 1967.

Heh. No, you are not alone.