Don't say no for them. Whoever the anonymous them is. Don't you dare.
Whatever you're making, stories, art, macrame sex toys, whatever
creative thing you're doing, don't you dare look at it and decide
it's not good enough for the market and then tuck it away in a drawer with
a dramatic sigh about how if only you'd had THE ONE MAGICAL ADVANTAGE
you could sell it and quit your day job mopping up the exorcism room
after those three rogue priests wander off to congratulate themselves
on a demon well banished and break into the sacramental wine.
Three reasons:
1) Creative people are naturally down
on and extremely critical of their own abilities and will
underestimate themselves. This is an actual scientific fact*.
2) In my travels around the world I have seen some hideous shit sell, but YOU make cute, fun stuff. Whatever
you make. Because the thing you make reflects your taste and style
and classy self as an artist.
3) It's a big world. Suppose the
publisher/art gallery/etsy store you selected and made your thing
specifically for rejects it? They turn up their nose at it? They tell
you it's just not right for them, the tone doesn't match, it's too
similar to a thing they already have? So what? So what? There's a lot
of publishers/art galleries/websites that your thing will be
treasured and upvoted and sell. Use your google-fu and find them.
But if they're saying no to your stories or art,
it doesn't mean they're wrong. You could be wrong.
1) Are you really ready to shove that
project out into the cruel, indifferent world? Has an independent
editor flagged all the typos? Have you played with your handmade
wooden puzzle enough to know you need a second coat of
sealant to keep the paint from flaking? Can you take a decent picture
and understand how to edit and upload it? Do you check your email
often? Does your 'contact me' button actually work?
There is NOTHING more frustrating than
wanting to buy something, but the artist has vanished. Then I'm
reduced to twitter stalking and wondering if @battlecat77 is the
person who makes that awesome medieval armor for cats, but they never reply. If I can't reach you, I can't buy the thing. So you make
no money. That is a badness thing. Do you check your spam folder once
a week for hapless customers that use hotmail? (My gmail always
bounces hotmail, I never told it to do that, it just does. It also
ignores me when I told it to stop. Apparently Google does not obey
the second law of robotics.)
Are you ready? Is your work ready? If
you aren't confident in your own work, then do your research, see
what's out there, and if your stuff is of comparable quality, send it
out. Let them say no. Don't you say no to yourself before anyone else
even sees it.When the first buyer says no, then find another. There's always another. Another publisher, another shop, another way to sell the thing you made. Get creative, you ARE creative. You MADE a THING. You WROTE a SCRIPT. You can find a way to sell it. I believe in you.
2) Are you doing lots of stuff? The
more you do, the better you become. The more stories you write, the
more stone walls you build, the more exotic gerbils you raise, the
better you become. This is also a fact, scientifically proven by
anyone who has practiced any skill whatsoever. Branch out. Expand.
Even if a thing has been around thousands of years, you can still put
your own unique twist on it.
Books are old news, but remember those
'Choose Your Own Adventure' novels? A novel new twist! I rest my
case.
3) Are you for-real serious about this?
Are you writing at least five days a week? Do you treat it like a job
and sit down, unplug the internet, and stare at a blank cursor until
story happens? Do you have an outline, or at least a summery with the
beginning, middle, and end of the book to keep you on track?
Substitute the word project for book. Do you know how it's going to
happen? Etsy, ebay, and craiglists are full to the brim of weekend
crafters churning out random stuff and barely making their material cost
back.
Step 1.
Step 2.
Profit... is a funny joke, but knowing
the outline of the project and the steps you have to take to
accomplish the goal is SO IMPORTANT I CAN'T EVEN TELL YOU. BUT I WILL.
4) Did you write your goal down? No? Go
and do that. Right now, hop to it! Find some paper and write down
what you want out of this thing you do. To be published? To make X
amount every month? To spend your life traveling from one craft fair
to another like some sort of modern hippy in an SUV instead of old VW
van? To develop a variety of guinea pig with hair so long you can cackle like Dr. Frankenstein and shriek 'IT'S ALIVE', because you've just created a tribble?
Write your goal down, pin it up
somewhere you see it EVERY DAY, and do something every SINGLE day to
accomplish your goal. Even if you just have the time/mental bandwidth
to do one thing to reach the goal, one thing a day will get you
there. Do nothing a day and you'll never get there.
I leave you with this for further
reading.
Neil Gaiman's Make Good Art graduation
speech and Make Every Day a Non-Zero Day.
Go get'um tiger.
* Based
on a random survey of creative people I know and didn't actually
bother to survey.
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