RS, Author, Novelist, Prosaist (@[email protected])

> #ScribesAndMakers 2503.27 — Were you ever discouraged by great art of someone else? Only a practicing artist, author, or crafter would ask such an insightful question, from experience; okay, maybe a psychologist would. I believe it is human to compare oneself and one's creations to those who teach us, whether they know they're our teachers or not. We've learned to simulate in our heads the parents or teachers we've grown up with, who mean well or not, who critique without encouraging, who don't emphasize and collaborate with us on next steps, too. We've learned to hear echoes of their voices. This is one of my personal flaws. Not the comparison part. The part where I judge my effort lacking, never good. Shit. I just experienced it a few days ago on book recommendation day, having encountered an indie writer so good at writing 3rd person that it felt like 1st, whose first chapter compelled me to buy the book. I compared. My energy crashed. I didn't want to write. But I'm getting better at this, and if you're empathizing (and face it, if'n you're read'n this up to this point, you are), you are learning how to tell your negativity, "Begone!" I had a chapter to write and publish that day. I didn't "feel" it. I did it anyway. I focused on my unique style and how it entertained me. And the story, which surprised me. And that it was practice, regardless. When I see others self-deprecate, I tell them to stop (or at least tell them notice how poorly they'd treated themselves). Recently I caught a follower deprecate their web-comic. I saw abstraction, minimalism, and a uniquely primitive style and smiled. I think the artist saw themselves as barely able to draw, but their rendering was strong, it set off the dialogue, and had showed motion. Nobody starts off a Rembrandt, and there was only one, ever. Or ever more than one of us. I tell myself this. The first impressionists were ridiculed as lazy. Picasso... Did cubism hit the first day? It's best not to be dear Vincent, tho. Best to strengthen that of which we're capable. Just write. Just create. If it pleases me, I vow I'll do it better the next time, or I enjoy the thing I've created and move on. Hard. Yes. Persistence? It's key. [Author retains copyright (c)2025 R.S.] #BoostingIsSharing and #CommentingIsCool #gender #fiction #writer #author #photographer #chef #cooking #writing #writingcommunity #writersOfMastodon #writers #RSdiscussion