Make good art.
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| Sounds easy, right? |
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Making Art Is What It's All About
The short speech from the more-famous-Neil (as he's referred to around my home) talks a little bit about his career. From starting off as a journalist, to writing for comic books, to publishing short stories, novels, screenplays, audio books, to the point where he even wrote a few episodes of Doctor Who, he's had his shares of trials, tribulations, and triumphs. And while he acknowledges all the work he put in, and all the lucky breaks he got, he pointed out some realities that it can be easy to lose sight of.
First, making art is a worthwhile endeavor. It fulfills us in important ways that should not be overlooked, or understated. Even if you don't get paid for it (or you don't get paid what you should be), the very act of creating matters.
Secondly, though, he points out something that is important to remember for all creators, not just writers. That no writing, no matter the kind, is ever wasted. Whether you wrote a comic, a script, a short story, a novel, that act only makes you better. Much like going to the gym, or putting in a day of training, it keeps you sharp, helps you grow, and improves your skills. And while it's true that not finishing a project means you can't put it out on the market and make money from it, finishing a project is no guarantee of success either.
Everything is a crap shoot. Everything.
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| You place your bet, and you shoot your shot. |
Something that I think we should take from Gaiman's words, though, is that everything is a gamble. Writing that book has no more guarantee of happiness than taking that Serious Job (TM), or going into journalism instead of comic books. However, it is better to do the thing, and to keep doing the thing rain or shine. Because dedication will open doors to opportunities that luck by itself would have missed entirely, and if you're going to be a writer you need the odds to be as in your favor as possible.
But I wanted to take this week to remind folks of this advice. If you're struggling, if you're doubting yourself, if you're wondering if anyone even cares about your work, make good art. And if you're riding high, doing the best you can, or you're hitting your milestones, make good art. To abuse my favorite metaphor, it's like going to the gym. You do it when you're pumped, and feeling strong, and have a lot of energy, and you do it when you're tired, or depressed, or frustrated, or you've had a bad day. You do it because it's part of the process, and you need to keep going.
Because writing, like your body, is an organic thing. Use it, or lose it, and you'll never get any stronger, faster, or more skilled if you don't actually do the thing.
So make good art.
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That's all for this week's Business of Writing! For more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, or at My Amazon Author Page where you can find books like my sci-fi dystopian thriller Old Soldiers, the Hardboiled Cat series about a mystery solving Maine Coon in Marked Territory and Painted Cats, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife, or my most recent short story collection The Rejects!
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