While this may be more relevant to 2024, it has been something I’ve been noticing for quite some time now. Whether you’re a writer, an artist, a musician, or really any type of creative person out there, the landscape of social media and the internet as a whole has made it difficult to not only stand out as a creative, but also thrive. It got me thinking about what it means to have a creative passion in this day and age and how to keep that passion burning despite everything seemingly working against us. The fact that we are all so interconnected and can see what others share. In a sense, it becomes harder to do things for the sole sake of doing things and improving upon one’s own craft. I can only speak from a writer and artist’s perspective, but I have a feeling many other creative fields face similar challenges as well.
The impact of seeing positive engagement is incredibly addictive. It’s a great feeling seeing new likes, views, engagement in general. It leads to a natural feeling of wanting more, something these platforms want, which then can change the focus on what you end up creating. “becoming a slave to the algorithm” becomes a common phrase when trying to grow an account. Fan works tend to get a better reception than original works so it’s easy to start leaning towards that as opposed to creating original works. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with fan art and fan fiction or any fan works really as it’s a great expression of showing you enjoy the content. It does, however, become a problem when you have original works you want to focus on. I know for myself, my writing is focused on my book series as that is my goal in life, but I know when it comes to art, I lean more towards creating fan art than creating original artwork. I do want to draw my own characters as they’re my own and drawing them helps me write them better, but it’s impossible to ignore the fact that fan art receives a better reception than original work and it makes perfect sense. Fan work is based off of already established stories that people love and have a connection to. Again, it’s not a bad thing to focus on fan works because some amazing work can be produced from it, but I found I need to balance the two as I tend to lose focus on what matters to me.
Something that’s been often brought up when I talk to people about my books is often how much money I make from them. It’s a topic that, in all honesty, irks me to a certain degree as there’s an implication I don’t agree with. Not everyone implies it when asking, but I’ve always had this notion that a lot of people don’t find creative pursuits worthwhile unless it’s profitable. I know someone who gave up their passion because they said it didn’t earn enough money and I felt rather disappointed hearing that. It feels like something that’s been far more prevalent in recent years, trying to turn everything into a side hustle to make more money. There’s genuinely nothing wrong with making money from creative pursuits and it’s honestly quite amazing if it can be done. But it feels like the idea of creating something because I want to create it isn’t good enough for a lot of people. I think the mindset is a bit of a trap as a lot of these pursuits aren’t the kind to get into if you want to make a lot of money. My books are nowhere near profitable but knowing that people have bought, read and liked them is a feeling that I cannot describe how magical it is. It would be fantastic if it could also become something I could live off of instead of working a 9 to 5 job, but that’s not the reason I started and I don’t think it’s a good mindset to seek profitability first for an artistic passion.
With social media and the internet, it’s hard not to see the plethora of amazingly talented people out there. One of the best things about this day and age is that we can share our work with other people across the entire world. The creative works of others can be quite inspiring and great resources to learn from, but there’s also a bit of an unfortunate reality that comes with that. It’s really hard not to compare yourself with other people and feel a sting of jealousy. I know I used to often compare myself to other authors and artists to just think about how much better they are than I am. Not just from a technical perspective but also from just how fast they can create things. I can’t write as fast as other authors nor can I create art at the same speed as other artists. But slowly over time, my thoughts on comparing myself changed. Rather than seeing them as solely better than me, I started to study and learn from their works while appreciating the hard work it must have taken them to get there. I’ve been writing for almost half my life now so writing stories comes a bit naturally to me, but I’ve only recently been dedicated to it after publishing my first book. I’m comparing myself to people who have always been serious about their creative passions all their life and it dawned on me that it’s not a very helpful comparison. Now I’ve learned to focus more on appreciating good creative works and learning from them, but I’d be lying if I didn’t say the comparison was still a little thing in the back of mind prodding away at me.
I realize this was partially a bit of a rant but it felt poignant with how much the landscape has changed for being a creative nowadays. It can be pretty hard to stay motivated and keep working on the things we are passionate about, especially when the reception isn’t as amazing as we’d like it to be. I think something that’s helped me a lot with this is believing that maybe some day I’ll get there, but even if I don’t, I know I’ll be happy having created the stories I wanted to write.
– Raphael
Raph's Cozy Musings 