@schoo9256

9 months ago

I'm a writer. I've been blocked from finishing anything for years. Out of nowhere, I realised several days ago that I have been writing to please my mental image of how other people would review and critique my work, how they would analyse any underlying message i might accidentally put in there, or what conclusions they might draw about my own morals and principles or even my character.

I suddenly saw I was essentially trying to tick boxes, impress unknown people with my cleverness at plotting, and write morality tales. Rather than just write stories about real (to me) people going through hard things and coming out better than they started because of how they chose to deal with it. All of a sudden, it has all become so much simpler. Removing that layer of artificial, unnatural complexity has revived my ability to hope and think about my work in a more natural way. I feel like I can breathe again.

So I would add, don't challenge yourself against other people's standards, or what you imagine those standards to be. Figure out what your own standards are, challenge yourself against those, and keep pushing.

Picasso said it took him years to learn to paint well, but a lifetime to learn to paint like a child. He was a horrible person, but he was right about that. I think most of art is figuring out what you actually care about, and daring to share it without camouflage.

If you made it this far, thanks for reading.

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