What Makes an Artist? · 9:32pm Jun 14th, 2013
I've been thinking a lot lately about my writing. Most of the time, I'm incredibly self-deprecating, and when I'm not, my head is so far up my own ass that I get serious facial injuries from my own stomach acid. Right now, though, I'm stuck in this weird limbo, like I don't know how to feel. I think the fastest way to work through it is to write it all out, so that's what I'm doing.
How does one define what is good art and what is bad art? How can one consider oneself an artist and not know the answer to that question? I don't know whether my writing is good or not. People tell me it is, and I believe them occasionally, but I don't trust my own opinion on it. I hear people lament about this problem all the time—not knowing whether what they write is good or not—so let me pose a question rather than run over the same tired ground.
Who's to say?
Who's to say what's good or not? Do I trust my ratings and blindly continue to do what I'm doing because people like it? Do I write what I want to write despite my crippling fear that nobody will like it, or that everyone will think it's boring and unoriginal? Honestly, I don't feel like I can trust my audience here on FimFiction to tell me if what I'm writing is good, and that makes me feel like shit.
But who cares what other people think, right? I should just write for myself! Well, I care what other people think. That probably makes me shallow, but I can't help it. This part of my life is completely nonessential, yet I put more effort into writing ponies than I do into many other things that probably deserve it. I want validation, and I often receive it, but it's not enough. I hate that I see more than a few stories in the feature box that I read and think are worse than mine. I hate the fact that I can't even read good stories now, stories by authors much better than I, and not nitpick the everloving christ out of them. And I hate that I'm ranting about this on a blog post instead of writing, because I should be working on the next chapter of Star-Crossed (which I haven't even started, by the way), and I've been trying to start it for weeks and it just won't fucking come to me. I could be doing anything in GDocs and it would be more productive, but I'm not.
Is this something that all artist's deal with? Is it even fair to call myself an artist at this point? Is this an "artist's crisis" that painters and sculptors and other writers have to put up with?
Okay, take a deep breath. In, out. In, out.
Alright, I'm better now. Slightly. Anyway, this is what I've been thinking about lately. I don't know who to listen to when it comes to criticism. Whenever I receive criticism (say, for example, from an EQD pre-reader (that's not what this is about though, so don't get the wrong idea)), should I go back and edit the story, even if it's already popular? What if I take away something that original fans of the story liked? What if they feel cheated? But say I don't edit; aren't I cheating all the people who would enjoy the story, who would see the story in the future, by not making it better?
Who's to say?
Alright, I think I'm done for now. Thanks for listening to my inane bullshit, guys. It means a lot.
Peace!
In my own opinion I believe being an artist is having the will and want to create something that is art. Wheather it be writing, drawing, photography, etc. but for it to be art... I believe that it doesn't matter what others think. They can call your art nothing, but I believe it's something you made, you are proud of, and/or something that you can enjoy. Art is anything you see as beautiful, unique, or anything along the lines. That's what I think art is.
1144867 in conclusion to that, I must say what you do is definitely unique. You write it, you enjoy it, and you allow others to too. It's worth continuing if you had the will to create still within you. So a new question to pose to you. Do you beleive you have the will, or is the thought of your writing being bad, but others saying they love it enough to make you waver in what you like to do. That is the ultimtimate question to ask yourself.