If You Stopped Overthinking, What Would You Do Right Now?
You either run away crying or you cry and do it anyway.
The way I see it, when it comes to my career, I have two options:
1. I can worry about writing and avoid it
2. I can worry about writing and write
Since I’m struggling, the only thing I can produce is articles like these: words that sound like they’re coming straight from my journal.
I kept thinking, If I can’t create good work, then I might as well not create at all. But that’s only resulted in low self-esteem and (very loud) discouraging thoughts.
Plan A failed. Now it’s time for plan B: to write crap — because writing crap is better than writing nothing. Sharing bad work is better than keeping it in your journal, gathering dust like a book you haven’t touched in years. Whether it’s stories or art or songs or sketches of buildings or plans.
That’s a difficult thing for an artist to comprehend. We put so much time, research, thinking, energy, and emotion into our art that if no one acknowledges it, it hurts. It feels like a waste of everything I just mentioned.
The problem is that, because we don’t want to waste time making things, we stop making. What do we do instead? We waste time watching Netflix and using social media.
So what’s the solution? We might as well create things. Because even if only five people look at it, it’s practice. And we need to practice.
Nothing we make is a waste of time. With every word we write or stroke of paint on a blank canvas, we’re growing. You can’t expect a soccer player to walk out on the field of a professional game without years of practice beforehand.
Same goes for an artist. We can’t expect to create beautiful art without practice that no one sees in between.
Other than the benefit of practice, what we work on could lead to something greater. I’ve started plenty of articles about an idea that I ditch halfway because my writing gave me a better one. Something so exciting I write it in under half an hour. Something like this.
