Writing is a lonely affair.

I often think I would be a better writer if I lived an ascetic life.

Partly because the act of writing is a never ending churn of creativity and perfectionism, partly because giving yourself permission to be brilliant is anathema in our society.

If you are a writer you know what I mean about the churn, so let me explain the anathema:

You make something and then you have to decide when to show what you’ve made and what to do about the reactions to what you’ve made.

The first part, deciding when to show, is hard on beginners. We are all children looking for approval wether we want to admit it or not. That first showing of a thing can lead to showing a second and third person… maybe more.

Criticism can halt the advancement of making things. We can all relate to having someone’s reaction be so disappointing that brilliance is stopped dead.

But this does not need to stop you. The second part of showing is figuring out who to listen to as a critic and who to dismiss.

The critics come in several guises: Expert. Consumer. Competitor. Bystander. Patron

Many critics are more than one thing.

Some are terrible things. Some critics are trolls. Some are jealous. Many just want to stop you from achieving brilliance. Many just don’t understand that your point of view does not have to be their point of view. Your beliefs do not have to be theirs.

You will hear people dismiss your talent and work in the name of decency, morals, humility, taste, ignorance, insensitivity, blah blah blah.

This is noise.

People will compare you to others. They will pat you on the head. They will tell you to pay your dues. They will say you need this class or that workshop. You need to follow this method or that formula… or worse… wait to be discovered.

*shudder*

This is nonsense.

Noise and nonsense will keep you from finishing things, from trying new methods, from wandering outside the tropes.

Learning to tune out the noise and nonsense is what makes it a lonely affair but you need this part of the process.

So how do you get this time?

That, my dear creatives, is the secret to creation.

And I’ll talk about it next week because I need to go write.

In the meantime…

Embrace it all, take what you need, show your work. Repeat.

Now go be brilliant.