The Thursday! Newsletter 2-24: A Formula for Really Good Art
Volume 2, Issue 24
I've been thinking a lot about success formulas.
You know what I mean, right? I figure out a sure formula for success as a writer, I follow it to fame and fortune, and I then offer it to you for a small fee. Eventually, I start a podcast and talk about my success formula until you want to shove me down a dry well and brick over the opening.
Let's not do that, though. Honestly, I'd rather quit writing altogether before I became that guy. Instead, let's try something better. I'll share my thoughts with you and you decide whether they're worth further consideration. You can even write back to me and tell me where you think I've gotten it right or wrong. No fees. No hip, cool podcast. No book deal. No membership web site. Just us. Cool? I should probably note here that you can get ordinary, boring art pretty much any old way you want. Computer software can make perfectly lovely, boring art. You can paint by numbers or write predictable, tired novels all day long, but I don't think that's for you. I assume you want better from yourself. You hold yourself to higher standards and you won't stand for inferior crap out of yourself. Me neither.
So. Here's how I think it works:
Talent + Craftiness + Persistence = Really Good Art
We're all familiar with the first part of this equation. We're also familiar with how we don't get to choose our level of talent, how many we have, nor how they manifest in our creative work. Everyone has talent in something. Some have a little. Some have a lot. Some have more in creative areas while others have heaps of talent in the areas outside of creativity we all need to succeed -- organization, interpersonal skills, business acumen, etc. I might jump into this subject in another newsletter but, for now, let's lay it aside. You have what knacks you have and some things come more easily to you than others.
Craftiness, though? That's a different story. I almost described this skill as guile, but guile carries a negative connotation I don't want to bring into this discussion. Craftiness works just as well and it describes the way you get around difficulties without getting hung up on the edges. When you are crafty, you find ways to work around the stubborn resistance when you can't push straight through. You are a Rabbit among Bears and Hounds. You can't overpower the obstacles because they're big and strong or simply numerous. That's okay. You're crafty. You'll fool it, dodge past it, and keep on going. Crafty artists make art people don't expect. They get around the various bases of power that insist on credentials or only want art from those in certain groups of which you aren't part. Successful artists are crafty artists. They have to be because the path to success demands it.
The final ingredient in our formula is persistence, which may seem a bit obvious, but hang with me a moment. We've all heard how the best advice a writer can get is "put your butt in the seat and write", but that's not what I mean here. Of course, writers write, but writers also have to do a whole lot of other things. Writers edit and writers search out publishing opportunities and writers send out submissions and writers build their own web sites. They aren't the only ones. Artists, musicians, sculptors all have to be persistent in their whole work -- not just the creative part. We have to be persistent in our craftiness -- using it and improving it. We have to be persistent in discovering our talents and using them in the best ways we can. We have to keep on building relationships and living the rest of our lives in ways that don't leave us train-wrecked and in a ditch 40 years down the road. None of us want to be a sad tale of caution and woe told to younger artists.
I'll tell you right now, I've not perfected this formula. I devalue my talents, and try to bull-rush difficulties, and give up long before I should. Every day is a chance to do better than I did the day before. Every day I try to be more crafty and more determined to get past. I write new things so I can learn new things (and sometimes the thing I learn is that a certain way of writing just isn't for me). I find useful tidbits of knowledge and tuck them away for later use. There's no perfect here. Far from it. But I'm improving and the better I get, the better my art will get.
That will do just fine, I think.
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One Last Thing
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