fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #2135 ]

[ SECRET POST #2135 ]

⌈ Secret Post #2135 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 047 secrets from Secret Submission Post #305.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 1 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ], [ 1 - IC secret? ]
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
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06. http://i48.tinypic.com/2hyz0ib.png

You seem pretty good with fonts and words.

Hey, just mess around with materials, pick a form, take a class here or there, don't sweat the results for at least six months -- or better yet a year -- and you'll get there. You won't be the same place as your sibs, but you'll be somewhere.

Wow does this sound like my inner angsty self. I feel you, OP. My family is not only talented but all geniuses and successful people, wherase I'm kind of average intelligence with some learning disabilities and not really all that successful as an adult. I've been trying my hand at various crafts lately and I'm....not awful?

I think part of the problem is that growing up in a house with super talented craftsters you've got high standards for yourself. Or maybe you haven't found your craft yet? Maybe check out some DIY and craft blogs for ideas and try different crafts and projects you or your family haven't tried before. You never know, you might find something that suits you!

I'm in the opposite position. All my family are in Sciences/Math geniuses, and I turned out being math-challenged. They even joke that I'm logically-impaired. It isn't far from the truth, sadly.

Post secret for you, anon: You will always be terrible at everything you try.

At first.

That guy who makes a bulls-eye with his first shot? The dancer who executes a near flawless tour jeté the first time she donned a tutu? The sculptor who breathed life into clay when his teacher plunked some down in front of him?

Those are stories. Myths. Very rarely-if-ever-occasionally true tales that...yeah, no. Don't compare yourself to them. Don't even pretend they're real.

Making something? It's hard work. It's a craft. You have to learn it. And learning something means that you're going to have to suck at it for quite a while. The people who perform well or make things that move you? They sucked when they started. Maybe they had a glimmer of talent, but talent's just the same as a precious stone--it looks like crap in the raw, and polishing it takes a lot of time and effort, and cutting it takes skill and know-how, and none of that comes easy or fast.

There's a saying they teach us in art school--everyone has 1000 bad drawing in them. One thousand. Holy crap, is that ever a depressing-sounding number. One thousand of something you do is going to be dookie. One. Thousand.

So do them. Make something. Let it suck. Make something else. Let it suck. Make something else. Eventually--and I do mean eventually, not overnight, not over a month, etc--it won't suck as much. It'll suck in a different way. Maybe you'll reach a plateau where you're not making any big mistakes, and all that's left is to polish all the little problems. That takes even more time and effort and stick-to-it-iveness.

Ray Bradbury once said that if you want to be a writer you should start with short stories, and try to turn out one a week. Because nobody can write fifty-two terrible stories.

Some people have a knack. But most people just have to get by with learning the hard way.

Good luck, anon. Just make something.

+1

Absolutely this.

Just do something you *enjoy* and work at it. You'd be surprised. Everyone has some spark of creativity. You have to find it and cultivate it.

Not the Op. Okay, so using "one" is pretentious, but whatever. The problem for me is that I can't enjoy doing something I'm bad at, or even mediocre at. I'm still slogging away at getting better at some hands-on, crafty stuff--sewing, in my case--but it's not fun. I'm one of those party-poopers who disagrees with the whole "it's the journey, not the destination" thing, but I wish I wasn't. Acquiring new skills would be so much easier, or at least more enjoyable.

Re: enjoyment of one's craft

truxillogical - 2012-11-07 06:27 (UTC) - Expand

Re: enjoyment of one's craft

(Anonymous) - 2012-11-07 06:48 (UTC) - Expand

Yes, all of this (and with much more tact and compassion than I would've managed :'D)

The people who've honed their skills for years and years make the end result look easy so it's just as easy to forget how much damn hard work and time went into it.

The author who said that a writer's apprenticeship is about 10 years of concentrated effort and producing crap pretty much nailed it. Try to find something you enjoy enough to be able to stick with it through the tough stages. Even if progress is slow you will continue to improve. Eventually I'm sure you'll reach a standard that you can be happy with. Then keep going to hone even more.

Re: enjoyment of one's craft

nynaeve_sedai - 2012-11-07 03:32 (UTC) - Expand

The reason we struggle with insecurity is because we compare out behind the scenes with everyone else's highlight reel. – Steve Furtick

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truxillogical - 2012-11-07 02:00 (UTC) - Expand

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with-rainfall.livejournal.com - 2012-11-07 03:07 (UTC) - Expand

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deadtree - 2012-11-07 03:41 (UTC) - Expand

That is beautiful :')

My mom is an artistic genius. Every year on Halloween, she'd carve the most amazing-looking pumpkins. I used to ask her to draw pictures for my stories. It all looked like it came so easily to her, which made it kind of frustrating when I'd struggle at the same things.

But she taught me two things: 1. That she didn't just -poof- become good at these things like magic. She's had to practice at them, for years. And 2. That I would find something I was good at, and that I loved to do.

She was right, of course. I found something I was good at, and I'm getting better at it every day. :3 You will too, and you will get better at it, too.

Did it ever occur to you that you don't *have* to be like them? You can do your own thing, and do it well. You might have to work at it every day, and it might be hard, but it'll be worth it in the end. You can't become "good" at something overnight. It takes years to hone your skills. Just because you're not good at something when you first try it doesn't mean you'll be terrible at it forever.

"Sucking at something is the first step to being sorta good at something"
-Adventure Time

Adventure Time is always full of wisdom. :]

Anon, you don't have to be an artist or a creative type. You'll find something you're good at and more importantly, that you enjoy, whether that's art or cooking or sport or something else. But the important thing is not to put pressure on yourself to be amazing and brilliant and wonderful at something. If you want to be great, you have to work at it. You don't have to be world-famous or win prizes, as long as you keep trying to surpass yourself. And you *can* be just okay at somethng, and know you're just okay at it, and have no desire to "go pro" because you enjoy it and do it for fun.

I can write decently, not brilliantly. Half my family were really good musicians. I can sing a bit, but I can barely play chopsticks on the piano...

Creativity can help a person find more enjoyment in an activity in the beginning, but drawing, sewing, etc. are skills and skills have to be learned and practiced.

work hard at it, and when you become good at something it will be meaningful.

I was born with a LOT of creative and academic talent, and most of my life almost everything I did was really easy for me (hell, I was even a really good athlete until I broke my ankle badly and never really recovered). But instead of doing anything with that talent, I coasted along without ever really putting effort into anything. My friends worked really really hard to get to be as good at things as I was... and then they kept working, and got a lot better by the time we became adults. Now I'm the one playing catch-up.
Talent is only a small percentage of any game. Hard work and time are much more important.

Some suggestions: writing, baking and/or decorating (cakes, cookies, etc.), calligraphy, leatherwork, beading, wood burning, wire art, photography, carving, tie-dying, flower arranging, scratch art, glass-blowing, origami, storytelling, acting, singing, playing an instrument, building Rube Goldberg devices, pottery, mosiacs - you may not be good at some of these, maybe not any of them, at first, the thing that is important is finding what you enjoy because that's what you're actually going to want to work at and you will get better.

There are more ways to be creative than you realize. You could be good at sculpting. You could be good at language. You could be good at math. Creativity is not about such small and restrictive things only a few people can express themselves through. Creativity is about creating art, something beautiful and to be appreciated, to think outside of the norms in any field you are good in.

Edited 2012-11-07 01:09 (UTC)

You seem pretty good at being articulate. Tried persuasive writing? There's a pretty big market for that if you're into that.

But, all of us who have a creative talent have worked at it. Hard. I've worked on my writing since I could write, pretty much. I know artists too, they've worked on getting good for years, most of their lives usually. So just pick something you like and practice at it if it's important to you.

My childhood. <3

I love you.

Fandom: fanvideos, meta (discussions, essays, analyses), fanfiction, .gif making, web layout designing, archiving...

there are many ways to be useful and creative in fandom!

and way, way more in real life

you might -with practice and serious learning- become good at something creative eventually, but the people above saying that you don't have to be "creative" like your family have a point too.

I know how it feels to look at your family and their talents and wonder "why can't I be good at that too?!", but sometimes your path lies elsewhere, and you won't find it if you keep forcing yourself through just a few options

I'm not a particularly creative or talented soul. But out of the blue, one day, I just decided I was going to learn how to crochet. I didn't know anyone else who knew how to crochet (lots of people knew how to knit, but I didn't want to be like them). So I went to Walk-Mart, bought the, "So, you think you can learn how to crochet" kit, and decided I was just going to do it, talent or not.

So I did. It took six hours of sitting in one place and swearing quite thoroughly and constantly studying Youtube videos (much to the irritation of my cat), but I managed to the first basic step. And not much more. When my roommate asked me if I did anything meaningful that Saturday, I replied in a very crabby voice, "I learned how to crochet. >:("

Today, six months later, I make afghans to the delight of babies everywhere. (Nephews and nieces under the age of six moths are so uncritical. It's good for the soul of any budding crocheting artist.) But it's not the talent that made me start - it was the decision to do something on my own. it takes a lot of hard effort to develop anything meaningful. You may not take as much pride in something that isn't a "natural born come-easy talent" - but you get more satisfaction. :D

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