So here’s what happened. I was typing and drawing away, feeling absolutely pleased with myself. Don’t get me wrong! I wasn’t thinking ‘I am the best, everybody will love this!’ I was thinking that this is what I’ve been wanting to make for a while and it’s coming out exactly the way I want it to. It’s a great feeling!
I feel this. Just launched my substack full of enthusiasm. It’s easy for doubts to start creeping in despite evidence you’re in the right track. I’m focused on the here and now to stop spiraling
Know you have company in the whirlpool! I second the index cards idea, I do something similar but on a white board that allows me to draw linking lines and connecting thread lines between things as well as move them. Seeing a visual line connecting things helps, sometimes even seeing new ways in which totally different things are connected. I had a teacher once say to me, "you are looking for the golden thread that runs through your experiences". what is that thing that unifies and links everything together, for me it was a desire to repair and care for things and people, to see potential in everyone and everything, that gave me a clarity that was helpful. Remember, have fun with it! xo
You sound very HSP. One flippin' door does not go to the hallway of a nice cosy house, but to a hotel with hundreds of other doors going to more doors. Go back to your basic storry. Read it with the eyes of your publisher, not with your own eyes. It is like a drive through the countryside, drive through it, enjoy the view, but don't turn of to all the side roads, how appealing they may look, you will get lost and you won't arrive at whatever your destination is. Go back later and pick one side road and follow that and then see where that gets you.
I feel your pain Betje. I also have a story that's been mulling around in my brain for 4 years now and was equally perplexed as to how to tackle it. I finally decided to act like the old saying goes "How do you eat and elephant? One bite at a time." The story also calls for me changing up my usual illustration style so there's that extra dimension of complexity, but it's they only way I could nail this thing.
Maybe with your story, tackle it in a similar approach. For example as I think of the various pieces, I write them down on index cards and tack them to a wall. These various segments laid out might help you to rearrange the elements until you arrive at the right flow of the tale.
As for the ebbs and flows of subscribers, agents and social media ballyhoo, don't let it distract from your goal. Honestly you can't be a people-pleaser if you're an artist, but you do need to be your own vicious editor, which is the hardest part of the process. I struggle with that one as well since it's so hard to, as vicious editors are want to say, "Kill your darlings."
The only person you need to please is yourself, ....and a publisher when you eventually find one.
I hope all this helps you. Now I have to get back to following my own advice. :)
I feel this. Just launched my substack full of enthusiasm. It’s easy for doubts to start creeping in despite evidence you’re in the right track. I’m focused on the here and now to stop spiraling
Know you have company in the whirlpool! I second the index cards idea, I do something similar but on a white board that allows me to draw linking lines and connecting thread lines between things as well as move them. Seeing a visual line connecting things helps, sometimes even seeing new ways in which totally different things are connected. I had a teacher once say to me, "you are looking for the golden thread that runs through your experiences". what is that thing that unifies and links everything together, for me it was a desire to repair and care for things and people, to see potential in everyone and everything, that gave me a clarity that was helpful. Remember, have fun with it! xo
You sound very HSP. One flippin' door does not go to the hallway of a nice cosy house, but to a hotel with hundreds of other doors going to more doors. Go back to your basic storry. Read it with the eyes of your publisher, not with your own eyes. It is like a drive through the countryside, drive through it, enjoy the view, but don't turn of to all the side roads, how appealing they may look, you will get lost and you won't arrive at whatever your destination is. Go back later and pick one side road and follow that and then see where that gets you.
Good luck! <3
I feel your pain Betje. I also have a story that's been mulling around in my brain for 4 years now and was equally perplexed as to how to tackle it. I finally decided to act like the old saying goes "How do you eat and elephant? One bite at a time." The story also calls for me changing up my usual illustration style so there's that extra dimension of complexity, but it's they only way I could nail this thing.
Maybe with your story, tackle it in a similar approach. For example as I think of the various pieces, I write them down on index cards and tack them to a wall. These various segments laid out might help you to rearrange the elements until you arrive at the right flow of the tale.
As for the ebbs and flows of subscribers, agents and social media ballyhoo, don't let it distract from your goal. Honestly you can't be a people-pleaser if you're an artist, but you do need to be your own vicious editor, which is the hardest part of the process. I struggle with that one as well since it's so hard to, as vicious editors are want to say, "Kill your darlings."
The only person you need to please is yourself, ....and a publisher when you eventually find one.
I hope all this helps you. Now I have to get back to following my own advice. :)