"Rainydayz179;14909909" wrote:
*Sits down on the bench*
I keep typing things out and then deleting them. I'm not sure how to explain. What I want to know is if anyone else builds up things in their heads... and then gets terribly discouraged when nobody else shares your enthusiasm?
I always seem to do this to myself. I'll get so excited about a new story or a post that I worked really hard on or in this case the end of the first generation of my legacy. Then when I don't get a response or not the response I had expected I get discouraged and depressed.
Any advice is welcome if you think of anything but mostly I just feel like I'm the only one that does this.
So, first I'll say that you're definitely not alone in this! I've experienced it. And nearly everyone I know here has expressed something similar to this to me about their own work, too. So it is very much a shared experience.
Giving advice on how to handle this can be a dicey thing because so many of us write for different reasons and motivations. I recently took an
online creativity style quiz which I really enjoyed! (Note: this quiz is part of the marketing for Doreen Virtue's new book on creativity. It is centered in a New Age spirituality--just so you know what you'll be experiencing, if any of you take the quiz. I personally have really been enjoying Virtue's current work, angel cards, and videos a lot, including her free videos related to this book.)
My results:
You are a “Meditative Creator.” You find creativity a form of meditating, where you lose track of time and your surroundings while engaging in a project. To you, it’s not about the end-goal of the creative endeavor, but about the relaxing creative process and its therapeutic effects. You may never try to sell or show your creative work to others, but that’s okay because you’re engaged in creative expression for relaxation and inner peace—not for an external reason.This very much rings true for me! During most of my life, no one else read my writing. Only my boyfriends and the critters in the garden hear me play the piano, for I play for my own relaxation and inner peace. And I don't play the cello to perform or share my art work much. For me, it's all about the process and my own internal experience of growth, expression, and relaxation. If others happen to enjoy my work, that's an added bonus: it's not my motivator.
However, there are many other types! I haven't been able to find the list of the types that Virtue identifies, but I can tell from the quiz answers that I didn't select that there are types who create to bring about changes to others, to sell or market their work, or to fill needs they see in the world. Lots of different reasons!
For me, as a "Meditative Creator," it's very easy to say, "Write for you. Write because of the experience that you have." But if one is a different type of creator, this might not be satisfying: you might need to share your work with others in order to fulfill your own creative purpose!
I guess that might be a first step is to consider what one needs in order to have a fulfilled creative experience. And then, if an element is missing (such as an audience), we can develop strategies for filling that missing element!
