It’s also interesting that many of the same people who think you should only do your art after the “real work” is done refuse to lift a finger to help you get any actual “real work” that pays enough and leverages your actual talent and value you’re mesnt to offer in the world. In other words, they’re projecting their own insecurities or their bitterness over their own personal shortcomings from their own fear of going after what they really wanted.
As someone who has (in previous churches, not my current one, thank God!) experienced being literally scolded and having my character questioned, accused of "seeking praise from men (people) instead of God" and essentially told that it was a sin to expect artistic success, I really resonate with this article.
I’m glad it resonated, Heather. As I already said to someone else: There’s some insidious social conditioning going on around this topic. Something about trying to keep people small and not daring to take up space—and asking for recognition or even compensation is taking up space. It means we have something to say. That we are worthy of being heard. It is beyond me how this is still more of an issue in the arts than in any other profession (well no, it actually isn’t, but that’s probably another post 🤣).
In any case: Both as an artist and a woman (and especially as a combination of the two), I refuse to go back to playing small. I wish I could say, “I’m too old for that 💩,” but this shouldn’t have anything to do with age at all…
People create for many different reasons. But I don't think it's unreasonable for them to wish to be compensated. This notion people should write or create for free is nonsense. And to go even further and say they should want to do it for the love of it, is also nonsense. You can have passion for creating but still want to earn from it or at the very least have visibility so others experience it.
Exactly. I mean—how are people supposed to find us if we’re not talking about our craft? And I think it’s totally okay if people voice their disappointment about no or little engagement. It would be easy to say, “Maybe what they’re doing just isn’t very good,” but I think most people with critical thinking skills also know that this isn’t objectively true. Of course there are niche markets, and of course there are also markets that are completely oversaturated, but to tell someone that their wish to connect over their art is unrealistic and they should be content to create for themselves is just some next level 💩 As is to tell people who are on a platform that’s so obviously been designed for monetisation of writing not to… monetise their writing 🙈🤣
Exactly. Pretending engagement is purely a quality issue is such a lazy take. There’s a huge difference between creating in a vacuum and sharing work with the intent to connect. The idea that writers should just be "content" creating for themselves while using a platform explicitly built for monetization is ridiculous. Of course, not everything will take off, but acting like people are entitled or delusional for wanting visibility and engagement? That’s some next-level nonsense.
I just think it’s a bit unfair that some people are so judgy about those who either make a living with their art or who simply don’t feel that art is something they purely create for themselves. If that’s true for some people, fair enough, but artists aren’t a monolith, and there’s something a bit insidious going on if we’re trying to silence people who say, “I want to connect through my art”, or, “No, I’m not doing this for exposure bucks” with platitudes about that it all doesn’t matter. It’s always good to keep asking why we (consciously or subconsciously) invalidate someone else’s feelings when we could just go, “Not for me, but you do you.” Especially on a platform that’s arguably built around monetisation, so it’s not as if the people who make use of those features are doing something shocking.
A very thorough and well-thought piece--an important one, too. Thanks for the call out. I'm really pleased at how many people responded to my ranting note. At least there are some folks thinking about this issue this week.
I’m glad it resonated, and I think your note was timely—it needed to be said. I don’t even want to assume that people are consciously setting out to shame artists/writers, but it’s definitely worth thinking about why some have these responses to people who wish for recognition or compensation. Why is it okay for everyone to make a living, but we still bristle at the thought that this also holds true for the arts? There’s a lot of harmful social conditioning to unpack here…
This is a thoughtful take on an increasingly buzzy topic on this (every?) platform. I essentially agree with your perspective. I'm not an advocate of shaming in any context and I certainly don't begrudge those trying to make their writing their livelihood. I'd love to make it a bigger part of mine. That said, it is getting increasingly tiresome to scroll the general newsfeed on this platform when it seems like every other note is some sort of plea for attention or yet another "Where are the poets?" post. It's exhausting and I've just stopped looking at it and instead focus on people I'm following or on topics I care about. On the flip side, this experience has provided a great opportunity to seriously re-evaluate my own motivations and intentions for sharing what I write. That's never a bad thing.
I totally get it. It’s just so wild to me that some people are shaming others for trying to monetise their writing on a platform that is so obviously designed for monetisation. I just scroll past or mute the stuff I don’t want to see, and connect with/comment on the things I want to see more of. While not foolproof, it seems to work of sorts.
And I like what you say about motivation. I originally came on here to change my blogging platform from Wordpress but very quickly noticed that’s not what I wanted 🙈 The older I get, the less patience I have for playing by the rules of all other social media platforms (which I’ve mostly ditched by now, or only use very rarely). This feels more like a playground for me to try different things (which is obviously social media poison 🤣).
However, three decades in the performing arts and adjacent industries also make me slightly twitchy when people devalue artists’s desire for fair compensation and not seeing art as a one-way street, but something that requires communication—a sender and receiver, if you will. And if the sender is somewhat not supposed to talk about their art, no one will ever receive it, and the process stays incomplete. At least that’s how I see it…
I hear you. As I so often say: Art is shared humanity. While the creative process obviously starts with us/what moves us/our experience, it is a deeply human need to connect over that. To me at least, creating in solitude is not the same as saying art exists only for the creator. Maybe the people who think wishing connection or recognition is self-indulgent have it backwards? Maybe the true self-indulgence would be to create only for ourselves? I’m not saying that’s true, it’s just the thoughts that often go through my head…
Very good post. Can we translate part of this article into Spanish with links to you and a description of your newsletter?
As long as you quote/link, it’s fine. Let me know when it’s up 🙂
Many thanks, Petra.
It’s also interesting that many of the same people who think you should only do your art after the “real work” is done refuse to lift a finger to help you get any actual “real work” that pays enough and leverages your actual talent and value you’re mesnt to offer in the world. In other words, they’re projecting their own insecurities or their bitterness over their own personal shortcomings from their own fear of going after what they really wanted.
As someone who has (in previous churches, not my current one, thank God!) experienced being literally scolded and having my character questioned, accused of "seeking praise from men (people) instead of God" and essentially told that it was a sin to expect artistic success, I really resonate with this article.
I’m glad it resonated, Heather. As I already said to someone else: There’s some insidious social conditioning going on around this topic. Something about trying to keep people small and not daring to take up space—and asking for recognition or even compensation is taking up space. It means we have something to say. That we are worthy of being heard. It is beyond me how this is still more of an issue in the arts than in any other profession (well no, it actually isn’t, but that’s probably another post 🤣).
In any case: Both as an artist and a woman (and especially as a combination of the two), I refuse to go back to playing small. I wish I could say, “I’m too old for that 💩,” but this shouldn’t have anything to do with age at all…
People create for many different reasons. But I don't think it's unreasonable for them to wish to be compensated. This notion people should write or create for free is nonsense. And to go even further and say they should want to do it for the love of it, is also nonsense. You can have passion for creating but still want to earn from it or at the very least have visibility so others experience it.
Exactly. I mean—how are people supposed to find us if we’re not talking about our craft? And I think it’s totally okay if people voice their disappointment about no or little engagement. It would be easy to say, “Maybe what they’re doing just isn’t very good,” but I think most people with critical thinking skills also know that this isn’t objectively true. Of course there are niche markets, and of course there are also markets that are completely oversaturated, but to tell someone that their wish to connect over their art is unrealistic and they should be content to create for themselves is just some next level 💩 As is to tell people who are on a platform that’s so obviously been designed for monetisation of writing not to… monetise their writing 🙈🤣
Exactly. Pretending engagement is purely a quality issue is such a lazy take. There’s a huge difference between creating in a vacuum and sharing work with the intent to connect. The idea that writers should just be "content" creating for themselves while using a platform explicitly built for monetization is ridiculous. Of course, not everything will take off, but acting like people are entitled or delusional for wanting visibility and engagement? That’s some next-level nonsense.
Substack is therapeutic for me and help me leave the social media platforms alone
I basically left all other social media platforms behind (even wrote about it several times on here, e.g. https://open.substack.com/pub/creativecure/p/cutting-down-on-social-media?r=2ho4pd&utm_medium=ios), and I live a lot better that way. So I totally get it and agree. I have no intention to stress out about “content” anymore and only write when I feel like it these days.
I just think it’s a bit unfair that some people are so judgy about those who either make a living with their art or who simply don’t feel that art is something they purely create for themselves. If that’s true for some people, fair enough, but artists aren’t a monolith, and there’s something a bit insidious going on if we’re trying to silence people who say, “I want to connect through my art”, or, “No, I’m not doing this for exposure bucks” with platitudes about that it all doesn’t matter. It’s always good to keep asking why we (consciously or subconsciously) invalidate someone else’s feelings when we could just go, “Not for me, but you do you.” Especially on a platform that’s arguably built around monetisation, so it’s not as if the people who make use of those features are doing something shocking.
A very thorough and well-thought piece--an important one, too. Thanks for the call out. I'm really pleased at how many people responded to my ranting note. At least there are some folks thinking about this issue this week.
I’m glad it resonated, and I think your note was timely—it needed to be said. I don’t even want to assume that people are consciously setting out to shame artists/writers, but it’s definitely worth thinking about why some have these responses to people who wish for recognition or compensation. Why is it okay for everyone to make a living, but we still bristle at the thought that this also holds true for the arts? There’s a lot of harmful social conditioning to unpack here…
This is a thoughtful take on an increasingly buzzy topic on this (every?) platform. I essentially agree with your perspective. I'm not an advocate of shaming in any context and I certainly don't begrudge those trying to make their writing their livelihood. I'd love to make it a bigger part of mine. That said, it is getting increasingly tiresome to scroll the general newsfeed on this platform when it seems like every other note is some sort of plea for attention or yet another "Where are the poets?" post. It's exhausting and I've just stopped looking at it and instead focus on people I'm following or on topics I care about. On the flip side, this experience has provided a great opportunity to seriously re-evaluate my own motivations and intentions for sharing what I write. That's never a bad thing.
I totally get it. It’s just so wild to me that some people are shaming others for trying to monetise their writing on a platform that is so obviously designed for monetisation. I just scroll past or mute the stuff I don’t want to see, and connect with/comment on the things I want to see more of. While not foolproof, it seems to work of sorts.
And I like what you say about motivation. I originally came on here to change my blogging platform from Wordpress but very quickly noticed that’s not what I wanted 🙈 The older I get, the less patience I have for playing by the rules of all other social media platforms (which I’ve mostly ditched by now, or only use very rarely). This feels more like a playground for me to try different things (which is obviously social media poison 🤣).
However, three decades in the performing arts and adjacent industries also make me slightly twitchy when people devalue artists’s desire for fair compensation and not seeing art as a one-way street, but something that requires communication—a sender and receiver, if you will. And if the sender is somewhat not supposed to talk about their art, no one will ever receive it, and the process stays incomplete. At least that’s how I see it…
I hear you. As I so often say: Art is shared humanity. While the creative process obviously starts with us/what moves us/our experience, it is a deeply human need to connect over that. To me at least, creating in solitude is not the same as saying art exists only for the creator. Maybe the people who think wishing connection or recognition is self-indulgent have it backwards? Maybe the true self-indulgence would be to create only for ourselves? I’m not saying that’s true, it’s just the thoughts that often go through my head…