Epic Worlds

It took me a while to put this piece into words I could convey instead of wild ravings of a madman. If anything, it's a message to myself at the least.

We Are NOT Someone's Product

I don't know about you but there is an unspoken pressure, an expectation for us creative types to produce. This feeling that you aren't good enough if you can't keep writing, drawing (or any other craft).

This feeling ate at me when I couldn't meet my self imposed deadlines. The feeling that something had to go out the door so that I looked successful. It’s a subtle and suffocating feeling which grabs you in a way that you don't realize it until you're deep in it.

If anything, it feels like we have become a product that keeps generating content for our fans. It took awhile for me to realize it but that's not what art is. That's not why I began as a writer.

Creativity isn’t a Factory Line

I have learned the hard way that art doesn't come from some factory line. Art, and in my case writing, is an extension of me and I spend true emotion and my soul on each piece and I mean every piece. From the sophisticated scifi stories I love to the trashy to trashy short stories.

I have found that I have been pushing myself to just “write another story” so that there is something out. Those works feel souless.

The last short story I wrote felt so souless that an AI detector thought it was written by AI. That was the worst insult.

Over the decade we have been told that we need to hustle, to produce to become successful. We have embraced a form of capitalism that is just eating us artists up and I'm empty.

Reclaiming the Meaning of our Art

I'm not giving up writing. I don't want anyone who is reading this to think I am throwing in the towel on any of my projects. I love my projects, every single one of them but I have come to the realization that I needed to step back. I need to look at what I am doing and change how I see the things that I do.

I need to write from my heart again and stop pushing out drivel. In hindsight, it is just insulting to what started me out in this journey.

Why am I writing this? If anything, it's a stream of conciousness on what I have been thinking. Maybe I could inspire or let another writer or artist know that they aren't alone. It is okay to step back, look, and re-affirm why they are doing this. I did and I think I'll be better for it.

© Jonathan Snyder. All Rights Reserved.