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/lit/ - Literature

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19516694 No.19516694 [Reply] [Original]

How do I stop being so self-critical? I write music, do photography and write in general and I flip-flop between creative excitement and then immediate disgust when I complete a work. If I let it sit for a couple of days and come back to it, I can view it more objectively, but I am still highly critical and this has sent me into bouts of depression where I completely give up on creating anything and engage in passive self-hatred instead. I realized now that my standards are impossible, I even dislike 99% of other art that is out there, I only find infinitely small bits of it genuinely exciting. Stuff people usually find good, I find mediocre and overplayed and stuff people usually find amazing, I usually find as good but not exciting. Ive showed my work to others and they all think its good, but I keep throwing it away just because it feels mediocre to me and that makes me spiral into depression. How do I escape this cycle of wanting to destroy my own work?

>> No.19516722

Anon, you are CREATING art in a society of fast paced shit consumption. Think about how cool is that . You are always going to be your worst critic, because you have developed the artist examing way of looking.

>> No.19516799

This is how it is to create in earnest, get used to it.

>> No.19516806

>>19516694
You vacillate.

>> No.19516808
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19516808

>>19516694
I feel the same most of the time, though I rarely get depressed about it anymore. One thing that can help is to care about the here and now more, about enjoying yourself while creating, rather than the destination (finished work). Why do you care about keeping your own work? You know you've made something and I dare to assume that at least the process itself made you happy. What others think of your work is an unreliable assessment of its value, especially if you don't respect them or have the ability to get off from a social kick that the praise of an average person might provide.
I've gone through all of that myself; all you need is just to take time for self-reflection. And, I suppose, time in general.

No art piece of yours of anybody else will last forever, Anon, so don't be too harsh on yourself and enjoy being able to create.

>> No.19516826

Turn the disgust into rage, specifically rage at the work for being wrong, and at your hands/words/whatever for not working how you want them to. It makes higher level thinking impossible, but I find that as long as I know what to do, I'm never as productive as when I'm angry at a problem for existing.

>> No.19516853

>>19516722
by that logic Harry Potter, Twilight is also 'art'

>> No.19516870

>>19516853
Yes, and Rowling and Meyer are better then you-- morally, as people-- for having created those works. I haven't read them and I don't care if they're good or not, it's true regardless.

>> No.19516907

>>19516870
Yeah. On a hindsight, that very true. Most of us here (including me) just fantasize about writing long deep stuff, never doing so ourselves.

>> No.19517114

>>19516694
Only what you think matters. If you think its mediocre, it is. But the good news is you can locate whats bad and fix it. Even complete abandonment is a step forward. Creation involves letting yourself completely loose and coming up with lots and lots (dionysus) and then editing with full on self hatred with a butchers knife and molding your material into sharp rigid structures (apollo) back and forth but always seperately

>> No.19517224

>>19516694
Change the process, change the outcome. Allow yourself to be comfortable with failure and great things will happen creatively speaking