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: Elizabeth Barrette (ysabetwordsmith) wrote,
2013-11-12 13:59:00

Elizabeth Barrette
ysabetwordsmith
2013-11-12 13:59:00

Mood: busy

How to Become Great

This is how to become great at art, or anything really.

Why do I do crazy things like inviting other folks to give me prompts, or writing in foreign languages, or trying poetic forms that aren't even designed for the English language? Because after decades of writing poetry, that's how far out I have to go before it gets hard even occasionally. I want to keep pushing the envelope and expanding the range of what I can do. Sure, it's nice to relax and write a ballad. I do a lot of free verse too. But it's exciting to explore how poetry can handle a long narrative, or to try a new form. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

As I like to put it, "If you're not making any mistakes, you're not learning, you're coasting."

Tags: art, how to, life lessons, reading, writing

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meridian_rose

November 13 2013, 11:44:07 UTC 7 years ago

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That's a very inspiring comic! I do say I like to learn something new every day. I just find it harder to accept that its okay to still be learning about things I'm already competent at. I'll bookmark that comic for when I feel that everything I do sucks! :)

Yay!

ysabetwordsmith

November 13 2013, 19:27:05 UTC 7 years ago

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I'm glad you liked this. Remember that even a familiar field can have new ideas or techniques in it, too.

siege

November 14 2013, 02:49:36 UTC 7 years ago

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The hardest part of change and re-learning things is that you know you were very good at what you were doing, but now you have to start from nothing again because it's the only way that works every time. And it's so very hard to go back to the most basic things.

Me and computer programming, or writing, or other such things. My mind is literally about half the competency it used to have. Sometime flashes of brilliance and productivity come up, but they're rare. Things I want to complete... just don't. Even when I know I can work on them.

So the idea of learning a whole new interface (Eclipse for Java, so I can work on a mod for Minecraft) on my own intimidates me (plus there's the MCP toolkit that enables said modding). There are so many details, and I don't have any lesser projects (non-Minecraft apps) that would require the same tool or set of tools, so I can learn them properly. These days I'm actually upset that I disliked Java so much before.

Then there's the recalled-memory recounting of the Anunnaki War, which has stalled just at the point where the war got started offworld. For various reasons, I haven't been able to continue on it.

Sometimes the only thing that works is to go back to the most basic things, and build them up again. But you have to know where to start. And you have to trust your mistakes, which is so very, very difficult when you know you were better than that before.