06 November 2006
Are you ever paralysed by your need to be good at stuff? I am, all the time. Many blog entries have died on this very spot because they didn't seem quite useful or amusing enough to waste your time (or mine) on.In that case self-censorship (mine) is clearly a good thing, but fear-of-failure can be a problem when it starts to get in the way of trying anything new. When this happens I try to bear in mind the great advice given to me by a friend back in my college days. The guy was a mature student, smoked roll-ups, and delivered his wisdom in the manner of a thoughtful Buddhist.
"We must remember", he said, "not to leave all the fun things in life to people who are good at them".
From time to time I take that as license to try things for which I have no training, skill or natural aptitude (which covers more or less everything). Here is a case in point, my first comic strip.
Yes, it is pretty awful. Obviously I can't draw for toffee, and the 'gag' is familiar and derivative. It says nothing interesting or insightful about creativity... which was my aspiration, and it's far too obvious a punch-line to be funny. On every reasonable level it deserves to have been smothered at birth...
Except...
...I like it. I like that I did it. I like that it is something I've made, however awful. I choose not to leave all the fun stuff to those who are good at it. I may not be a Bill Watterson* or a Scott Adams, but who cares.
It is easy to kill things off because they seem stupid, or obvious... or because they make you look a fool. I get that urge all the time... and then I try to remember that ten years ago I jacked-in a great job with fantastic prospects even though I had no idea what I would do instead... and never once looked back.
*If you haven't read 'Calvin and Hobbes' do yourself a favour. It's gold.
Posted by Nick Warren at 9:16 PM
