Thread: My dreams are unreachable; and not reaching them will kill me.

Originally Posted by KT.

Creativity can be learned. Start small. Write some poems. Join an acting class. Start drawing. Yeah you're going to suck at first (or maybe you won't). But that's not the point. The more you do creative things, the more creative you become. If you want to be an animator, learn everything you can about animation. Join an art class. Make animated shorts. Again, yeah they may suck at first, but contrary to what you may believe, no one starts out awesome at anything.

It's pointless to waste your life saying "I could have, would have, should have..." Yes it's going to be hard work, yes it's going to take a lot of time (and unless you're like 60, you have plenty of time), and yes you may feel like a failure some of the time, but you're never going anywhere unless you actually try. And you know that guy drawing caricatures at the mall or that washed up lecturer or that guy animating hentai, those people are still on the journey or perhaps they just didn't try hard enough.

wrong - difference between talented and non talented people who don't work at it is sometimes negligible
difference between talented and non talented people who do is always significant; I may play a good chess game if I hone, but I will never be grandmaster material

OP; the usual stuff - try to choose a medium but keep it broad if you must; make sure you have a lot of sources of stimulation, chiefly art but also stuff you have not explored and even have no interest in (Good for breaking esablished patterns, giving you that "on edge/uncomfortable" feeling that is conducive to good art, and allowing you novel perspectives). Hold onto anything that strikes you; the more obscure and the more semantically/sensually/linguistically vivid the better; nurture the idea and develop it as much as you can, rinse and repeat; hold onto good ideas, let them coalesce.
The fact that it's bothering you is a good sign for your potential; those who can most often want to more.

Originally Posted by Atmoscheer

Well this is utterly untrue. Behind just about every "talented" person is an opportunity and desire to hone a craft as well as an immense volume of time spent in meaningful practice.

All "talent" is going to affect is the support and opportunity you have; if you honestly want it, and are willing to work at it tirelessly, you can learn just about any skill.

I mostly agree with this.

This is why it's poisonous to tell a child that he or she is so smart or talented when he or she does well, which is what parents are taught to do in order to build up a child's "self esteem." Parents should tell their children when they do well that they are proud of how much hard work and effort they put into accomplishing what they have.

Anyway, honing a talent is like working a muscle. At first you're going to do pretty badly, but as you learn from your past mistakes and success and develop an intuition for your craft, you'll gradually improve. But the important thing to remember is this: no matter how foolish or crestfallen you feel when your efforts seem to be in vain, you must not just stop developing your skill.

Of course, the flip side to this is that practicing is not enough: you have to practice the right way to do things. A piano pedant (in the neutral archaic sense of the word) once said, "Practice does not make perfect; practice makes permanent."

But if you never repeatedly work on a skill, you will never develop one.



I'm being a hypocrite here, as I have trouble with following this advice. It's still true.