Fear Unmasked

Last Tuesday, Mark and I gave a short speech at the celebration of the Tassy Walden Award for New Voices in Children's Literature, an amazing contest for unpublished children's writers and illustrators in Connecticut. (Mark and I both won the contest in past years and are now on the committee.)  Because several people mentioned they'd like to be able to turn back to the text again later, I decided to write it up for anyone interested here.

Obviously, a speech is not a blog post, so it doesn't completely "translate," much of the humor was ad-libbed, and some of it is specifically geared towards the night's attendees. But hopefully you will all find something encouraging and/or humorous here to keep you making art. :)

Mark: Good evening! We'd like to first offer our congratulations to the winners and finalists tonight, and a special congratulations to everyone who had the courage just to enter.
For all the quiet, introverted writers and illustrators out there, we know how hard that was.

Faith: Yes.... We're both introverts. We'll even admit that our decision to give a talk together was mostly based on the theory that if you put two introverts together, you might get an extrovert...
We wanted to talk tonight about what we see as the biggest challenge that writers or illustrators--or any artists, really--have to face. And that is--

Mark (the parts in caps are in his best Christopher Lee impression): THE VOICE OF FEAR.
Steven Pressfield wrote in his book, The War of Art, "Resistance is fear. But resistance is too cunning to show itself naked in this form. Why? Because if resistance lets us see clearly that our own fear is preventing us from doing our work, we may feel shame at this. And shame may drive us to act in the face of fear."

Faith: Because of that, if we artists want to grow in our craft, we need to unmask--

Mark: THE VOICE OF FEAR.

Faith: So for the sake of illustration, we'd like to present a few examples of how Fear disguises itself and tries to prevent us from doing the work we're meant to do.
Raise your hand if you've ever heard this voice:

Mark: YOU'RE TIRED AND YOU'VE WORKED HARD ALL DAY. YOU DESERVE A BREAK FROM YOUR BOOK. NOTHING HELPS CREATIVE FLOW LIKE BINGEING ON PINTEREST OR DOWNTON ABBEY. OR THOSE DANCING CAT VIDOES ON YOUTUBE.

Faith: The fact that you entered the Tassy means you conquered this voice at least once. Deadlines are its kryptonite. Every time you hear it, remember that there will always be something easier to do than making art. Pinterest isn't going anywhere...but your time is.
So take what you learned getting those envelopes out through the snowstorm to the Shoreline Arts Alliance, and give yourself little, daily deadlines to meet. (And then you can use Pinterest and Downton Abbey as rewards!)

Next is a disguise that fools me a lot, especially when I get a rejection letter or lose a contest. Have you heard this?

Mark: YOU DO REALIZE THAT EVERYONE THINKS YOUR "WORK" IS A JOKE? IF YOU WERE A GOOD ARTIST, YOU'D BE PUBLISHED BY NOW. PERHAPS YOU SHOULD GO BACK TO SOMETHING YOU ARE GOOD AT...LIKE MAKING LATCH HOOK TOILET SEAT COVERS...OR DOILIES.

Faith: Now if you are a winner or finalist, you can say, "Ha! Professionals think my work is good!"
But  the truth is: none of us is good enough. Art is bigger than we are. It comes to the unqualified and demands that we make ourselves better for its sake.
I think a problem with our current culture is that we've redefined hard work and now call it "genius." Sure...Michelangelo could do great things--he was a genius. But Michelangelo wasn't born knowing how to paint. Louisa May Alcott had to get some really awful writing out of her system before she could create Little Women.
If you work hard enough, the art will come to you, and that is the important thing.

Here's one you may have heard when you considered entering the Tassy...or anytime you sit down to make art:

Mark: YOU'RE NEVER GOING TO BE PUBLISHED, SO WHY WASTE YOUR TIME? WHY SPEND ALL THIS TIME ON A BOOK NO ONE WILL EVER READ? (MWA HA HA....)

Faith: The idea that art is a "waste of time"--that's a total lie. Every time you sit down to draw or write or paint, you are positively impacting your life.
Sometimes it's your artistic life: you're training yourself, practicing, getting better. For a contest like this, you're polishing your work, learning how to properly format a manuscript or portfolio, meeting a deadline.
But creating impacts other areas of your life, too. It makes you grow in virtue: in self-discipline, in patience, in understanding. It actually forces you to become a better person.

Mark: Neil Gaimain said, "If you dare nothing, when the day is over, nothing is all you will have gained." Whenever you make art, you are gaining something.

Faith: I've saved the most sinister disguise for last. Raise your hand if you've heard this:

Mark: EVEN IF YOU DO GET PUBLISHED, WHAT GOOD WILL YOUR LITTLE CHILDREN'S BOOK DO? DO YOU REALLY THINK YOUR PICTURE BOOK ABOUT A CLAUSTROPHOBIC TURTLE IS GOING TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN ANYONE'S LIFE?

Faith: I hope you know this is a lie. Especially as creators for children, your work has the power to change lives, in small or big ways, one at a time.
As a kid, I lived ten different places before I turned 16. Luckily, my mom was wise enough to find a library in each new town before she even figured out where the grocery store was, I think, because without books I would have become a depressed, strange child.
Books gave me a sense of normalcy. They taught me that friendship survives difficulties. They also gave me something to write ten page letters to my friends about, as we discovered Narnia and Green Gables and Hogwarts together, though we were hundreds of miles apart.

Mark: We forget sometimes, too, that the books we create offer opportunities for desperately needed quality time between children and the people who love them. A three-year-old, sitting on her mother's lap and listening to Guess How Much I Love You, will be experiencing love in a way that no TV show or movie or video game can provide. Those experiences will become a lens through which that child will view the world for the rest of her life.
Not bad for a 32-page picture book.

Faith: And that's why we have to face our fears and resistance, and keep making art. Keep entering contests, submitting to publishers, sharing your work with the world.

Thank you for doing that. And thanks to those who will share their art with us, tonight.