As a writer and an artist… what are you afraid of?
Maybe… rejection, failure, making mistakes and mostly… disappointment!
If these are some of the things you are afraid of… this is a GOOD thing.
Especially if you are like me, a man with no superior education or diplomas in the creative arts and you are learning everything from books and music and films and performers.
Everyone who starts off with a passion in their hearts is better than learning it from some pompous university professor who can’t even write any real truth.
Most of those scholars are just carbon copies of other great writers and artists.
They just puke that bullshit out over & over again.
I’ve puked out better stuff than them when I drank too much and saw the poems at the bottom of my dirty toilet bowl ha ha.
You see, if you have lived a full life before you write and explored many avenues then you will write better than most!
Especially if your body shape has changed and your mind and your soul and your faith…
This will give you more to write about and more to give to your audience.
This will give you more of an advantage.
I started off as a 5 year old kid in primary school and a kick-boxer.
After that I was a 12 year old teenager at high school and I was a skateboarder.
I moved onto a 16 year old getting ready to go to college and I was a well-rounded mixed martial artist.
After that I was a 19 year old college drop out after a nervous breakdown and back out on my skateboard with my boys.
Eventually I became a 24 year old diagnosed manic depressive and going out as a full time writer…
Now I am 31 year old man with many mistakes, failures, rejections and disappointments in the arts and in life but…
That doesn’t take-away the fact that some of it did work out like it was God kissing me on the lips, but that’s because I stuck with it even when it made me sick and tired!
Basically, if you learn from your mistakes (like that good ole saying) you’ll do fine.
And when you fail throw it in the rubbish bin and come back with something better.
When you get rejected keep moving forward to the next magazine or publisher.
Deal with the disappointment like a man or a woman and come back stronger than ever.
1 out of every 5 pieces you write will be phenomenal.
Maybe 2 of them will be good.
1 will be alright and will need more work like a rewrite.
And definitely 1 of them will be total shit… burn that one on the floor and let it reach the heavens so another writer will be able to work on it and make it into a better prophecy than you did originally.
We’re all in this together and we’re here to encourage each other not degrade.
There is enough to go around for all of us.
So don’t let your ego get involved and ruin it for us all.
We’re all going the same way so let your LOVE talk for you.
I’m leaving you with a micro poem called: don’t be afraid.
I think it speaks more truth than this article or anything else I have ever written.
Sometimes I use it as a mantra when things start getting on top of me.
It is a reminder that things could be a hell of a lot worse than a few tears.
Love
PBJ
<3
Don’t be afraid
Give out love like Infinite flowers
Find something with artistic merit
It is not like you are being
Beaten up
Raped
Tortured
Or murdered
Don’t be afraid of looking foolish