The myth of the tortured creator
Learning in public, self-actualization, and the power of community
Hey everyone,
Happy Friday!
There is a common myth that artists must be tortured and tormented, or that they must suffer for their art. We’ve seen this with Virginia Woolf, Ernest Hemingway, and Tennessee Williams, all of whom were considered “tormented creators.” More recently, we saw it with David Foster Wallace who, before committing suicide, was a frequent critic of the conditions of his age. When you listen to him speak, you get the sense that he felt like he didn’t fit in, that he didn’t belong.
Many other prominent artists and creatives - Avicii, Mac Miller, Anthony Bourdain, Robin Williams - have died after well-documented struggles with mental health.
There is also the 27 Club. Membership (unofficial) includes artists like Kurt Cobain, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, and Jim Morrison. Though the belief that more artists die at age 27 than any other has been frequently disproven, the club remains a cultural phenomenon.
This idea - that I needed to suffer silently for my art - led me to create “behind closed doors,” alone, and without a community of other creators. It is inefficient and ineffective. Creating alone means you lack the value built into a community of creators like feedback and connection. Communities are also a way to outsource your sanity. You learn that you are not alone in your struggles. You are not the only one experiencing imposter syndrome nor are you the only one who feels a visceral disdain for a blinking cursor on a blank page.
They are also an accelerator for your creative career. Creating in community exponentially increases serendipity. You make more connections between people and ideas. You meet potential collaborators. And again, your sanity goes way, way up.
The importance of finding a community you connect with cannot be understated.
Consider, for example, Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.
Physiological needs - like food and water - are at the base of the hierarchy. We need these to survive. Just above that are safety needs like shelter, security, and safety. These are often considered “deficiency needs” or “basic needs.” They are necessary for survival. At this level, we are not interested in growing as a person or in exploring our potential; we are focused merely on survival.
Once these needs are met, we can shift our focus. We begin to seek out relationships that satisfy our need to belong. These are considered “psychological needs.”
A creative community satisfies the first two levels of your psychological needs and is the support you need to reach the third. A community is an accelerator for your career and your actualization. The early feedback and engagement is the fuel you need to continue. There is nothing that can kill a creator’s confidence faster than creating for an audience of zero.
Having an engaged community mitigates the damage of that; you have people invested in you and your success. You’re also exponentially increasing your exposure to serendipity. You have a network of creators, all of whom are potential collaborators. Each of them offers a unique worldview drawn from different sources of inspiration. Instead of drawing from a shallow puddle of inspiration, you have a deep well to draw from. In addition, early feedback will be instrumental in improving your work.
In other words, the myth of the tortured creator - creating in isolation behind closed doors - is dead. It doesn’t fit the needs of the modern creator nor does it leverage the tools or potential of building in public that technology presently offers.
This idea - to build in public and create with a community - has changed the way I operate in the world. I’m the better for it.
And it’s only just beginning.
Here’s what I have for you this week.
POTENT QUOTABLES
“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” —African Proverb
“My self-confidence comes from the fact that I have discovered my own dimensions. It does not behoove me to make myself smaller than I am.” - Edith Sodergran
THOUGHT-PROVOKING FINDS
This Is Water by David Foster Wallace - Wallace, who I briefly mentioned above, is one of the most influential writers of our time. This video is of his commencement address to Kenyon College in 2005 - which has since been titled This Is Water. In this talk, he explores the value of an education and examines the qualities of a life well-lived. Here’s a brief quote: “The really important kind of freedom involves attention, and awareness, and discipline, and effort, and being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them, over and over, in myriad petty little unsexy ways, every day.” I watch it a few times a year.
Politics and the English Language by George Orwell - In this essay - published in 1946 - Orwell discusses “the abuse of language” and how politics has contributed to its demise. He warns against the corrosive power of dying metaphors, meaningless words, and pretentious diction. Consider the following sentence: “Objective considerations of contemporary phenomena compel the conclusion that success or failure in competitive activities exhibits no tendency to be commensurate with innate capacity, but that a considerable element of the unpredictable must invariably be taken into account.” Orwell warns against people (and politicians) who say a lot without saying anything. But if we are commensurate in the destruction of the English language, we can be a part of its restoration.
TOP TWEET
(I’ve been thinking about community a lot.)
A REMINDER ABOUT OUR BOOK CLUB
Our book club will be meeting at 10AM PST next Sunday, August 16. We will be discussing the book, Lies My Teacher Told Me, and sharing personal stories that relate. My hope is that we can use it as a forum for discussion, connection, and the sharing of stories rather than as a lecture from me to you about the contents of the book. Show up and share your story even if you haven’t read. We will all benefit from your presence. I will be sending out the link in my newsletter next Friday.
That’s all I have for now.
If you have any thoughts on what I’ve shared, hit that reply button and let me know what you’re thinking. I reply to all emails and love to hear what you have on your mind.
Be good to each other.
Until next week,
KB
I hope I can finish Lies by 8/16. Will there a zoom link ?