Make Art for You - Not for the Likes
Don't let how things land (or don't) in social media confuse how you feel about a project or a piece of work. Stay true to your inner voice!
It's easy to get caught up in how many likes or hearts or thumbs-ups you receive on a post. It's easy to look to statistics and metrics and analytics as a way to determine what works and what doesn't work. In the business world, all of that can be integral to success. Traffic matters. The size of an audience matters. Reach matters.
When it comes to our hobbies, however, things can get muddied, and if we aren’t careful, we can lose sight of why we are making art.
Make work you enjoy making or because you are exploring something you've identified has meaning to you... regardless of what social media tells you.
"If You Build It"
If we use “business world” logic and indicators to evaluate the success of our hobbies, our hobbies may quickly become less authentic, shaped in subtle (or not-so-subtle) ways by the responses and feedback around us, carved and smoothed and honed by data, community response, and even the whims of a platform's variable algorithm, rather than our inner voice.
If you aren’t being graded and you aren’t being paid, should you continually use external indicators to shift and change and alter your work to try and make it more “likable”?
The idealistic answer is no. Do what you want. Make what you love. Love what you do. These are creative mantras that we can and should hold close. We should chant them, mutter them, sing them under our breath as we work on our art. We should be humming them as we post and share, reminding ourselves all along that the reasons we create art are many, varies, multi-layered, textural, and personal.
But, of course, the answer isn't always so clear-cut, and even as we chant our mantras and affirmations, we can get swept away by external indicators that are really good at dampening the sound of our internal voice and really good at shaking our foundations.
“Wait…. I thought this was a really good piece…. why did no one like this?”
Things are complicated because many of us have a dream. Dreams are good! Some of us do look to our hobbies as a way to possibly flip (or even find) the latch that will help us create something more sustainable, something that might even help us supplement our day-to-day jobs, better make ends meet, or even allow an occasional latte. Some of us have even bigger dreams, ones we keep tucked away in a special place. Again, dreams, even the ones we only half-admit to ourselves, can be good. They can nudge and push and sustain.
When there are dreams, even gauzy, hazy ones that we may not fully have articulated or claimed, the metrics and data do matter. They do have significance. It can be difficult to completely ignore those things, impossible not to worry when a reel gets 3 views or when you log in to find that your audience bounces down as often as it bounces up.
We are masters at telling ourselves stories based on what happens, and, sadly, sometimes the stories are not true.
With the podcast now more than 15 years old, I freely acknowledge that I never managed to find the latch, open the door, or flip the switch. I still show up. I still do the work. I started the podcast with a huge Field of Dreams mentality. Nothing walked out of those corn fields. But my art has improved. I make art now that I never expected I would make. I started doing certain kinds of drawing that I didn't realize I would love all those years ago. I've established creative habits that continue to help me stay balanced in difficult times. Making art is an integral part of my day, every day.
Mostly, my work has never been effective, but I keep trying. Something inside of me just won't quit.
I do pay attention to the data. But I pay attention more to what is true within me, to who I am, and to what I believe. This has always been really important to me. I remember one summer being on “vacation” at my Mom’s and recording a show tucked away in a bedroom of the house, and talking about doing what you love. I know I was working on an index card series that summer, and I know that when I recorded that show, it was moving. It was emotional. At the time, it was almost a revelation to me. Do what you love, regardless of whether others all line up to tell you they love it, too. Do what you love, and in the doing, you'll find the value, the meaning, and the personal reward.
Trust Your Inner Voice; Stay Authentic
I am careful when it comes to my art. I try to stay true to my inner voice, my inner vision, my personal aesthetic, to what matters to me. Sometimes, it means that I share work that seems to really flop in terms of response from my audience. This can be hard. Sharing is a process of putting yourself out there, over and over. It doesn't always go the way you expect. Sometimes:
A post may gets no or few likes (personally, this is always most unsettling when I think it's one of my best spreads or posts)
On the heels of a post, you lose a few (or a bunch) of followers (it is hard not to draw lines between the post and the numbers)
You'll ask a question in a post, and get zero replies (most people probably don't read long posts or don't have time when there are millions of inspiring things to see)
A post gets no comments (also hard)
These things happen, and they probably sometimes happen to you. These are all scenarios where out inner critic can take over and have a field day. “The flood gates are open on self-doubt!” It can be hard to not take what happens in social media personally. Have you ever posted something, something you loved, and felt the world go really quiet? Probably. It can be easy to overread this, to overreact, to take it personally or take it as a sign about the value of something, when, really, none of that may be the case.
Because of the way the algorithms work in various places, we can't always make clear correlations between a piece we share and what kind of response it gets. Maybe a post wasn't seen, didn't get pushed out by the algorithm the same as other posts, or just fell at a bad time. Maybe a shift in followers had nothing to do with a specific post (people are actively unfollowing and honing their lists all the time). It could be anything. Maybe people really don’t like what you’ve decided to draw or how you are doing it or the colors you chose.
So what!
Why are you making art? Who are you making art for?
When we are making art because it's a hobby, because it brings us peace or balance or satisfaction or mindfulness or enjoyment just in the doing, we need to not get too invested in the data.
As an artist, as a creative, as a writer, it is important to use your inner voice as a compass, to remain true, first and foremost, to what is inside of you.
We're Human; We Doubt
Because I am a real stickler for personal voice, these are things I've thought about over and over again through the years. I've created work over and over again that I loved, and yet external cues told me again and again that I needed to be doing something else. It’s hard to shut out those voices, to amplify your inner voice, the refrain of that empowering mantra of self-belief. You have to stay true to your own vision and voice. But it's really easy to get caught up in what happens in social spaces. It's really easy to doubt ourselves simply because of what happens when we share something.
Like many of you, I started a new project last week. I did my due diligence ahead of time before I decided to plunge ahead. (That process matters to me.) I did a few practice tests to make sure I thought this topic has resonance for me and strikes a chord that I want to follow for 3+ months. (That process is one I consider very important.)
And so the series started.
I don't always share every single day of a series anymore in one-by-one posts. (It’s too easy to get swept under by all of these things I’m talking about here.) But I do share some, and I do try and share a series start, partly for accountability, partly as a little marker in the sand so I have it in my feed when I look back. (An old podcast episode called Scroll Your Feed (EP 362) is worth a listen here.) But sometimes sharing leaves you feeling confused, opens the door to self-doubt and the worry that maybe the project isn't as compelling as you thought it would be.
Ask yourself:
Is it compelling for you?
Did you enjoy day 1?
Did you enjoy day 2 and 3 and 4?
Are you curious about how this will evolve?
Are you feeling at peace while you work on the project? Or are you enjoying the questions you are thinking about while you work?
How do you feel when you are making this art?
What do you think when you look at it a few hours or a day later?
Don't let whatever happens with a share change how you feel about what you are doing. It's easy to let the external cues weigh on you. You have to remember though that those cues are based on lots and lots of variables beyond your control. As long as you are making the art you want to make, what happens with a post doesn't matter. You might make art and continue a series because you love it, because you enjoy it, because you know you are learning from it, because you enjoy it enough to let yourself be a beginner and grow with a a skill, or because the project meets some other personal goal.
Don't let social media sway you one way or the other. Don't let social media make you think negatively about what you are doing. Don't let social media make you doubt your project before it even gets started!
Believe in yourself! Believe in your art! Make art for you and because you love it.
Starting a Long Series
It's really important to keep this in mind when you do work on a long series. When you are doing 31 or 61 or 100, there is a marathon mentality that comes into play. There may be points along the way where you doubt your project or have to muster internal reserve to keep going. If this happens, you'll find your way. You'll continue with the next day and the next. You are strong, and if finishing matters and you are overall enjoying the art you are creating, you can and will stick with it. (And support from others can certainly help encourage you in that process.)
What you don't want to do is let the external cues, the likes and the follows, be the prevailing wind that you follow. Especially in the beginning, try and tune it all out. (Practice making your internal mantra loud!) If you share, and the response is weak, it doesn't mean it isn't a great or meaningful project. It might even turn out to be one of your best projects or one that you will have really grown by doing. Tune out the external cues. Share, but stand up straight and tall when you do it, chin up, and be clear with yourself that you have reasons to share, but that the sharing and the response won't change how you feel.
Keep at your work. Do it because you love it or because you are on a journey to discover something, to learn something, to see a series unfold in ways you can't fully imagine at the start. Don't let others tell you whether the work is good enough or has value. It's your hobby. It's your art. Do what you love.
Me? I'm drawing and painting stone lanterns for the next three months. I'm on day 5, and I think there is something powerful and magical (for me) in this series. I look forward to sharing some of that here soon.
My sister, Catherine Sanborn, recommended your podcast, and I’m so glad she did! Thank you for leaving a comment on Becoming.
I have not been posting for very long, and your advice to stop worrying about readership and remember the joy of creating is something I needed to hear .
I will now stop obsessing on the number of subscribers, comments or likes and just tend to my craft.
Thank you!