The Internet and Creative People; Or, I’m Feeling Blindly Optomistic Today

Things I Love About the Internet, number 3,794: It has changed the way creative people interact.

I honestly don’t know what my writing would be like if not for the Internet. I have improved immensely in the two years or so that I have been active on the Internet. Maybe it’s just a natural result of growing up and realizing that my writing isn’t the best thing since Shakespeare, but I think it mostly has to do with getting real criticism from other writers.

I used to give my stories to my friends, and they’d gush over it and say it’s excellent, it’s the best thing they’ve ever read. That’s nice, and all, but it isn’t exactly helpful. Then I got on the Internet. Suddenly, I was getting lots of critiques, and quite a few of them weren’t “OMG UR SO GOOD” (although a lot were — this is the Internet, after all). At first I couldn’t deal with it. Like, at all. I’d ignore it, and then I’d never finish whatever got critiqued. It hurt too much.

But, eventually, something snapped. Somehow, without even trying to, I’d snapped the bonds between my ego and my writing. I didn’t see critiques of my work as someone hating me, my writing, and everything about it. I began to see that the critiquer likes my work, but thinks that it can improve in certain areas. Otherwise, why bother? Maybe it was because I was beginning to critique more, as well, so I understood where they were coming from. I don’t know. But it’s the best thing that ever happened to me, as far as my writing is concerned. This revelation might never have happened if I hadn’t begun posting my work on the Internet.

I also love how the Internet is a level playing field. Let’s take a webcomic, for example. If you are talented, and if you put tons of work into your webcomic, and update regularly, people are more likely to take notice. There’s always the fluke of human stupidity to count for, but, in general, popular comics are popular because they deserve to be. Of course, some of the popular comics have flagged in recent years, but, in general, are based on strong writing and consideration for their fans (I can forgive a comic poor art, but I will never keep reading a poorly-written comic. I can understand missing updates if you have a day job or personal problems, but if the author doesn’t bother giving any explanation, or misses updates when the comic is their job, I’m sorry. I hate it).

Also, the degree of creator-audience interaction is great. From your first fan fic to your webcomic of ten years, there is always the possibility of easy communication between the two. I believe that, although puff pieces bloat an artist’s ego and cause stagnation, I also believe that good criticism is the most valuable tool and author can have. I would consider a creator extremely lucky if he or she has one constructive critique for every twenty empty praises (or empty flames). Having been guilty of both of these types of reviews, I know that con crit is more rewarding both for the creator and the reviewer.

In short, even though the Internet is filled with drek, it is one of the best tools an artistic person can have. To quote one of the many versions of Sturgeon’s Law: “90% of everything is crap, but the 10% is worth dying for”.

Jesus Christ, next thing you know, I’ll be singing about how the sun’ll come out tomorrow.