Unpublished
What’s keeping you from sharing your stories?
Karina Herrera-Cavazos
Stories are very personal for me. It’s accompanied me throughout my childhood, as I spent afternoons creating characters and storylines. My most prominent story was a comic that was heavily inspired by all of the video games and cartoons I loved back then. It followed a stick-figure girl who climbed her favorite tree to relax one morning. But as she climbs, the gaps in the branches transform into a portal, taking her to a strange new land. She meets new friends, and together, they must find a way for the girl to go back home. But don’t ask me how it ends; I never got that far! Despite its flaws, I dearly treasured this story. It was something that was uniquely mine. I was so proud of it that I even shared it with my cool older brother, in spite of my shyness. He listened intently and gave me some feedback. I couldn’t believe he liked it! He finished by asking me to calm down because I was sweating and trembling while sharing it.
Regrettably, childhood idealism had to end at some point. And for me, that was in 4th grade. Sharing my stories with anybody seemed too personal. To do so would be like opening up my insides and letting my guts spill out. Too painful. I kept a watchful eye on my notebooks at all times. Thinking back on it, perhaps this was because of the videos and blog posts I saw that critiqued the shows and characters I admired. Some of these critiques were well-meaning and helpful. But others were scathing, and clearly made to mock the artist and their art. I took all of these critiques as gospel, both the good and the bad. I wondered then how I could improve my own writing with their suggestions.
After a while, I stopped writing for myself. I eventually started to write for an imaginary and critical audience. Every time I made a new character, they would chide that: “They’re too one-note.” or, “A real person wouldn’t act like that.” By the time their critiques echoed in my mind for the 4th or 5th time, my pencil had already stopped moving. Over time, these external critiques became indistinguishable from my own thoughts about my ideas. As I grew older, these doubts intensified, ensuring that my stories and characters would never see the light of day.
This experience is not unique to me. Unfortunately, for many creatives, self-doubt and the fear of rejection can prevent a lot of us from sharing our ideas. But what is ironic about all of this, is that creatives WANT to share their ideas with the world. We want to be heard and understood by others. In addition to this, artists want to have conversations about the ideas and themes in their art.
What these internet critics, and most importantly, ourselves, oftentimes forget is that it takes A LOT of effort to publish a work. Firstly, it takes a lot of creativity and effort to continually work on an idea you have. Whether it’s a comic, a concept for a TV show, or a musical piece, all of this takes hard work. Secondly, it takes a lot of courage to share it with others in the first place, and this unfortunately stops many creatives in their tracks. However, if you’re able to make it past this discomfort, then congratulations! You shared a part of yourself with the world! But what comes after can be even harder to deal with: seeing what the world has to say about it. You may end up getting the negative critiques you feared, but you might also be surprised at the positive and helpful feedback you receive. This process can feel exciting and terrifying at the same time. This exchange between people, the sharing of art and critique, is the whole point of it all.
After everything is said and done, you are free to address, or ignore, their feedback. If good critiques were left, then you can use it to improve your current story or keep it in mind for your next creation. It’s impossible to predict how an audience will receive your work. But you will never know until you publish it and share the ideas that you thought would never see the light of day.