Transcript
All these YouTube videos cover the same topic. All these painted miniatures feature the same sculpt. These movies tell essentially the same story. These illustrations are of the same literary character …
There’s so much content out there, most of it regurgitating or dealing with the same topics, so why bother even trying to make something? It’s all been done before, thousands of times, right?
Right. No arguing that. But guess what? That ain’t no excuse. Let’s talk about it.
INTRO
Greetings good humans and welcome to Tabletop Alchemy, where sometimes we specifically discuss the general thing that drives most creative endeavors. And we specifically thank our patrons for their general and much appreciated support!
The other day, my friend talked to a therapist and he came away with this one nugget that fascinated him. Which he told me about and I was subsequently intrigued. The therapist had simply pointed out that “no one knows what’s inside your head.” And I think that’s a true statement. As much as we all like to fret about how others are going react to us or something we made, we gotta admit that we are just making shit up.
We’re good at that. We’re human after all, and there are some things we just excel at. But this fact that no one outside of our own brain knows what we’re thinking or what we’re feeling is a good thing to remember. You might have a mini you painted or a story you’ve written or an RPG adventure you’ve created, any number of things, and you can see all the flaws and things you don’t like about that thing you’ve made and it’s real easy to assume those are all the things everyone else is going to fixate on. Because that’s what YOU fixate on.
And that’s one part of this whole idea we’re chatting about today. But another, and really the part I’m most interested in – today – is the notion that your aesthetic is YOUR aesthetic. Which makes it by definition “unique”. Now, there will always be some similarities and evidence of whatever’s influenced us or general influences we share with other humans, of course. But at the very least, all the little microdecisions you make concerning a creative project are going to add up to something that’s more “you” than you might feel like.
Something else that adds to the uniqueness of your aesthetic is your perspective. Only you occupy your plot point in space and time. And only you have experienced your experiences through your mental and physical filter system. So only you are in possession of your perspective. In a theoretical exercise, it doesn’t matter if a hundred people are shown the same reference and given the same instructions, none of the hundred results are going to be exactly the same. We’re referring to artistic exercises here, not math or logic exercises.
It’s real easy to tell yourself there’s no reason to try and do something. I know from vast experience that this is a fact. And it’s just kinda too easy, right? I mean, to not do something is often the easiest thing in the world. It’s almost like someone designed a genius trap for all of us to fall into. In fact, it kinda irks me when I think real hard about it. But it could just be one of those things on the obstacle course, intended to test us and weed out the weak.
Don’t take offense, we’re all weak sometimes, it’s just part of the nature of the game we’ve been dropped into.
Regardless of whatever else it is, it’s a thing. But it’s a thing made out of gossamer. It’s a thing like a mirage is a thing, like heat haze or something. We gotta roll Perception to see through the illusion.
But back to the main idea, which is all about how your aesthetic – your sense of artistic taste – is yours alone and it’s unique to you. Which has ramifications.
Let’s say you wanna make a YouTube video about you playing Minecraft. But you look at the sheer number of Minecraft Let’s Plays on YouTube and realize that number is nothing short of staggering. How could you possibly create something new and interesting that hasn’t been done before? Why would people watch YOUR video when there are literally a million others they’ve already watched or could watch.
First, those questions can’t really be answered by you. Because you don’t have enough data INSIDE your head to make that deduction. We’ll feel like we have enough data, but that’s an illusion, a spell spun up by our own minds. Second, you don’t have any idea how people might react to a video you made because, again, you don’t have enough data to make that deduction. But your brain is expert at making you THINK you have enough data.
Huh … this is making the human mind sound an awful lot like AI. Everyone’s freaking out because AI generates false information during a query and presents it as true, and it sounds very convincing … and it sounds just like what we’re talking about our brains doing to ourselves. Uh-huh. Sorry, that literally just occurred to me and it’s kinda … tripping me out.
Okay, let’s back away from the rabbit hole.
Third, let’s say you hit on an idea you think is brand new and unique and people will love it. Again, you can’t possibly know – with absolute certainty – that people will react the way you think they will. You may have an intuition, you may have market research, but hey, people with a lotta money and lotta market research still made this. And this. And this.
Let’s look at another niche – movie directors. Anyone can direct or attempt to direct a movie. Obviously having some experience will go a long way toward getting you hired, but if a producer has a script and is looking to hire a director, how do you think they choose from the thousands of possible candidates out there? That’s right, they gravitate toward a director whose aesthetic they like. I mean, is David Fincher a better director than Sofia Coppola? Not really, they just have different aesthetics.
Somebody’s gonna take issue with that comparison. But I stand by it.
Of course there are other factors involved in someone being hired to do something, like availability and cost and other things. But if those things were all equal, all that’s left to base a decision on is aesthetic.
And what is aesthetic if not a product of all the minor – and major – decisions a person makes in a creative production? Every decision, no matter how small, affects the overall final product in some way. And the sum of those parts adds up to something unique and personal.
Even if you’re gonna paint up your space marine kill team just like the box art – which is still a personal, aesthetic choice – that kill team is YOUR kill team.
Let’s say you’re gonna run one of D&D’s published hardback adventures. That title has sold a lotta copies. So what? Your sessions aren’t gonna be the same as any other Dungeon Master who’s running that game, even if it were for the same players.
So what does all this mean? What are ya gettin’ at, weirdo? I hear you in the back.
Never let your internal voice talk you down from just doing something. Or just sharing something you’ve made. Yes, I am saying do as I say and not as I do. But I’m trying, dammit. I mean, c’mon, everyone shares everything anyway, join the herd! Sure, sometimes people are gonna see things you make in somewhat the same way you do, but it’s rare someone else is going to notice the exact same things you do. Keep in mind, this goes for both “good” and “bad” things. This is where you get to learn and grow. Learning from criticism is self-explanatory, but learning from compliments is historically underrated.
Part of that is the human tendency to focus on criticism and ignore compliments, but pay attention to what people like about something you’ve made. You can use that information to help guide your creative decisions too – and you can lean into or away from stuff like that as well. And you can always ignore whatever you want to ignore. But the bottom line is, that voice in your head telling you that no one’s going to like your stuff, that doing this thing is impossible, it’s just a voice in your head. It doesn’t know anything more than you do. Cause it is you.
So, go make something and share it. You never know what the reaction might be!
See ya!