Stop and look both ways before crossing the street!
You’ve got this great idea. It might be the most awesome thing since instant coffee, and you want to rush your fabulous thing so that the world can see it! We’re talking ASAP. You scramble faster than a NASCAR driver at the Daytona 500 and zoom through that final lap. You post it on the Internet.
…Aaaaannnnnd you wait for the likes. The Internet is dead silent. You ask yourself, “Why?” Your thing has all the fabulousness of Thranduil, King of Mirkwood riding his beautiful elk into battle, right?
This is a pitfall everyone has fallen into at one point or another, myself included. You’re giddy, and you feel young again! You have all the excitement of a 10 year old kid who just finished stringing a macaroni necklace. The teacher loved it. You show it off to your parents. DAD LOOK WHAT I MADE! LOOK HOW AWESOME! You got that instant thumbs up back then. It was a sure deal.
Posting your stuff on the internet is much the same. You just finished something amazing, and you crave those digital thumbs ups, recognition for your hard work. You want to be patted on the back—it is only human to desire validation and praise, so don’t feel bad for craving it.
Look at this sketch for example. I was excited after finishing it, I mean John Smith as a Romulan Commander!? Heck Yeah! It’s an okay first attempt; I’ll give it that, but I know it can be so much more than what it is. Was I tempted to blast it on every channel of the Internetz as soon as I finished it? You bet I was!
Back to your awesome thing you just posted. Where did you go wrong?
Every good product comes with planning, practice, and patience. That thing you posted was awesome, but what if it was only the first draft of something even more amazing?
Look at John Smith now. I listened to that tiny, inner voice of mine and decided to draw another sketch and to perfect his face. Sure, I could have colored in the first attempt, but I don’t think it would even compare to this one. I took the first sketch and decided to do another one, this time using many reference pictures of the actor instead of just one.
The bottom line is this: don’t rush. Take that awesome thing and wrap it in bacon, and by bacon, I mean your genius because your genius is one of the few things more awesome than bacon.
I will discuss ways and provide tips on how you can mold your first attempts into amazing works of art, prose, or [ insert your hobby here] in my next post, The Three Ps of Making Something Awesome.
