How to fail as a creator
Thoughts on the futility of objective success, and how to make peace with rejection as a creator.
Hi folks,
I’m sure you’ve all seen or read the myriad pieces on how to succeed as a creator.
You know what I’m talking about - articles like the following (all real, but I refuse to link to them on principle):
How to be a successful content creator in 9 simple steps.
5 must-have skills to succeed as a creator.
How to succeed in the creator economy.
Have you ever read any of these pieces? Did you suddenly unlock the secret of success?
Success is a personal value judgment. There’s no pathway (structured or not) to success because success isn’t objectively defined. It means different things to different people, so there’s no real way a clickbait article can answer the question.
(To be fair to these articles, they’re not trying to answer the question. They’re really trying to get your attention).
I don’t believe there’s one path to creator success. I believe there are millions.
But I believe there’s one way to fail as a creator, and that’s when you stop creating.
Whatever your definition of success, you’ll never be able to make it if you don’t create. Yet, the act of creation is scary.
It’s hard to invest time in making something and then share it with others, who may rip it apart and dismiss it within just a few seconds. I know because I’ve been there.
You start to second guess yourself; you start to withdraw and not share your work for fear of ridicule, hatred, or worse - indifference; you tell yourself it’s better to not share any of your work in order to avoid rejection.
Before long, you stop creating all together.
That’s how you fail as a creator.
My goal with this publication is to convince you that it’s okay to be scared of rejection. In fact, you probably should embrace it - as hard as it can be.
100 rejections
A few years ago, I set a strange creative goal for myself: to receive 100 rejections.
I’m not talking about people making snide comments about your work on social media. I applied for grants, contests, and programs; I pitched TV producers, agents, and managers; I pitched publishers and editors.
Now, I tracked each and every rejection in a spreadsheet. The first few stung, but the funny thing is that by the time I hit 50 or so rejections, my mindset totally inverted. Rather than worrying about the impact of individual rejections, I began to worry I wouldn’t hit my target.
I had some successes along the way, and made sure I celebrated those when they came, but the real success for me was hitting that 100 rejection milestone. By that point, rejection was no longer personal, it was just part of the cost of trying to be in the creator business.
The exercise taught me to be resilient, and more than that, I think it helped me re-focus as a creator. The following year was one that saw me get comics published, screenplays optioned, and actual interest from fiction publishers. While I can’t say for certain that my year of rejection was directly responsible for this success, I can say that my attitude and mindset were very different.
Staying creative
So far, so good. Right?
Not quite.
The creative process isn’t a linear one. Worse, it may be non-replicable, in the sense that what worked for you once, may not work for you again. This is a problem for creators, because once we find a process or trick that works for us, we tend to re-use it again and again. We don’t take time to analyze why it works for us, we just take it as an axiom, and this is why we can get frustrated when we keep doing the same things and don’t get the results (or success) we expect.
I’m guilty of this.
This newsletter is living proof.
I launched this newsletter back in 2023 as a way to try and engage with other creators and readers. I had a vague sense of what I wanted to write, but had no real strategy behind it. The name Creative Praxis was literally the first thing that popped into my head, and I ran with it; I’m impulsive that way. I figured it’s better to do something, even if it’s flawed, than wait until everything is perfect.
But now, after many months of building this publication, the time is right for a change. Creative Praxis doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue, and it’s also a little confusing - and confusion is the enemy of engagement. A publication with a confusing or unclear name usually means its purpose is also unclear.
I think that’s probably accurate.
It’s time to simplify things. It’s time to experiment.
That’s why I’ve decided to rebrand this publication as Creator Lab as of October 1.
What is Creator Lab?
It’s basically the same publication: a mix of thoughts on the creative process and reflection on how research findings can impact and support a creative career.
Above all, though, it means renewed focus on experimentation, i.e., doing things differently.
In a recent post, I wrote that self-publishing is publishing.
Given the current economic challenges, I think it’s prudent for creators (even those who want to work in traditional mediums/channels) to develop their own direct-to-consumer (DTC) business model. Sure, this means creators are taking on even more work and more of the potential risks, but it also means they are (or should) receive more of the rewards.
But there’s no one path for creating a sustainable DTC business model, which means creators need to learn about potential pathways (either from other creators or research), and experiment with approaches to find the one(s) that work best for them.
The notion of experimentation is what I want to bring to our conversations through the Creator Lab.
Experimentation with what we (as creators) make, how we produce it, how we market it, and how we distribute it.
Think differently.
Experiment.
Let’s do more than try to reproduce traditional models in an independent setting; let’s take big swings and miss, but learn from what didn’t land.
That’s my promise to you as a reader. Let me know what you think by voting in this mini poll below.
Competition time
If you’re still reading - thank you! I know this was a long one. But let me try to sweeten the pot by inviting you to join a competition.
How do you win? Simple. Track the number of rejections you receive between October 1 and November 30. The person with the most rejections at the end of that time will be the winner and receive a prize.
What will you win? The winner will receive a signed copy of the Scratcher trade paperback (from Juan Romera, Eric Grissom, and myself) OR a signed copy of the Acausal trade paperback (from EV Cantada, Lucas Gattoni, and myself).
What do I have to do? Comment on this post before September 30th at 9pm Pacific time to let me know you’re entering the challenge. You can track your rejections in any format you choose, and you must report on the number on December 1. The winner will also need to share their (anonymized) report with me for validation.
That’s it.
Thanks for reading.
John