If I was good…

If I was good at this stuff, I wouldn’t have to work so hard…

I thought I needed all the answers. I thought if I struggled with a story or a drawing, it meant I wasn’t good enough to do it professionally. A GOOD writer would solve this much faster. A GREAT illustrator wouldn’t make a mistake and over draw the background.

It was only after meeting more professionals, seeing their process, the start-and-stops, the aborted projects, the difficulties they faced, did I realize - if I want to get better I have keep working.

Never a more depressing realization. So much for being a brilliant genius. I had to WORK at this stuff…

Seriously, it took me a long while to accept that I MIGHT be good enough to do this stuff, even if I didn’t always know the answers, or make the right decision. A picture book might take me 3 years to write. I wish it didn’t.

An illustration might take a week, or a month. I wish it was faster.

Accepting who you are, faults and all, seems to me the most valuable outcome of what I TRY and do for a living. And a point I always make when I teach: it’s a struggle for even the best writers and artists. The struggle may be the entire point.