(Have I mentioned the metallic gold paisley wallpaper in the kitchen? It looks the way migraine induced nausea feels.)
Due to the fates, four winds, and whatever other fortunes or happenstance one chooses to believe in, the SO and I live in a cultural null. There are too many people for it to be a wasteland. Interesting activities often seem limited to those with deep pockets, or those willing to make their own fun. (For instance, we have a few theater spaces. One for the wealthy, one for a childrens' educational group, and one that's an affluent community theater with grand delusions - would you pay $35 to see the local high school kids put on 'Oklahoma'? Me neither.)
The demographic is seems to be bent toward those with either enough money to have fun elsewhere, families/family entertainment, or the dive bar scene.
So, finding out that one of our colleges actually puts on a SFF/Anime convention was exciting. I'd never been.
I convinced Significant Other that we should attend. A whole weekend of . . . something, for about the price of a movie ticket. (And if it really wasn't fun, we were close enough to home that it wouldn't be a big deal.)
The convention was tiny, for being in it's 10th year; and not organized particularly well. Not sure why - perhaps the cycling of students every four years has a bit to do with it.
However, the few speakers that were there, were great - particularly Alisa Kwitney, I attended both of her well designed workshops. And got an eyeful of the desperate and clueless while I was at it.
Free advice - if you've done nothing, listen to the speaker. I can't even fathom why some of these people were going on and on about the ideas for comics that they hadn't started writing (strongly implying that this poor woman should suddenly make them rich and famous), artists who couldn't be bothered learning how to draw who wanted jobs at major comics publishers...one guy was convinced that his D&D game would be the 'most amazing' comic EVER.
When asked what series' they followed, each and every one of these people responded with blank, glassy eyes - I'm pretty sure more than one started drooling.
How can you even PRETEND to want to be part of an industry that you have zero clue about?
What followed were excuses - not having time or money is the big one.
You MAKE the time. If someone claimed interest in being a novelist, but never read, what would you say?
As for the money, there's this amazing thing called a...wait for it...
LIBRARY. They carry graphic novels.
That doesn't even begin to touch the plethora of completely free online comic series that you can follow - which requires little time, and NO money. You don't even have to leave the house!
The artist's alley was similar. There were only four tables.
One had a promising duo.
One had a girl who made felt hats - so she really is her own thing, and not relevant here.
One was overly dodged and burned tracings of anime characters (sadly, that one seemed the most successful).
The last, had a sour, bitter, glaring girl with some rumpled doodles of chibis - they screamed of a lack of effort, and she seemed uninterested in being polite, and pissed off that no one was buying lousy art - no matter what the price.
Why are people completely delusional?
This stuff takes WORK. More than anything else. Ideas are easy. Heck, I get and discard at least 100 before my first cup of coffee. A few (like this blog) I kick around for a while, and then decide to do, or not.
I try to draw every day. I'm not improving as fast as someone more dedicated, and I know that.
I do write every day - not here, but I have several (seven) different projects, and I work on one of them every day. Even if the results from each day are not stellar, I just keep grinding away at it.
And that is what will separate those who do, from those who follow around someone who has had success, believing that it is somehow luck, and expecting that they are entitled to something, just by virtue of existing.
Don't be that idiot. I hope those people eventually pull their heads from their nether regions. Having been friends with people like that, they often don't. But I can hope. They forever blame something else for their lack of success, rather than their own lack of action.
Do something. Fail at it! Before every success are tons of failures. Learning experiences. The only true failure is doing nothing.
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