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November 20, 2008

The Ellie Zone - Writer's Syndrome

Watch out!!! Below this line is...

The Ellie Zone

It wrought with horror and danger! Enter at the risk of your sanity.

Today I'd like to talk about something that you might not have heard of before. Well, you most definitely have heard it if you know any artist or writer. I like to call it Writer's Syndrome. Basically, what happens is someone will write something, or sculpt something, or draw something, or paint something, or carve something, or... well, you get the idea.

Anyway, someone will create something. Now, if you have ever seen one of these... things, while in the artist's presence, you may have noticed something.

You may have noticed how the artist is pacing around, wringing their hands, or whatever gives them away as being very, very nervous. And, unless the artist is an amazing freak (In which case none of this stuff occurs), you may have noticed that when you compliment the work, the artist immediately suspects that you were lying, or "just saying that to make me feel better." This is because even though you are staring at it going "Wow that is so amazing", they are looking at it and seeing all the little, itty-bitty mistakes. You're probably looking at it thinking that you could never make anything close to that good, while they're fretting on how it should be better.

I've experienced both sides of this.

My sisters, Barb Gigamaster and Maggie, are both artists, as you may know. They both draw these amazing pictures. And as I goggle over them in amazement, they sit there and point out how this line is curved just a little too much, and how this shape is slightly non-proportional to the rest of the picture.
As a result, I can no longer look at art the same way.

Anyway, I, as you probably do not know, am a writer. I usually write poetry, because when I try to write a story I can never finish it. Today, in fact, I wrote a particularly horrible poem. (Better than my first, but still bad.) I noticed how whenever I showed it to someone I said, "Read this and tell me it's a load of crap." Instead of "Read this and tell me how amazing I am." And no, I'm not complaining, just noticing.

Another thing you may have noticed was that even when you compliment artists and tell them how amazing their work is, their self-esteem does not rise. In fact, in my case it plummets. It wasn't until I handed it to Maggie and she told me my mistakes that I even began to feel better. But that may just be me.

I told you. It's called Writer's Syndrome.

And fine. If you absolutely must read it, here's my poem:

Now, read it and tell me it's a load of crap.

Smile,

Ellie the Gremlin

# At Thu 4:52 PM | Permalink | Trackback URI | Comments (0) | More The Ellie Zone | Tags: art Barb family humor Maggie poetry self-esteem The Gremlin

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