No, it’s not misspelled. Say it out loud to yourself. That’s right, we are resurfacing a recent topic of bees. In this setting, you now have bee stings all in your mouth, causing your tongue to swell and now you have a lisp. Why is that? You opened the suitcase full of bees and like the godless creature they are, they have stung you, taking away your voice. I told you not to, but you had to peek in there. Well, that’s okay. In future posts, I shall be referring to bees as the necessary little bastards that they are. They are the thoughts making us question ourselves, the critics who judge our work, and the non-fans who give it value.
At some point, in any profession or waypoint in our lives, we will begin to let self-doubt take hold. The question, is it good enough will never equate to am I good enough so never allow those two items to mix. It’s like crossing the streams from Ghostbusters. There will always come a time when you look down at the things you’ve created and want to crumple them up and throw them away. You may even look for that one opinion saying it’s crap, just so you can feel vindicated. Whereas it might seem bad, criticism is necessary. Like letting your child make mistakes to learn from, we have to accept the good and the bad.
If you can name one writer that everyone loves, please tell me. Everyone will dislike someone’s everything at some point. Sorry to pop your bubble of 100% awesomeness, but it’s true. As writers and authors, we are gardening constantly. We till the dirt of our imagination to plant a seed that hopefully grows into a blossoming idea and one day a story. Those that don’t are mulched up into the imaginarium earth again to fertilize the next crop. There will be weeds that spring up along the way, it happens. Weeds are the comments or actions by yourself or others sucking the life out of your thoughts, hoping you’ll stop and let them germinate. Don’t allow them to take root around your ideas. Pull those suckers out and move on.
Now, you know what happens when your garden begins to bud and the flowers start to bloom? Yes, those unholy flying savages, bees come into the picture. The trick (so I’ve been expressively told) is to remain calm and let them work. They will fly from blossom to blossom and help your garden of ideas grow. If you panic or run or stupidly attack them, they will retaliate and sting you. Let them do their thing so they can leave.
To clarify, I am speaking of opinion, not self-doubt. That is far different. So, when I tell you not to open the suitcase full of bees, it’s because someone put a swarm of those little assholes in a suitcase. Leave them there. Bees around your garden are different. They are the critics (professionally and unprofessionally) that come along to show you what kind of audience your work does not appeal to, what you could do differently or better. They voice their opinion and believe it or not, that helps. It’s still a voice, giving you notice and that will cause someone else to see what they’re talking about and give their opinion and so on.
The more your garden grows, the more bees you’ll have and need. So, while you looked in the suitcase like an idiot, you can stroll by someone else’s garden and take notice with your swollen tongue and say, “Oh, you have loth of flowerth, you muth have a lot of beeth.”
And if you’re curious about the first bee story and don’t want to click too much, here’s your lazy button < click here >
Jonas Lee 