Good Enough?

A podcast I enjoy is Book Friends Forever by Grace Lin (@pacylin) and Alvina Ling (@planetalvina). I discovered it a few months ago and have been catching up on old episodes as well as listening to current ones. Today I was listening to Episode 27 in which both women celebrate twenty years in publishing. What advice would Grace give her pre-career self now? For one thing, she would tell herself not to be so judgmental and critical of other creators’ picture books. The books served a purpose, even if the art wasn’t perfect by her fresh-out-of-art-school standards. 

Something fell into place for me as I listened. Like Grace before she learned better, I judge other artists based on a limited rubric, in my case built not from art school but from classes and books, conferences, webinars and Twitter threads. The intangibles get left out of the rubric because that’s the nature of intangibility! Then the monologue in my head goes like this: My work is awful. I see that such-and-such book is bad in lots of the same ways mine is. If my book isn’t good enough, how did THIS one get published? Who had the gall to query an agent with THAT?  

I’ve heard Ira Glass (@iraglass) talk about The Gap, where an artist’s appreciation for high-quality work makes them disappointed by their own art while they are developing their skills. I’ve counseled others many times:  don’t reject yourself--make the college admissions officer, the coach of the elite team, or the potential boss do the dirty work. But listening to Grace, I realized it’s time to stop judging my own work with such negativity, and without regard for any intangibles I have to offer. I myself need to be the person who has the gall to put my work out there, even though I haven’t yet closed The Gap. Let the agents, editors, or readers decide to reject it.

…Or not.