The Loneliness of Creativity
The act of creating can be lonely.
Much of the time it’s a solo pursuit, with hours spent in focused solitude. It’s an exercise in connecting inwardly, in self-expression. It’s a piece of yourself that you share with the world. But what is self-expression if not to seek connection? Specifically, connection with someone who recognizes themselves in the thing you’ve created. It’s a kindredness. A moment of shared humanity.
But a lot of the time, that connection doesn’t come. Or it’s much smaller than you hoped for.
When you put a representation of your thoughts, ideas, and feelings out into the public, you risk being criticiized or written off. Even worse, you risk being ignored or unnoticed. Because when we express ourselves, we’re hoping to be heard. To feel seen. We want to feel a little less alone in our experience of life. And sometimes when you let yourself be vulnerable, no one recognizes it. You don’t get comments or likes or views. No one rewards you for the risk you’ve taken in trying to connect with them. In bravely putting yourself out there through your art.
But if you really care about something, it means you could get your heart broken. And if you find yourself getting you heart broken in life, it means you’re going after the things that matter to you. You’re living a life of substance and creating art that’s meaningful.
In some ways, you’re lucky to feel that pain. Because the people who don’t take that risk aren’t really living. The only way to feel the deepest joy is to open yourself to feeling the deepest hurt. And that’s what being creative is. It’s taking that risk and putting it into something tangible to share with the world.
And really, when it comes to the art you make, the only person that you truly need to connect with is yourself. If you’re the only person who connects with it, and that makes you feel sad, you can take that pain and put it into your next project.
Just know this: for all the times you shout into the void and no one speaks back, for all the times you open your heart and there’s no one there to embrace it, someone else didn’t try at all. They didn’t go after the thing they loved with reckless abandon like you did. And while you have a moment of sadness, you’ll be able to look back say you did what you were meant to do. The ones who didn’t try? They’ll look back with regret and say, “I wish I’d given that a shot.”
You’ll have a piece of art that you made. They’ll have nothing to show for their lack of effort.
If you’re really being authentic, someone will connect with something you create someday. It may not be today. It may not be in the next year. But someone will be moved by what you do. Someone will make you feel seen, and make you feel like the things you do matter.
And all that work that goes into the profoundly human act of creativity will make you feel a little less alone.
So don’t stop trying.
