Trusting Ourselves and Our Audience

I want to talk about something called trust. Not the usual kind though, I want to talk about trusting ourselves, our content, and our audience.

Trust is often hard to come by as many of us deal with instances in our lives where trust can and does become an issue. Perhaps we’re let down one too many times, perhaps a promise is made and subsequently broken, perhaps we’re even betrayed by those we love. This is obviously a vastly complicated subject; it needs to be dealt with personally and on a case by case basis. However, I want to talk about a different kind of trust… placing a trust in ourselves, a trust in our content, and a trust in our audience.

I am sure many other creative-types will attest, that we go through these stages in our lives where we doubt that which we create. “Will people like my work?” is a question that plays on repeat inside my head more often than it should. I am often racked with doubt as to whether people will enjoy a recent blog post of mine, or will enjoy an idea I’ve come up with. This goes up a gear when it comes to my photography work, which I actually do professionally; I find myself worrying that a client won’t like something I’ve put so much effort into creating. For awhile, this was quite bad. Clockwork Clouds, itself, was built on uncertainty. It was somewhere for me to dabble with words, somewhere that took me time to adjust to. Recently though, I’ve been more confident. Recently, I’ve been learning to trust in myself and my audience.

I have started to believe, (“perhaps a little too optimistically” – that’s my cynical side talking), that almost anything we create can be called ‘art’ and almost anything called ‘art’ has merit to someone, somewhere. It’s something I’ve touched upon in recent posts, Entertainment Vs Technique Part 1 & Entertainment Vs Technique Part 2: Audience and Passion, but I didn’t talk about the level of trust we need to place in our own abilities when producing it.

I’d like to use an example, something you’ve heard me talk about time and time again: Work in Progress Wednesdays (Yes, I’m talking about it again!). Those of you following know I started WiPW earlier this year. Season One, of which, is complete and available to read over here: Reflections of a #WiPW. When I started WiPW I was incredibly nervous. Not only did it mean hosting people on my blog, a responsibility I’d only dabbled in briefly last NaNoWriMo, but it meant I had to be confident in my idea. Here I was saying to potential guest posters “This is what Work in Progress Wednesday is about“, and without my own belief in that idea, they could simply think it a waste of time; after all, I had no way of actually guaranteeing it wasn’t. My first contributors, whether out of a faith in me, or out of just being a general lovely person, were taking a risk. They were about to open up about something that many people can find difficult; they were about to share their own WiP to strangers and deal with whatever that could bring.

I’m happy to report that WiPW has been a big success. Each week we’ve had a post from someone with a different story to tell. We’ve had old projects dusted off, old projects left behind, we’ve had mosaics, and this week we have cookery. Not only that, but I’ve had readers both old and new comment on this feature to tell me they enjoy it; to tell me it resonates, or that they find value there. Without trusting in an idea, without believing this was actually something, I wouldn’t have that.

“If you build it, they will come”

Work in Progress Wednesday has been more to me than just a Guest Post and it’s been more to me than just a weekly Feature. It’s been a lesson in trust and faith for me. It’s helped me to believe that what I do appeals to people, and that my ideas will resonate with at least one other person out there. What I want to tell you, is yours do too.

As I said before, Clockwork Clouds was built with uncertainty. It was an old blog constructed 6 years ago, which I simply used as a journal for my feelings. I took that old foundation and refreshed it with something new, but still poorly defined; this time it was an aid for my writing practice. Clockwork Clouds has since evolved into something I feel very passionate about; it’s become a vehicle to encourage creativity and inspire others. It’s taught me that there’s an audience out there for anything we enjoy, it’s taught me that we don’t have to create alone, or with fear of disapproval. If we write, paint, draw, sculpt, cook, compose, or simply create something with good intentions, with heart, love and care, there will be an audience out there looking to enjoy our content. We need to put trust in our own abilities, have confidence when dealing with our content, and have a little faith that our audience will resonate with something the same way we do. It might not happen at first, but trust me it’ll start to snowball before you know it.

What helps you to believe in your abilities? What helps you to find your confidence? I’d love to hear from you, let me know in the comments below!