SarcasticBlack

[B][I]Have you allowed your fear of not being original make you forget that you are in fact the origin of your own work? - The Artist's Way[/I][/B]

I reworded the original question. Redundancy is redundant.

At first, I wanted to answer this question with a firm 'no.' What fear of being original? I thrive on my originality and the fact that I am eccentric. It is what I base the concept of my Self upon. Eccentricity. Nonconformity. Originality.

Or am I deluding myself?

Let's take a look at something. Furry. This is not what I had hoped to hit upon, especially in my first blog, but it has been a very large part of my life and in shaping who I am as an individual. Whether it be for my betterment or hinderance, only time will tell. By and large, furry is a community I both enjoy and despise, but a timeless concept I have adored since childhood. I find something appealing in the idea of humanistic animals, and in fact, I prefer the aesthetics of anthropomorphics over the human body any day. It feels natural. I suppose how most of the non-furry people of Earth view anthros is how I view the human body - an odd, unattractive form that leaves one baffled and wondering why.

With that said, the majority of my art, and writing if I dare admit so, has been of the anthropomorphic persuasion. Not only does it help me release the pent-up stresses of my life as I mindlessly doodle infinite characters, but it makes me smile while doing so. Of all of the characters I have created in my life, the anthros are my all-time favourites. I feel a special bond with them that I simply am not able to share with my human characters. Of course, this lack of passion reflects in my work. What is even better about furry is that I have been able to make a small income with this odd passion and I have met some fantastic people and some not-so-fantastic.

On the other hand, I do not like rejection... a fear of dire consequence for an eccentric. I can chalk it up to my Borderline Personality Disorder all I want, but in the end, it is a battlefield I repeatedly have to venture and [hopefully] conquer. Abandonment, rejection - I don't handle them well. In so, I do allow this fear to make me less original. The [majority of] novels I have planned for the future are no longer anthro in origin. They are regular human beings, albiet interesting ones. Even if they are rather surrealistic in concept and design, it does not invoke the happiness I feel in creating anthros. Perhaps it never will, or perhaps I will feel differently as I age and my imagination alters with my own evolution in this life. It does not matter. The sole reason that I have planned my future works, nearly all of them, to no longer be anthro is simply because I do not want rejection from my public or publishers.

Let's look at that for a second. Is it fear or is it good business? I suppose in order to answer that question, I have to ask myself if I am writing for the addictive pleasure or if I am writing for profit and recognition. Am I an artist or a hypocrite? Perhaps both. Let's face it. The average Dick and Jane in my audience are not furry and a percentage, dare I say a large percentage, has a hatred of anthros stemming from ignorance and a fear of something different. If I want to be a successful artist and writer, it would behoove of me to appeal to my audience. I doubt I'll ever make the New York Times Bestsellers list writing a story featuring talking, walking animals. They simply do not appeal to the majority, unless I'm animating a family-friendly cartoon or writing a children's novel. However, my best work is that featuring anthros. What do I do?

Do I allow myself to give in to the pressure of appealing to a larger audience for success sake or do I write and illustrate what I love the most? Do I allow myself to be original while accepting that I probably won't ever get the recognition that I desire? Or is it possible to be original and appeal to my audience? Perhaps I can write that which my audience adores, and at times in between, write what [I]I[/I] adore. Maybe once I make a name for myself, my audience will naturally wish to look at my other works. Hopefully, my originality will open up a new and wonderful world for them, as long as they allow themselves to submerge in the realm that lies outside the box.

I guess I will always remain outside the box, but I see no issue catering to those within. What a drab and utterly dull existence it is inside. The unknown realms, mystifying and transforming, far outshine the comforts and stability that lay within.

They need all the entertainment they can get.