Make it yourself then

One of the reasons that I enjoy writing and generally creating art, is knowing that I’ve made something that wasn’t there before, and wouldn’t exist without me. Most of the time the things that I’m driven to make are things that I can imagine enjoying, and I’m pretty sure this is very common. However, there’s a way that some people twist this in a way that I don’t really like.

A common refrain when someone points out that there aren’t published stories with someone like them as a protagonist is “You should write something yourself then.” It’s easy to see why this is often given as a solution, and generally I’m in favour of encouraging people to make art. However, even ignoring all the issues of how unevenly distributed opportunities are to develop artistic skills, and share art with a wider audience^[1]Despite them helping in some ways, the internet, web and social media haven’t solved that problem, there are other reasons that I’m not comfortable with it.

One of the great joys of reading, watching or listening to other people’s stories is being able to experience stories that I would never have written. Even when the authors’ experiences are close to my own, they will not be exactly the same, so their work will have different themes, thoughts and conclusions^[2]Or at least directions – a lot of the best art doesn’t answer the question that it asks, but that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t have a direction for how it engages with the question to my own. And of course, there are lots of people with very different experiences to me that I can connect with through their art.

So I think always telling people to make it themselves is kind of rude, and not addressing the point. Putting the onus on them to solve the issue isn’t fair in the first place, especially as it may not actually give them what they are hoping for. By all means encourage people to tell their own stories, but don’t assume that that’s a solution for them not being able to see other people’s stories about people like them. Speaking is important, but it’s not the same as hearing.