How do you deal with imposter syndrome?

FritzC 2020-11-04 10:28:11 UTC #1

Lately I've been having major imposter syndrome both regarding my comic and academically... Here it's probably more about my comic artist imposter syndrome but I'd love to hear how you deal with it if you also have it... Sometimes I look at my comic and i wonder if I'm somehow tricking people into reading it instead of just assuming they're doing it because they want to?

Puck 2020-11-04 10:38:27 UTC #2

What makes you think about the imposter syndrome?
Do your figures look like the figures of another artist?

carloswebcomic 2020-11-04 10:54:54 UTC #3

I used to think I had impostor syndrome, but eventually my readers realised I sucked.
In my case, it turned out that I was as bad as I suspected and people eventually saw that.

My readership dropped by roughly 80% after a while

I'm sure it won't happen to you though. You seem to have a talent for art and writing.

Puck 2020-11-04 10:57:56 UTC #4

I don´t think you have imposter syndrome or that your art is bad in any way, it´s sounds like you have a lowered self esteem about your abilities

FritzC 2020-11-04 11:08:30 UTC #5

I don't think my characters look like another artists, it's more about feeling like you're kind of in a situation where you're being regarded as more competent than you are, I suppose?
I don't think my art is necessarily bad either, I just sometimes feel like I'm being perceived as more than I am and it makes me feel weird sometimes.

I'm just wondering if anyone else is dealing with that.

carloswebcomic 2020-11-04 11:16:17 UTC #6

Well, when I was dealing with it, I just took a wait and see attitude.
All you can do is keep going and see where it goes.

DasIstWunderblyat 2020-11-04 11:23:32 UTC #7

By saying you saw him vented and get his ass voted off the spaceship.

Serious answer: Aren't we all are imposters, fake beings eating each others to stay alive? To be honest I am still struggling with it, but I try to not care and detach myself for feeling guilty I have been tricking people.

teacup_creations 2020-11-04 12:57:10 UTC #8

As an artist who started on tapas really early and had a lot of luck with features etc. I get this a lot
But I guess one of the upsides of dealing with low self esteem and depression since my teenage years is that I've developed a slightly more healthy way of thinking about things.
I kinda make compromises with myself. Instead of thinking I'm a terrible person for tricking all these people into following me or looking at my art, instead I contextualise it a little. I can't argue with my brain when it convinced me that I dont deserve the things I have, but I can tell myself that even if I don't deserve it, it's not a bad thing. Like, maybe my readers are wasting a few seconds looking at my comic but it's just a few seconds. It's about as harmful as those clickbait articles except my comics have fewer ads and viruses lol.

I still feel bad but not as bad as I can.

oshirockingham 2020-11-04 13:24:49 UTC #9

I eject them to the open space.

Well, honestly, I don't even know, I don't think I ever succeed at something, except for being myself.

DiegoPalacios 2020-11-04 13:39:26 UTC #10

Be conscious of your strenghts and weaknesses. What attract readers are often your strenghts.

Luck is when preparation mixes with an opportunity, so, even if you think luck becomes a factor of your success, it wouldn't have been possible if you hadn't make the effort of making your story.

samgloeart 2020-11-04 14:33:08 UTC #11

Hi! There seems to be a lot of negativity in this thread, so I'm going to try to add some advice and stay posi. I think a good thing to remember is that 1. you're not alone in this feeling. People of all different skill levels sometimes feel like they're faking it, or that people don't actually like what they do, so you're not alone. 2. You can't force people to like what you do. You can't force people to read things, so if you have any one follower who you've never spoken to, that means they are 100% just doing it because they want to. There's always going to be people who like were work, and even if it's a small number it still means that posting it is worthwhile. 3. if you enjoy your work, that matters more than anything else. 4. stop comparing yourself to people. try to improve and use reference, but never say "oh they're so much better than me so why would anyone look at my work". That's not productive.

I hope some of that helps, and that you keep pushing forward!

But_a_Jape 2020-11-04 14:39:38 UTC #12

I've found that this has helped me: Trust that other people know what they think. You know that really popular thing that everyone loves and you just can't get into it? You can see all of its flaws so clearly but everyone keeps going on about how it's the greatest thing ever no matter how many times you tell them their opinions are wrong! Eventually you just accept that people have different opinions and their reasons for liking something you don't are perfectly valid (you have already accepted that, right?)

Think of your work like that - maybe it's not always to your standard, but clearly your readers are seeing enough value in it that they're spending their time (and sometimes even their money) just to get more of your stuff. You're not tricking them, you're not telling them your art will improve their sex life or cure their cancer, you're showing them pictures and they're responding "Nice picture!" Just trust that they know their own standards for what a nice picture is.

Kelheor 2020-11-04 14:47:20 UTC #13

I don't think I actually achieved something to feel like it? I am not any kind of famous person, nor is anything I created, nor do I get huge money for what I am doing and there are no people looking up to me, so there's just no reason to feel like an impostor I guess

FritzC 2020-11-04 14:55:59 UTC #14

Yeah haha thanks! It wasn't intentionally meant to be a overly negative subject, just something I thought more people maybe had experiences and it'd be nice to have a forum to talk about it in

honeyandcreambutter 2020-11-04 15:14:27 UTC #15

I need to ask but is that what imposter syndrome means? I thought it meant where you think you're copying ideas from other artists/creators and you're afraid someone will point it out one day I've heard about imposter syndrome for a while on forums but I can't really find any proper answer to what it actually is.

Kelheor 2020-11-04 15:30:18 UTC #16

There's a famous story from Neil Gaiman about it

Some years ago, I was lucky enough invited to a gathering of great and good people: artists and scientists, writers and discoverers of things. And I felt that at any moment they would realise that I didn’t qualify to be there, among these people who had really done things.
On my second or third night there, I was standing at the back of the hall, while a musical entertainment happened, and I started talking to a very nice, polite, elderly gentleman about several things, including our shared first name*. And then he pointed to the hall of people, and said words to the effect of, “I just look at all these people, and I think, what the heck am I doing here? They’ve made amazing things. I just went where I was sent.”
And I said, “Yes. But you were the first man on the moon. I think that counts for something.”
And I felt a bit better. Because if Neil Armstrong felt like an imposter, maybe everyone did. Maybe there weren’t any grown-ups, only people who had worked hard and also got lucky and were slightly out of their depth, all of us doing the best job we could, which is all we can really hope for.

FritzC 2020-11-04 15:33:20 UTC #17

No, no it's not about being afraid of plagiarising! It's about feeling like you're an "imposter" in a professional sphere, for example, if you're in a new job and you have the same qualifications and abilities as other people on paper, but you feel like it's untrue and you're an imposter.

DiegoPalacios 2020-11-04 15:39:47 UTC #18

Imposter syndrome is when a person believes that the success they achieved is undeserved.

And that is why they feel like an "imposter".

pilot-obvious 2020-11-04 15:48:45 UTC #19

I have been struggling with imposter syndrome since I graduated from college. But nobody else has questioned my skills or abilities, in fact, it's usually met with praise. So I have to remind myself that it's okay to just take their word for it. I think it's natural for us to be more critical of ourselves than other people. But if we start to reaffirm the positive things other people say about us, it's possible that we can start to see ourselves in that same mindset.

Dysis 2020-11-04 15:51:39 UTC #20

In the context of this thread, it means one thinks they got lucky and the work they produce doesn't qualify to deserve that much recognition.

I had faced a similar situation. Around five-six years ago, I had published a story on Quotev and it grew popular. I didn't even understand why. My writing was absolute garbage. My friend, on the other hand, is a literary genius and when she published her work, I was certain it would blow up but no. It still has hardly 2-3 likes.

I felt like I was cheating. Didn't deserve it. But I didn't dwell on it either. Since I felt like I was a cheater, it drove me to improve to the extent that would make me more comfortable talking about my work around her.

Long story short: Dwelling on impostor syndrome is not productive at all.

Instead of the "who is fooling who", it's more about the progress and the improvement as time goes by. The former is beyond your control, those "fools" that you think of are checking out your work because it's their choice, the time and place was right or they actually enjoy it and you don't realise it, but focussing on the latter will save you from the over-achieving mindset and the depression that might follow the second time you try things and it doesn't work out. When you start believing that it's alright if your work sucks now and that it's NORMAL to improve from a failure to a decent artist, it becomes way easier.

Just focus on improvement.