Why are successful creators always so few? Utsudo once naively believed that giving creators resources would let them write great work. She later realized that without struggle, works easily lack the power to move people. No one can predict whether a work will be well received, and investors’ capital is limited, so it’s hard to support creators long-term before they prove themselves. The creative path is hard and full of uncertainty, and those who achieve results are the rarest of the rare—yet she still chooses to keep going.

Translated from Utsudo’s original Chinese column.

Give creators resources and they’ll write great work?

I once naively thought that if you gave creators resources, they could create wonderful work in peace. That work would attract many readers and be adapted into all kinds of media, and such big success would draw more people into creative fields—a thriving win-win.

However, human nature is perverse. When obstacles disappear and you’re given lots of time and resources, people easily lose their fighting spirit without obstacles, or lack the stirring of the soul, making it even harder to write moving work. Nearly every good work was written after the author went through a struggle or came to some realization.

So works that never went through struggle lack the key that unlocks people’s hearts.

Pain and experience are the raw material for moving people

Of course, that’s not to say you can’t write good work without life experience. You might write imaginative coming-of-age stories and carve out your own niche. But if you want to move somewhat older readers, such light, airy works may have a harder time.

After tasting life’s bitterness, it’s harder to get into those kinds of works. That’s true for me, so I gradually stopped reading them. Works with a bit of reality and shadow standing in the way appeal to me more.

My earlier works were also light and airy, full of fantasy and passion. But because I stumbled all along the creative path, you can always see traces of my own struggles in the stories. At the time I may have been in pain while writing scenes that make people laugh—probably only I know that the me writing those scenes wasn’t laughing at all.

I can’t say works without pain as their raw material are bad—they still have value. But if you want to write works that move people’s souls, maybe your own pain or bitter memories will become the cornerstone of your success. Of course, if you had an unforgettable youth, you might also compose a memorable work.

If only we could create wholeheartedly

Back to the topic: a common situation for Taiwanese creators is that they basically all have day jobs to support themselves so they can keep creating. When creating can’t support us, we have to spend lots of time and energy making a living, which greatly squeezes the time to sit down and plan or write.

If we could extend our creative time without having to do other things to support ourselves, wouldn’t our chances of writing a masterpiece be higher?

I think that’s possible. Suppose writing a work while working a job takes five years. If we could create wholeheartedly, it might take just six months to a year, drastically cutting the time needed.

But the problem is, we never know whether the work we’re writing will win public favor. Even if we start by discussing outlines and character designs with investors, that doesn’t guarantee a work that wows everyone—it just raises the odds a bit.

Frankly, even the most seasoned editors can misjudge, let alone ordinary creators like us. All we know is to write our own work well; honestly, we can’t control much else.

Who can support creators long-term?

Back to the topic: to support a creator, you’d have to pay at least NT$20,000–30,000 a month, right?

If this author never writes a work that sells, how long could you support them? Would you need a time limit—if they don’t write something that sells a certain amount within X years, they’d have to find another path? And even after writing a bestseller, if they can’t write another, would they be eliminated too?

After all, capital is limited—how could you keep supporting a creator who doesn’t deliver results? But how would you know whether this author’s career might take off in a few years? Or whether they’ll write their whole life and stay unknown?

Even so, I still want to walk this path

After thinking this through, my conclusion is: the creative path is hard and full of uncertainty, and that’s a fact that can’t be changed. Creators who achieve results and are loved by many need not only talent but also some drive to spark them. Things really don’t just go the way we want.

So I changed my earlier naive thinking.

Maybe those who achieve something on the creative path truly are the rarest of the rare. Most people, whether due to wrong methods, poor decisions, lack of talent or not yet finding the path that suits them, can only keep exploring and digging on their own to find their way to success.

Even so, do you still want to walk this path?

My answer is yes.

FAQ

Further reading

• Previous: Hey! I Heard You’re a Writer on Ghost Island #231: Is a Shorter Novel IP Better?
• Start from the beginning: Hey! I Heard You’re a Writer on Ghost Island #01: Utsudo’s Debut — A Road to the Dream Covered in Frost
• Utsudo’s books

About the author

Utsudo is a Taiwanese light novelist and novelist VTuber with more than ten years in the industry and 40 commercially published print books. Her novel 《遺失的情書》 received a 2022 Ministry of Culture youth creative award. The 《嘿！聽說妳在鬼島當作家》 series records her experiences as a novelist in Taiwan.