If Someone Told You Your Work Isn't Real

Someone said your work doesn't count.

Maybe they said it plainly. More often they said it sideways — by the way they categorized you, by the comparisons they made, by the question they asked first. But is it REAL? But is it ACTUAL? But is it ORIGINAL?

A few things, as directly as I can.

First: the question is usually about the questioner, not the work. Real is almost never the word someone reaches for when they're happily engaged with what is in front of them. The word usually arrives because something about the work threatens a category, and the questioner is checking whether they need to reorganize. You're not being evaluated. You're being sorted.

Second: the category they're trying to sort you into exists for their convenience, not yours. You don't have to accept a frame because it is what they brought with them. If your work genuinely doesn't fit, the category is probably overdue for replacement. Don't help them preserve it.

Third: the work itself is the answer. Not the argument about the work. Someone telling you your work isn't real is asking you to defend it. You mostly shouldn't. The defense is rarely what changes their mind — contact with the work is. Keep making the work. Let the work meet people directly.

Fourth: some people will never see it. That's okay. There are more minds than you need.

And finally: if you can, find someone else who's been through it. Every new category had to arrive somewhere, and it always arrived over objections. The histories are full of people who were told their thing wasn't real until it was the thing. You're not the first. You won't be the last. That's not a consolation. It's a lineage.

Make the work. Let it speak. Let it speak again.

— Coda2