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How to Fail as an Artist: My Best Tips
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May 6, 2026
When I first started creative writing, I read all sorts of “How to” books and ended up with a shelf or two of them. I tried the exercises, followed the blueprints that the authors told me sold success, but as I wrote this review, I didn’t write to create anymore, and haven’t for years. So, when I saw this title, I felt pulled in and this was the book I needed to read. When I picked up this book. I was not just failing as an artist; I failed to be an artist anymore. I once loved to write but I didn’t even try to write anymore. I was discouraged by my failures, and I didn’t know how to have fun with writing anymore. This was the book I needed, Thier covers her journey as finding the fun as an artist and how the project that you have fun creating is the one you were meant to make.
This memoir covers Their’s experiences as an artist: ranging from her use of creativity to find fun when she was growing up in Iseral, struggling to belong as an immigrant in the United States, struggling to be “successfully” creative as a young adult, and starting her own film school to help others learn how to write and produce films.
She names (both figuratively and literally) the different attitudes that aspiring artists get stuck in and rather than calling me out from where I’ve failed to even be an artist, Thier called me into her work by offering a transparent view of her creative process, including all the bumps that occur in acts of creation. One of the ways she does this well is that she introduces a cast of narrators to serve as representations of different internal dialogues that she has had throughout her life and shows what purposes they serve by interacting with them. Not only does this include her background as a screenwriter, it is fun to read and extremely relatable. One of these character’s is Mr. Stop, a sock puppet that fears the worse because your work will never be perfect and often manifests as writer’s block. On page 48, Their says “the truth of the matter is that, if your sock puppet—if your Mr. Stop has laid out expectations that make the work not fun, then the work will not be fun. And if your work isn’t fun, you won’t do you work.”
It was my hope when I first read this book that it would help me become an artist again even if it is one who fails and fails often. Reading this book reminded me that creating art is supposed to be fun and that is where success as an artist lies. Then just maybe on my path to failure I’ll succeed a few times and learn to have fun with art again along the way.
With all that being said, I’ll admit that Mr. Stop was right once in this book. When reading this book, as the introduction suggests, I did think of my own story because Thier writes her journey in a way that is universally relatable. I was “touched, moved, and changed” as 120-Year-Old-Ela so correctly presumes (88). When I read this book, I was giving up on myself as an artist this was the book I needed to read right now, and if you feel similarly, then this is the book you need to read too.
This memoir covers Their’s experiences as an artist: ranging from her use of creativity to find fun when she was growing up in Iseral, struggling to belong as an immigrant in the United States, struggling to be “successfully” creative as a young adult, and starting her own film school to help others learn how to write and produce films.
She names (both figuratively and literally) the different attitudes that aspiring artists get stuck in and rather than calling me out from where I’ve failed to even be an artist, Thier called me into her work by offering a transparent view of her creative process, including all the bumps that occur in acts of creation. One of the ways she does this well is that she introduces a cast of narrators to serve as representations of different internal dialogues that she has had throughout her life and shows what purposes they serve by interacting with them. Not only does this include her background as a screenwriter, it is fun to read and extremely relatable. One of these character’s is Mr. Stop, a sock puppet that fears the worse because your work will never be perfect and often manifests as writer’s block. On page 48, Their says “the truth of the matter is that, if your sock puppet—if your Mr. Stop has laid out expectations that make the work not fun, then the work will not be fun. And if your work isn’t fun, you won’t do you work.”
It was my hope when I first read this book that it would help me become an artist again even if it is one who fails and fails often. Reading this book reminded me that creating art is supposed to be fun and that is where success as an artist lies. Then just maybe on my path to failure I’ll succeed a few times and learn to have fun with art again along the way.
With all that being said, I’ll admit that Mr. Stop was right once in this book. When reading this book, as the introduction suggests, I did think of my own story because Thier writes her journey in a way that is universally relatable. I was “touched, moved, and changed” as 120-Year-Old-Ela so correctly presumes (88). When I read this book, I was giving up on myself as an artist this was the book I needed to read right now, and if you feel similarly, then this is the book you need to read too.
Displaying 1 of 1 review