Why Being Unpopular is Good for the Artist

I promise I will return to musings directly about fantasy but this is an idea that I've been considering for a while and it might have some resonance considering the social standing of this genre.

Being unpopular - particularly at a young age - might be important for young artists. Now on to the anecdote...

I spent the first nine or so years of schooling as one of the unpopular kids. As soon as children were old enough to separate into groups and decide on a pecking order, I found myself at the bottom. I don't know exactly why but I was quiet, smart, read a lot, liked music and singing, and was terrible at sport.* I quickly accepted my lot, avoided the cool kids and generally had only one or two close friends. What this meant was that I spent my lunch time reading instead of playing tag or picking on the girls, I spent our free time in class drawing or writing rather than chatting and being naughty, and I went straight home from class and played outside by myself as I wielded wooden swords against hordes of imaginary foes and created vast stories as I went. That sounds kind of sad, and to an extent it was, but that was my lot as a kid and, retrospectively, I would not change a thing.
*Well actually I was good at Cricket, but that's Cricket.

 Kids draw a lot when they are younger and every drawing is - let's face it - terrible. I mean they are wonderful and important for expression and development, but kids lack the experience and ability to see and draw the actual shapes and go for generic representations. But these kids all love drawing and are always proud of what they've done, but something happens when they reach about the age of ten; they begin to criticise their own work and many stop drawing. As someone who kept drawing through adolescence and continued to the point where I am looking to sell my artwork, when I hear someone tell me "I wish I could draw like that," I can't help but think maybe if you didn't tell yourself you couldn't... or hadn't stopped when you were younger.
The same goes for singing. Almost everyone can sing (very few people are truly tone deaf) but in this young and malleable stage many children were told or decided that they couldn't sing, and so as the few who believed they could sing progressed and improved, those who believed they couldn't stagnated and remained with untapped potential. It's amazing to think how much un-mined gold can be found within every adult that was simply buried as a child.

This is where I return to the importance of being 'uncool.' You see, when I was in primary school and middle school I wanted to draw, I wanted to sing, I wanted to be in musicals, I wanted to write stories and I was so unpopular that I simply did them instead of conforming to the group consensus, which decided that everything I loved was uncool. I had few friends, but they were valuable and held similar interests. I would make up fantasy stories with them or we'd pretend to battle Uruk-hai  and although I only had one girlfriend before I turned 18 (and she left me because she liked Brad instead) and although I was socially outcast and wanted more friends, I propagated my art and now I am reaping the benefits.

Eventually, around year nine, apparently it became cool to sing Thirsty Mirc and do Monty Python skits, so I rode a wave to popularity from obscurity, and for the rest of my schooling the jocks left me alone because the girls thought I was cute when I sang soppy Coldplay songs, but by that time I was deeply jaded by popularity and I knew where my interests lay. I finally had friends, but it's highly telling that those friends I made after becoming 'cool' I do not count nearly as closely as those I made before it.

Now I write fantasy, almost impervious to the criticism of it being an invalid literary genre, because those who champion such ideas are just the same as the bullies who picked on me in grade three. I was never forced into giving up the art I loved so that I could have friends, because thankfully no-one liked me. I am in no way condoning bullying, but offering the silver lining that I found in retrospect.