(This is a bit about how I'm annoyed by stock creative advice. However, it's not a joke.)
For your very first project, start as big as you can. Work on your dream project right away. Learn how to tune and present things by bashing your head against something bigger than yourself. Internalize the feeling of defeat, the feeling of spotting the white whale at last. You'll need them if you want to make anything meaningful. Only after enlightened exhaustion can you begin your work on Snake.
Give into fear and shame. Your ancestors did not evolve fear and shame over millions of years for you to ignore them when doing something expressly meaningful to you. Ask yourself why you feel these things-- Do you fear failure? What are you ashamed of? Can you learn something about your values by asking these questions? Listen to fear and shame, defeat them if it's necessary for your soul, but never ignore them.
Think inside the box. There are thousands of years of tradition on how to write good sentences; even if your artistic medium is too young to vote, the question of how to do good writing did not originate with it. Just figure out the problem you need to solve ("My page is blank", &cet) and write the most obvious of the good, voiceful sentences that could solve it. Problem-solving creativity-- Do something weird, outside-the-box, &cet only when you (a) can clearly articulate the problem you need your sentence to solve, and (b) have tried the most obvious solution and it's not enough.
Seriously, don't worry about whether your art is something only you could make. Anyone can make art only they can make by publishing their social security number on itch. Worry about making obvious, good, voiceful sentences. You ever read a mathematical proof? Hundreds of the most obvious possible sentences strung together, literally just "if this is true, then this is true", and they still read like the author is pulling back the curtain of the night sky to reveal truth. By just saying true things in an order.
Don't worry about the inherent qualities of your medium. Sure, people have different ideas about what constitutes a good sentence in blogwriting vs. poetry vs. TTRPG design vs. Rust programming. But your voice is more important than any of these things. Just write a good sentence at a time (I keep saying sentences, but a single good whatever the atom of your creative project is). Then, figure out what problem your text has, and write a good sentence to solve it. Don't worry about whether you're in the "right" medium, and by god don't worry about whether you're saying something you can only say in that medium.
Think obsessively about your audience. Even books are interactive. Even self-indulgent smut for your eyes only starts a conversation between the you-author and the you-experiencer. Conversation. Whatever moral values you have regarding spoken or written conversations apply here, too. Even a tiresome monologue needs a listener.
Distrust your intuition. When you write a sentence that just seems right, and you don't know why, don't say "Well, my intuition knows best." That's how you get thoughtless caricature antagonists, the replication of kyriarchy laundered in as archetype or intuition. Perhaps say "I'm going to pause a moment and figure out why this sentence is effective", or perhaps "I'm going to continue writing, as a way of engaging with this sentence to figure out how it works." There is no Outside.
Don't join an artistic community. Find world-weary weirdos. Make loved ones, those who you can make art with, about, for. Learn to pick fights about art in a kind, compassionate way, and then pick fights about art all the goddamn time. Get people who will talk about art with you like you're an opponent in a board game. Be a bit of a curmudgeon, if you can do so kindly.
Don't try to change the world. Art is all talk. If the process of making and distributing your art feeds people, that's something you are doing rather than the art (and that's a very good thing).
Accept only perfection. Or at least a local maximum. Fight for something.
one of the things im conflicted about wrt this post is that on the surface it looks ironic / sarcastic / satiric and im torn as to whether thats a good thing. like if you think im not only wrong but wrongheaded about this kind of thing, youll just interpret it at satire, which had largely saved me from getting lectured by those who feel the need to Defend Art. (despite this post's ability to keep exploding ive only gotten one actually-really-rude comment, and it was talking about me rather than to me). its nice to have that sort of dissonance escape valve-- it prevents somebody from taking advice that'll make them miserable, just because somebody on the internet said it was a good idea.
however its terrifying looking at all the RTs like "ok most of you are reading this as sincere right? like i put a thing at the top and everything but was that enough? would it weaken the prose to put 60pt #FF0000 text at the top saying THIS IS 100% SINCERE. ID RATHER DIE ON THIS HILL THAN HIDE MY TRUE NATURE"
