Over a year ago I submitted my first song ever to Newgrounds. It is not on my portal today, but it was around February of 2016. This song was dubstep, or at least that was my intention, and I always wanted to be a producer of it. People thought the song was horrible, and as I listen to it every now and then I want to know how the hell I ever thought that sounded good. I did not ever try dubstep again till Superhero, which is another song that was pulled from my portal. At this time, I hardly knew how to make dubstep. I didn't know about the "2 step beat" or what usually goes into a drop. So, my song was a complete joke. I then went off to make Island a little while later (this song is actually on my portal), I still wasn't getting it. It wasn't until Rattlesnake where I realized what a 2 step beat was and what usually went into dubstep. The drop, nevertheless, still seemed like a complete joke. From then on I went into a seriously long drought of making anything, I made tons of drafts of dubstep songs that never went past 16-24 bars. Over this time though, I felt like I was learning a few things. I have only made 3 full tracks of dubstep since August when I made a little 110 drop experiment for fun. Each time I progress extremely slow, but I feel like I get somewhere.

The reason why I start out with such a paragraph is because this is over a year now that I have started producing, and I feel like I've been stuck. I'm not sure where you all were during your 2nd year of producing, but some artists were certainly better than I am now. It worries me that I progress very slowly, when I have many ideas I want to use. I can make songs really easily, but I always worry how people will think. This is a common statement I've heard from quite a few artists on here. And for a while, I've been trying to find ways to make that statement untrue.

Sometimes I feel like I'm too much of a perfectionist. I won't release or work on stuff because I feel like "people are going to think I'm this or that", and I think I need to not hold onto it so much. I will say I feel like most of this comes from the fact that most dubstep listeners set the bar extremely high. I'll admit it, I do too. I have a very specific taste. If a song doesn't sound close to what I usually listen to, I move on. This is what reflects on my music. I want to be able to make stuff people will like, but I feel like I haven't been able to achieve that goal yet.

I think it's time for a change of goals, and I encourage any other struggling artist to do this as well. I can remember telling a couple users (I'm not going to give names because this is not a situation in which it's necessary) who were pessimistic about their work and wanting to give up is that they should post it anyways even if they think it's bad. That's how you receive community feedback and that's how you can get a better idea of what you should be doing differently. I feel like a total hypocrite because I haven't followed this advice with my own work. I try and tell myself I'm improving, because even the feedback I've recieved proves it. One person who's reviewed my work for a while now, has noticed how well I was improving. On the first track they ever reviewed they said "It's alright", then it was "you're getting better, but...", then it was "you've imrpoved a bit, but there's still a few things you're not getting right", then it was "wow you are much better than you ever were before, but there's just one thing". This is why I like feedback. So, what I've decided my goal is, is to try and work on songs from start to finish and not build up a stockpile of 53 drafts. If there's something I mess up, I'll try and not make the same mistake next time. This is what I'm hoping I could follow as well as share with any other artists who are struggling. Newgrounds is a practice zone in my opinion. It's not like this is a do or die thing.