A lot of words are thrown around when it comes to creative work: trust, community, ‘gift’ in the Lewis Hyde sense, sincerity, etc. But conviction is different—it’s belief in what you are doing, being driven to create something because it must exist. Because it exists already in your mind so strongly that it has to exist in the world. Conviction doesn’t cower to market forces, it doesn’t move with trends. If it’s not there, then what are you doing? I realize now that what I dislike about certain work—novels, films, whatever—is a lack of conviction.
What you imagine must exist, Joanne McNeil