I grew up in a churchgoing household, and often had to suffer through Sunday School and Vacation Bible School sessions that were more than a little dumbed down. And when we’d talk about praying to the Big G, our teachers would always tell us that He wouldn’t respond in words, but rather with one of three messages: “Yes,” “No” or “Wait.”

Personally, I never liked that aspect of religion — as far as I was concerned, if God gave me a mouth to speak and ears to hear, why couldn’t He just talk to me directly? It’s a mystery I still don’t have an answer to. But as it happens, “Yes,” “No” and “Wait” are the three types of answers you’ll hear any time you are asking another human being or organization for support of some kind,  especially when it comes to creative works. Sadly, while I’ve seen many articles that tell aspiring writers how to elicit a “yes,” I haven’t seen many talking about what it means to “wait” or receive the all-too-common “no.”

And while this article might not be too helpful to those seeking spiritual answers from the Big Guy in Charge, it should be quite helpful to those seeking practical knowledge about gaining traction in the world of publishing.

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I’ve never understood America’s love affair with summer blockbusters — year after year, the summer releases are largely made up of the most overhyped, under-ripe films Hollywood can deliver. This is particularly sad when you consider that most of the movies released in the summer are either sequels to successful films, remakes of old films, or licensed from a popular novel, TV show, video game or comic book.

The category of animated children’s films is particularly dismal, and most are barely worth remembering, let alone paying $8.50 to get in the door. Sure, every now and then you get a Shrek or a Lilo and Stitch, which is well animated and smartly written. But most of the time, studios put out films like Madagascar or Chicken Little, which are little more than a string of sight gags tacked on to a bunch of one-liners read by celebrities. Sometimes, you even get films like last year’s Meet the Robinsons, which bore the distinction of being both poorly animated and wretchedly written, despite the fact that it came from Disney, who should really know better.

I’m a big fan of animation, whether it’s CG or cel, and I hate to see the category being filled with so much dreck. The film industry treats these films like 90 minute fables that wrap sugary, forgettable jokes around a moral center that leaves a bitter aftertaste. I mean, really, how many more films can be made with the theme, “be true to yourself,” or “be nice to other people”? Do the people producing these films really think children want these moral platitudes? Is it really worth bludgeoning the audience with a lesson at the end just to appease the few soccer moms who want to be able to say, “Now didn’t that movie have a nice message?”

Since so many of these films exist, it’s almost a futile question to ask. Clearly, since so many of these movies are made, that must be what the audience wants, right?

I might have come to this conclusion had it not been for one studio that never sinks to the level of its competition (or its parent company!). This is a studio that dominates the CG half of the category, though I have no doubts that they would be equally good at cel animation if they chose to try their hand at it. This is a studio that has produced so many hits so consistently that even its weaker films are on a whole different level from the rest of the stuff out there.

This studio is Pixar, and I’m pleased to say that they’ve achieved yet another triumph with their latest film, WALL-E.

And though the film is receiving near-universal praise, it’s also receiving a lot of criticism from people who are saying that the film’s environmental overtones are too pronounced and that it has an anti-consumerism agenda.

I disagree, for reasons I’ll explain in a moment. But I’d also like to point out that if you look closer at Pixar films, you’ll discover that all of their films have something deeper to share than just a neat story…

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Try your hand at anything in life, and chances are good that, before long, you’ll be told that you suck.

And most of the time, it’ll be true.

But there’s nothing wrong with sucking. Society has conditioned us to believe that we must be good at everything we do, or else we shouldn’t bother. We watch movies and television dramas where we constantly see actors and actresses behaving as if life is effortless; as if they will always triumph in any circumstance no matter how much the odds are stacked against them. We watch reality shows such as American Idol where we laugh at the silly fools who are kidding themselves, and we cheer on the folks who make pop music look easy. We love winners, and we shame losers; we make heroes out of those who triumph, whether or not they actually deserve it.

And that’s why we tell each other that we suck. And that’s also why we hate to suck. We want to believe that everything we attempt is going to turn out well. We want to believe that we’re all going to be successful because of our natural talent and abilities. We want to believe that just because we’ve worked hard at something, we’re going to be rewarded for it.

Unfortunately, that’s not how life works. The truth is that most of the time, we do suck, whether we want to admit it or not. Many parents that I’ve met suck at raising kids. Many artists that I’ve met suck at drawing. Many writers (many, many writers) that I’ve met suck at writing. Many educated people that I’ve met suck at thinking for themselves. Many churchgoing people that I’ve met suck at being genuinely nice to others.

That’s because sucking at something is the natural state of things. Being good, or even great, is something you have to work at.

But the first step is in being able to accept the fact that you do, indeed, suck.

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Have you ever told someone that you work in publishing (or want to work in publishing), only to find yourself cornered by them later because they have an idea they think you need to turn into a story?

Have you ever had an idea of your own that you had to share with all of your friends because you weren’t sure if it was any good?

Have you ever realized that you have far more ideas for projects than you could ever hope to develop?

Most people don’t get into the business of publishing for the money — they do it for the satisfaction of creating something cool. And whether you’re writing and/or publishing fiction, non-fiction, screenplays, plays, comic books, songs or articles, there’s something immensely satisfying about turning an idea into something from an idea into a tangible product.

But did you ever realize that one of the biggest mistakes creative people make is to talk about their ideas too often, to too many people?

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