“Make small things. Find friends to counter the “bad” voice.

Do "unimportant" things (like small things, fast things, like journal in the notebook things, single panels, just faces, etc.) - the critics tend to be quelled a little when they think what you are doing is unimportant…”

The best rejection letter I ever got came from an editor who was hiring all my friends for a hip anthology in the 90s. I had made a somewhat popular 50-page comic at this point, and thought anyone should hire me.