I want to drill in and talk more about Creative Challenges in a Boring Dystopia – something I started to discuss on Monday. Every individual creator fights an uphill battle when it comes to success.
I can’t walk around venting my spleen though. Success will come when people love my work, not because they pity me. So, connecting the dots, what will take for me to get to the next level as a writer? Here are some quick notes that you can use as a template for yourself, or for understanding my perspective when I talk about my creative professional journey.
More Readers, Always
I remember a conversation with a successful author (no names, but they wrote a book about a guy who survived going to a planet … fill in the blanks) and they said their ‘watershed’ moment was getting to 10,000 subscribers on their mailing list. It’s no secret that authors get book deals based on their ability to sell a book. I should always be looking to meet new readers and make new connections. Figuring out how to do that as a quiet little dharma bum has been my journey.
Avoid ‘Fake It ‘Til You Make It’
I read another horror story about a bunk startup that made millions off of predatory schemes to underprivileged desperate people. I’m not going to lie, I want to be successful, I just have to trust that when success arrives, it’s because people connected with ME and MY STORIES – not just the story about me and my stories. It’s better, it’s worth it, and I want to be able to sleep at night in twenty years.
Nuts & Bolts Hold It Together
Where Disney or HBO Max have hundreds of thousands on the payroll, there’s just me keeping the lights on, the i’s dotted, and the t’s crossed. I can’t afford to focus too much on deep tech like SEO or publishing mechanics. I need to understand things like intellectual property law, technology, customer relationship management. None of those things are about ‘writing stories,’ but I better know something about them because I can’t afford to pay someone to do it for me. Maybe someday, but not yet. I need resources to keep these areas managed but also prioritized so I can focus on creating stories.
Craft of the Crap
I added something new to the Creative People’s Survival Guide Part One but this part remains true: There’s a lot of crap you deal with as an artist – whether you write, paint, model in 3D – whatever. Learning how to navigate that is what defines your success. Don’t hate, create.
Hopefully this helps explain what I’m going for when I talk about more creative challenges in a boring dystopia. There’s no going back. I don’t do this because I want to – I do this because I must. I didn’t choose to be creative, I was called to it. Now it’s time to move forward.
Write on!
