Life ain’t easy and that holds doubly true for any struggling artist. Whatever your medium is, most people struggle to get over the initial hurdles and get some height up that greasy pole. So if you’re having a hard time of it, here’s some advice that may help you bypass all that bullshit:
Stop killing yourself over your work.
Everything you do will always be a work in progress, you will always be able to improve upon it and it will never be good enough. Don’t beat yourself up about it, this is a good sign. If you are feeling content and believe what you produce is the finished product then you’re lacking the vision and drive to really create.
Keep fucking up.
The old adage goes, you learn from your mistakes, and while you may not believe this as you’re drowning your last cluster-fuck with a tsunami of whiskey, when you return to the desk and give it another crack, that lesson will hold true.
Relax. No, seriously. Relax.
Second guessing, attacking your ego, concentrating on the negatives and self-sabotage are all a part of creative mind, but the bad news is, they aren’t helping you at all. Keeping yourself highly strung and hyper-sensative is stopping you from producing your best work. Relax in any way that will work for you; get your nails done, find a bar, mediate, just keep a notepad handy for when the inspiration starts to flow.
Do your own thing.
It’s important to have influences, to have mentors and to have people to follow; they help you establish your own voice and give you a goal to aim for. But work that inspires you should be a guide not a blueprint, by copying you do yourself an injustice. So take elements of work that stimulates you and add your own twist – innovate, don’t imitate.
Distribute, distribute, distribute.
It doesn’t matter if you think your work is destined for a pulitzer or belongs in an incinerator, it’s just important to get it out there. Send it to friends, stick it on forums, create a blog and post it to magazines. You’ll get feedback, you’ll get rejection and you may even get published, but most importantly you’ll get acknowledgment, and it’s from there you can establish yourself.
Big up yourself.
You’re going to be your own publicist, PR team and fan club member at the beginning, and if you wanna succeed you should take those jobs seriously. Confidence is infectious and if you have belief in your own work, others will start believing in it as well.
It’s not meant to be easy.
You create your best work when you’re down, out, desperate and alone. That might sound terrifying and depressing but it’s the cold hard truth. Console yourself that most of the world’s great writers, painters and musicians made their best stuff while climbing out of a hole. It’s not fair, but we all do better when our back is up against the wall.
Network, just don’t be slimy about it.
Networking is a dirty word, it creates an image of men in suits at business mixers swapping cards and circle jerking their collective achievements. Networking doesn’t have to be like this, especially not in the creative industries. Identify people you admire and contact them for a coffee or a drink. People love helping people, and so long as you’re honest and upfront with what you want the majority of the time they’ll help you get onto the next rung of the ladder.
Listen to yourself.
Create what you know, what you love and what keeps the fire in your soul burning. If you are creating it’s because you feel a need for it and a drive for it. Pursue what feeds the fire and avoid anything that may begin to dampen it.
