Thank you for the insightful reflections on a perceived dichotomy that affects so many of us.
Was it John Updike who famously maintained two -- or even three -- desks? One for writing/creating, a second for editing, and a third for conducting submissions, correspondence, and the general business side of the writing career. Whether that was Updike or someone else, it was genius.
Great observation. Btw, I love Smith's approach to writing as laid out in his book "Writing into the Dark," where he counsels writing without an outline, just letting the creative idea and impulse unfold and proceed as it wants, so that the very act of writing becomes an act of discovery that draws more effectively on the deep storytelling mind than any rationally planned act of creation could ever hope to do. In fact, the title of my Substack, "Living into the Dark," actually owes its name to Smith's book, as I explain in the post "Living, Writing, and Faith in the Creative Source" (https://mattcardin.substack.com/p/living-writing-and-faith-in-the-creative).
Yes! I’m reading that exact one right now. About halfway through. So cool! I’m implementing his techniques on my next book because my novel editing process wears me out and isn’t fun. It slows me down. Smith is onto something.
I hope his approach proves liberating and fun for you.
For a related but different approach to creativity, you might find something of interest in my book A Course in Demonic Creativity: A Writer's Guide to the Inner Genius. It's free at https://mattcardin.com/a-course-in-demonic-creativity.
Wow. It's great to know that I'm not alone in feeling this way. I often don't want to write what it takes to get paid, which is why my blog is not filled with posts like, "How to write a great blog post in 5 steps." Instead, I write about things like abundance, how to discover your calling, and how to wield the energetic force of influence. I need to find a way to let THAT content pay the bills!
I feel you. It's my experience that sticking to your guns definitely yields the best long term results. I don't know if that means money overnight, but I trust following it more so then giving in!
This is a great deconstruction of a depressingly common paradigm. I'm a writer who recognizes that my passions are not easily marketable. The chasm between making what I love and making a living at it seems impossibly wide. But I've learned that abandoning my art altogether is spiritually ruinous, so I might as well keep writing, and just keep looking for creative ways to connect the financial dots.
hear hear! Have you read Rick Rubin's the creative act? I think you'd like it a lot. He talks about different ways you might handle this. He also talks about how $$ and art is more a function of the culture then quality of work. I strongly agree with this and have written more about it here: https://scottbritton.substack.com/p/how-societal-consciousness-dictates
The spiritual bankruptcy is not worth the cost IMO!!
True! With creative superpowers connecting the dots also reveals how abundant we are.
Art is a Love act, it is made from an abundant source, as you give you receive. Now the way we use our creative superpowers need to bring solutions In a way to a market or we create our market. It's a long journey to connect the dots, but once we hit momentum we are on the highway living the magic of what it means "to create".
Thank you for this reflection! I started to write a paper yesterday about the importance of writing for ourselves in content creation, and not only for others. I am convinced we can create with even more enthusiasm when it’s first done for us.
This is a great article. Thank you. Like I said in my comment directly on it, aspects of your point remind me of the “multiple desk” method that some authors use for conducting different parts of their creative business — writing, editing, marketing and correspondence — at different desks or stations. Recognizing, honoring, embracing, and optimizing one’s effectiveness in each role is a winner’s move.
This is exactly what happened to me after several years in the entrepreneurial coaching space: “you’re forced to continue discussing topics that no longer resonate. This thing you once loved has become hollow and draining.” I stopped marketing myself because I just couldn’t stand talking about any of it anymore! And instead I started my Substack, where I write about whatever is present for me— topics that aren’t exactly moneymakers, like infertility, mental health, and talking to bugs!
Apr 11, 2023·edited Apr 11, 2023Liked by Scott Britton
I wanted to experiment on this comment I kept a comment 100% me alone on another comment and GPT on the comment on the piece.
I wrote on one piece how it has a different taste, it does. I have been using this testing for a new article. Thanks for spotting it out 🙂.
I did prompt him to summarize my longer response 🤖. It's funny how it reflects to the tower of Babel.
Here is the original:
I loved this piece and spotlight on an artist's transition. I guess we awaken as "artists" to speaking more and owning our spaces. And it demands to think creatively about spreading our art and vision. With the danger of creating following what draws attention, it becomes a signal to getting back home (creating genuinely). I think marketing reveals itself to artists and we enter a growing gear of positioning. I heard this great quote by Sarah Gray that states that: "In the space of inspiration the sale is easy". It is effortless to "do your thing", inspire, help people and as a result receive support from that. I guess artists who shy away from taking such space, grow into marketing and it's relevance creatively as long as it serves them "doing their thing". I feel it is a skill you unlock. From curiosity, to observing, to decoding and finally crafting your own formula.
Not easy for artists, not easy at all. We do like staying behind the scenes creating and being in our creative genius.
Hey no worries at all! I honestly was mostly intellectually curious and the help with commenting is a cool use case : ) So am I grateful for you expanding my perception of what is possible! I've been using it mostly for headlines, research, and finding examples for things in history around stories I want to tell. I appreciate you and hope you not I did not ask to make you feel a certain way! Thanks for your support
I loved this piece about an artist's transition and the importance of creative thinking when it comes to spreading our art and vision. It's easy to get caught up in creating for attention, but it's important to stay true to our genuine creative selves. Sarah Gray said it best: "In the space of inspiration, the sale is easy." When we do what we love and inspire others, the support will follow. Marketing is a skill that can be learned, from observing to decoding and crafting our own formula. It's not easy for artists who prefer to stay behind the scenes, but it's crucial for positioning ourselves and our art.
It can only help artists create better art and excel in "doing their thing".
The reason I left social media apps is because I found that instead of innocent marketing, I found it was drawing me deeper into the online world and out of real life. The platforms are designed to get you to spend as much time on them as possible and my addictive brain couldn’t moderate itself. Maybe other people are better, so I haven’t denounced all social media as evil (yet) but for me and my partner it kind of was. On any given day, an opportunity to get chores done that were desperately needed could easily get swept into a scroll session and time lost so fast. We just had to make the call and find other ways to connect with people, in real life. If I could limit myself to 15 minutes a day on social media I’d have kept it, but it always ended up being more like an hour plus, and I don’t have that kind of free time or hours in a day.
Not at all. I am glad you asked. I think it's useful and it can be used in many ways. As a tester, I also witness it's limit for me 🙂 That is cool as well to know what can be done with these tools.
Thank you for the insightful reflections on a perceived dichotomy that affects so many of us.
Was it John Updike who famously maintained two -- or even three -- desks? One for writing/creating, a second for editing, and a third for conducting submissions, correspondence, and the general business side of the writing career. Whether that was Updike or someone else, it was genius.
This feels like an apt metaphor for the necessity of compartmentalization for those of us who make art but also must sell it!
Wow I never heard this example before. Talk about context surfing!
Thanks for sharing and supporting my work!
Prolific author Dean Wesley Smith does the same thing. Different desks and different computers for different tasks.
Great observation. Btw, I love Smith's approach to writing as laid out in his book "Writing into the Dark," where he counsels writing without an outline, just letting the creative idea and impulse unfold and proceed as it wants, so that the very act of writing becomes an act of discovery that draws more effectively on the deep storytelling mind than any rationally planned act of creation could ever hope to do. In fact, the title of my Substack, "Living into the Dark," actually owes its name to Smith's book, as I explain in the post "Living, Writing, and Faith in the Creative Source" (https://mattcardin.substack.com/p/living-writing-and-faith-in-the-creative).
Yes! I’m reading that exact one right now. About halfway through. So cool! I’m implementing his techniques on my next book because my novel editing process wears me out and isn’t fun. It slows me down. Smith is onto something.
I hope his approach proves liberating and fun for you.
For a related but different approach to creativity, you might find something of interest in my book A Course in Demonic Creativity: A Writer's Guide to the Inner Genius. It's free at https://mattcardin.com/a-course-in-demonic-creativity.
Cool! Thanks. Just subbed to your stack. Def sounds like we're into similar topics. And I LOVE the title of Demonic Creativity! Haha awesome.
I'm glad it appeals. And glad to have you aboard!
Wow. It's great to know that I'm not alone in feeling this way. I often don't want to write what it takes to get paid, which is why my blog is not filled with posts like, "How to write a great blog post in 5 steps." Instead, I write about things like abundance, how to discover your calling, and how to wield the energetic force of influence. I need to find a way to let THAT content pay the bills!
I feel you. It's my experience that sticking to your guns definitely yields the best long term results. I don't know if that means money overnight, but I trust following it more so then giving in!
This is a great deconstruction of a depressingly common paradigm. I'm a writer who recognizes that my passions are not easily marketable. The chasm between making what I love and making a living at it seems impossibly wide. But I've learned that abandoning my art altogether is spiritually ruinous, so I might as well keep writing, and just keep looking for creative ways to connect the financial dots.
hear hear! Have you read Rick Rubin's the creative act? I think you'd like it a lot. He talks about different ways you might handle this. He also talks about how $$ and art is more a function of the culture then quality of work. I strongly agree with this and have written more about it here: https://scottbritton.substack.com/p/how-societal-consciousness-dictates
The spiritual bankruptcy is not worth the cost IMO!!
My brother-in-law (a dear friend) literally just sent us this book last week. So this is when I throw up my hands and say OK OK I'LL READ IT
Always good to pay attention to life's whispers : )
True! With creative superpowers connecting the dots also reveals how abundant we are.
Art is a Love act, it is made from an abundant source, as you give you receive. Now the way we use our creative superpowers need to bring solutions In a way to a market or we create our market. It's a long journey to connect the dots, but once we hit momentum we are on the highway living the magic of what it means "to create".
Thank you for this reflection! I started to write a paper yesterday about the importance of writing for ourselves in content creation, and not only for others. I am convinced we can create with even more enthusiasm when it’s first done for us.
Well said
This is exactly why I refuse to niche.
Niching = limiting, no thanks! Don't care what it means for growth rate
“Artists create things based on what they want to see in the world and/or for the joy they experience during the creation process.”
Yes! This is how writing and painting is for me!
Great blog!
Thanks Patricia!!!
Yes. Exactly. We writers do it because we can’t not do it.
Michael Mohr
‘Sincere American Writing’
https://michaelmohr.substack.com/
Lovely balanced article here - I relate to this line especially.
'Artists create things based on what they want to see in the world and/or for the joy they experience during the creation process.'
Glad you liked it David!
It's high quality work Scott!
This is a great article. Thank you. Like I said in my comment directly on it, aspects of your point remind me of the “multiple desk” method that some authors use for conducting different parts of their creative business — writing, editing, marketing and correspondence — at different desks or stations. Recognizing, honoring, embracing, and optimizing one’s effectiveness in each role is a winner’s move.
Thanks man! This is very well said: "Recognizing, honoring, embracing, and optimizing one’s effectiveness in each role is a winner’s move."
This is exactly what happened to me after several years in the entrepreneurial coaching space: “you’re forced to continue discussing topics that no longer resonate. This thing you once loved has become hollow and draining.” I stopped marketing myself because I just couldn’t stand talking about any of it anymore! And instead I started my Substack, where I write about whatever is present for me— topics that aren’t exactly moneymakers, like infertility, mental health, and talking to bugs!
Love it Liz! Follow your bliss and the rest takes care of itself
Best read yet as i delve into Substack.
Thank you kind sir
I wanted to experiment on this comment I kept a comment 100% me alone on another comment and GPT on the comment on the piece.
I wrote on one piece how it has a different taste, it does. I have been using this testing for a new article. Thanks for spotting it out 🙂.
I did prompt him to summarize my longer response 🤖. It's funny how it reflects to the tower of Babel.
Here is the original:
I loved this piece and spotlight on an artist's transition. I guess we awaken as "artists" to speaking more and owning our spaces. And it demands to think creatively about spreading our art and vision. With the danger of creating following what draws attention, it becomes a signal to getting back home (creating genuinely). I think marketing reveals itself to artists and we enter a growing gear of positioning. I heard this great quote by Sarah Gray that states that: "In the space of inspiration the sale is easy". It is effortless to "do your thing", inspire, help people and as a result receive support from that. I guess artists who shy away from taking such space, grow into marketing and it's relevance creatively as long as it serves them "doing their thing". I feel it is a skill you unlock. From curiosity, to observing, to decoding and finally crafting your own formula.
Not easy for artists, not easy at all. We do like staying behind the scenes creating and being in our creative genius.
Hey no worries at all! I honestly was mostly intellectually curious and the help with commenting is a cool use case : ) So am I grateful for you expanding my perception of what is possible! I've been using it mostly for headlines, research, and finding examples for things in history around stories I want to tell. I appreciate you and hope you not I did not ask to make you feel a certain way! Thanks for your support
Scott, Thank you for these insights. D
Thanks Dave : )
I loved this piece about an artist's transition and the importance of creative thinking when it comes to spreading our art and vision. It's easy to get caught up in creating for attention, but it's important to stay true to our genuine creative selves. Sarah Gray said it best: "In the space of inspiration, the sale is easy." When we do what we love and inspire others, the support will follow. Marketing is a skill that can be learned, from observing to decoding and crafting our own formula. It's not easy for artists who prefer to stay behind the scenes, but it's crucial for positioning ourselves and our art.
It can only help artists create better art and excel in "doing their thing".
Thank you. Did you use GPT for this? lol
The reason I left social media apps is because I found that instead of innocent marketing, I found it was drawing me deeper into the online world and out of real life. The platforms are designed to get you to spend as much time on them as possible and my addictive brain couldn’t moderate itself. Maybe other people are better, so I haven’t denounced all social media as evil (yet) but for me and my partner it kind of was. On any given day, an opportunity to get chores done that were desperately needed could easily get swept into a scroll session and time lost so fast. We just had to make the call and find other ways to connect with people, in real life. If I could limit myself to 15 minutes a day on social media I’d have kept it, but it always ended up being more like an hour plus, and I don’t have that kind of free time or hours in a day.
Exactly right
Not at all. I am glad you asked. I think it's useful and it can be used in many ways. As a tester, I also witness it's limit for me 🙂 That is cool as well to know what can be done with these tools.