Thank you for all of this. Needed it so badly today 🫶 as a fellow fantasy writer who often wonders if I'll ever finish my novel and feels the constant pressure of capitalism, the freedom to just be is transformative.
There are many environments when most of the work gets shifted to the hardest worker because it is easier than getting the other workers to work hard. The hard worker gets nothing for it because the not-so-hard workers would raise a "Not fair!" ruckus and management doesn't want to be bothered by it.
God, there's so much here to think on. We sold my day job over a year and a half ago and in all that time since I've been trying, struggling, and mostly failing at making a career out of art. I'm just not making enough money to live on. Last week my main Instagram account for my art was mistakenly suspended for a couple days and I thought I was going to die if I lost it for good. And then, this past Saturday, an outdoor market I set up at got ripped away by a storm, ruining some of my artwork and supplies before I even got to make a single sale.
I've been working with two friends on a dance and art thing that we're debuting later this month, but I keep getting bummed out about it knowing that attendance isn't going to be great and we're not going to make any money when I should be excited about performing my first ever dance of my own making. And today I'm going to the third and final art career workshop thing that a couple of my friends have been hosting. At the first one, they asked "what is your highest work?" That is, what is it you ultimately want to do with your art, what you provide to the world with it, and I've realized that tying art to finances is probably not the way to go.
I need to stop there, I've gotta run, but thank you for writing this and for giving me a new perspective and new ideas to consider on how to live.
omg yes to all of this! I hate that the word "producing" is even connected to "creating" at all. I've felt so alienated from the capital-W writing world for those exact same reasons. Thank you for sharing all this and I hope you get some nude time and some "un-productive" writing time 💚
Thank you for all of this. Needed it so badly today 🫶 as a fellow fantasy writer who often wonders if I'll ever finish my novel and feels the constant pressure of capitalism, the freedom to just be is transformative.
I'm so glad this resonated! I hope you feel that freedom in your writing and enjoy the not-finishing of it 💚
"Hard work only begot more hard work."
There are many environments when most of the work gets shifted to the hardest worker because it is easier than getting the other workers to work hard. The hard worker gets nothing for it because the not-so-hard workers would raise a "Not fair!" ruckus and management doesn't want to be bothered by it.
God, there's so much here to think on. We sold my day job over a year and a half ago and in all that time since I've been trying, struggling, and mostly failing at making a career out of art. I'm just not making enough money to live on. Last week my main Instagram account for my art was mistakenly suspended for a couple days and I thought I was going to die if I lost it for good. And then, this past Saturday, an outdoor market I set up at got ripped away by a storm, ruining some of my artwork and supplies before I even got to make a single sale.
I've been working with two friends on a dance and art thing that we're debuting later this month, but I keep getting bummed out about it knowing that attendance isn't going to be great and we're not going to make any money when I should be excited about performing my first ever dance of my own making. And today I'm going to the third and final art career workshop thing that a couple of my friends have been hosting. At the first one, they asked "what is your highest work?" That is, what is it you ultimately want to do with your art, what you provide to the world with it, and I've realized that tying art to finances is probably not the way to go.
I need to stop there, I've gotta run, but thank you for writing this and for giving me a new perspective and new ideas to consider on how to live.
omg yes to all of this! I hate that the word "producing" is even connected to "creating" at all. I've felt so alienated from the capital-W writing world for those exact same reasons. Thank you for sharing all this and I hope you get some nude time and some "un-productive" writing time 💚