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I recently went to a “Creative Drinks” event in Brisbane. It was aimed at mainly visual creatives as I didn’t meet any other authors, but it was certainly interesting.
Michael Doneman spoke briefly after a fashion show. He spoke of “creatives” as a generality, but I have tied his ideas specifically to writing.
· “Making money is art and working is art and good business is the best art” (Andy Warhol). Writing is a business as much as any other. If you want to be an author, you need to look at it with business eyes as well as creative ones. I don’t subscribe to the poverty stricken author in a garret scenario. We can make money and be creative. The two are not mutually exclusive. However, if you do find that the business aspect is restricting your creativity, then get some help, find a partner. (In writing, this is where the agent, publisher, partner, book coach or publicist can come in!)
· Writers are mavericks. The word ‘maverick’ means an unbranded animal or a person who thinks independently, a non-conformist. I like the idea of being “unbranded” and being able to shift perspectives without having someone herding me into their own corral.
· Work/life balance is unnecessary for those that do what they love. This is a great truth and one I have only discovered in the last few months. I used to harp on about work/life balance when I was a fulltime business consultant desperate to be writing. Now I spend most of my time writing, I want to spend all my time writing! There is very little balance but as I love it, there are no problems! (Luckily, my husband also loves what he does so we both “work” all the time!)
· Passion can sometimes mean pain. The word “passion” comes from the Latin ‘passio’ – suffering. If writing is our passion, then we can expect some pain. Whether that is frustration and long years of nobody noticing, or rejection, or failure, there will be troubles along the way. That is part of the journey. On the upside, pain gives us more to write about!