I spotted the link to Eric Fortune’s “Tips and Tricks from an Art Slave” on Twitter earliet today and now can’t remember who first passed the link along. (Chris Roberson, maybe?)
At any rate, I was glad I clicked through. Eric shares seven sensible tips to keep yourself from sliding down the slippery slope from artist to art slave. That is to say, someone engaged in enjoyable creative endeavor versus someone who’s finding their work “stressful, mindless and paycheck motivated”.
Although it’s targeted to visual artists, I could see any of the advice applying to writers or musicians as well. Worth a read.
This is ood advice:
Remember, somebody you know will be published before you or more often than you. They will be more successful. They will sell more books. They will get more speaking engagements. You think you will never make it. You won’t…unless you stop working so hard to catch up.
2k words a day still seems like it’s slow, but working that hard just makes it slower.