Many people consider me an artist; however, I don’t. I can’t draw a stickman. I can’t play any instrument. I can’t act. And no one wants to hear me sing.
My wife calls me a wordsmith, and I’m not sure the term applies to me. I may write novels, but I write science-fiction and fantasy. Nothing literary in any way. I still get peers and teachers looking down their nose at me for writing genre fiction, besides the scoff I get when I tell them I’m an indie author and publisher.
So what am I? People categorize themselves by what they do. Police officers, carpenters, mail carriers, etc. Am I an author? A novelist? A publisher? A crazy man who writes a small boatload of words each and every month in the hopes of earning it big?
Perhaps…
Perhaps the point of calling myself anything is to belong to a group of like-minded people. The sense of belonging is strong with most people. Am I an author? Perhaps. A Novelist? Perhaps? What I definitely am, is a Creative. I consider myself ultimately a creative whose medium is the written word, not the paintbrush or the graphics pen. However, this is not the point of this weeks blog post.
As I stated last week, I am going to University with the intended purpose of getting a degree in Creative Writing. My end goal is to use the knowledge I gain in earning my degree to start up an editing service or maybe a publishing house where I take other peoples novels and not just my own. At the moment I don’t have the knowledge or skills to be able to produce someone else’s book with the expertise required.
Going to University, I have noticed one thing which seems to stretch across the different types of artistry. All creatives, no matter if the student paints, draws, sculpts, graphic designs, sings, acts or writes, they seem to run into an after-school slump.
This is not only for after earning the degree but with the degree itself. The student spends four or more years of their life having someone else give parameters for what they have to produce. When they get an assignment with no parameters or especially when they want to do something for themselves, they have little ability to decide what to do. In fact, they struggle with it.
I have seen the struggle, the putting off the assignment until the last minute, sometimes for the sole reason that they don’t want to deal with making a decision. The only reason the student gets anything done is the deadline and the threat of a failing grade.
To this end, I have come to the determination that the act of working on my own projects first, then the schoolwork, is NOT a problem with my priorities. It will help within the long term with the ability to work independently without any outside force telling me what to work on or how to do it. I need to decide those on my own, give my own deadlines and stick to them.
In fact, it is something which all creatives going to school, going to work, and/or living complicated, busy lives need to do. Getting things done, despite the crazy in our lives, will lead to some type of success.
More on that next week. Until then, if you like what you are reading and wish to support me in my endeavours, please sign up to my newsletter, visit my Amazon Author Page and purchase one of my books. Leave a review, or buy me a coffee. Your help and support are much appreciated.
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