Yep. After my PhD, with no jobs forthcoming, I decided to live off my writing and did a spectrum of part-time writing gigs simultaneously to make ends meet. I had some wild experiences, traveled a lot, and learned to have fun even though I was poor. The pandemic ended all that. Then I got a more conventional day job in a university office, which keeps the lights on and lets me get my teeth fixed. No regrets there. I don't bounce around Europe and Asia like I did when I was a freelancer, but once you've slept in one hostel for a month, you've slept in all of them (or with all of them, or in spite of all of them). Now I can write what I want instead of stealing from that to write junk other people want. There's a magazine editor out in Baltimore, who I really like and to whom I might still submit some work. But aside from him and the odd chickenfeed I get from literary publication efforts, I'm pretty happy not to be involved with monetizing my creative skills.
I find your tales of being working artist utterly fascinating, and admire your bravery in being so open about your mistakes.
I frequently considered trying to become a pro CGI artist, but knowing people who were (VERY) good, and how hard they had to work, and how often they were doing dull projects really put me off.
In the end I stuck with the IT job, (I was good at it, and it was well paid), and learned CGI art evenings and weekends.
Now I'm retired, I'm pursuing it properly, as a top up to my pension. I've got a few great regular customers, and I can turn down dull stuff, or ****-holes.
Another nice one, Colleen. Such experiences suck, but it´s better to experience them sooner than later, imho. If the newbie artist survives these douchebag shitebag humans, they learn to spot the red flags in future gigs.
I went through a similar thing on the writer's side. After leaving my long term show biz job (This program required lots of research and very tight and accurate writing -- What is Jeopardy!?), I hoped to find some work -- or at least income -- writing. Selling creative work takes a lot of time.
But I happened to connect with a guy who was starting up an SEO Marketing business as a side line to his computer repair business. He needed writers for this. Part of the deal for his clients was not just building them websites where the pages tracked well with Google searches, but also a blog, where fresh material could be added on a schedule. (Google ranks higher pages that "add to the information" on the web.)
There were challenges to the blog writing, because the subject of the post needed to lead organically into a plug for the business it was written for. SEO writing is HIGHLY structured, and using key words organically in the post was important -- but you couldn't over-use them.
I managed about six years of this and did it pretty well, but it was making me more and more depressed. I eventually realized that the SEO writing was killing my creative voice in my own writing, and that was breaking my heart. I had to stop. I regretted letting my friend down, but by then he had cultivated additional SEO writers, so it didn't have a major negative effect.
And I am happy to have left it behind. Doing freelance editing for writers is MUCH closer to creative writing, and I have the pleasure of helping writers find their own voices.
So yeah, beware the lure of the Almighty Dollar ruling your art. Support yourself otherwise, and be satisfied with doing that job well. Because then you can turn to your art, your craft, with joy and produce things that spring from your heart and not your wailing, empty wallet.
Yep. After my PhD, with no jobs forthcoming, I decided to live off my writing and did a spectrum of part-time writing gigs simultaneously to make ends meet. I had some wild experiences, traveled a lot, and learned to have fun even though I was poor. The pandemic ended all that. Then I got a more conventional day job in a university office, which keeps the lights on and lets me get my teeth fixed. No regrets there. I don't bounce around Europe and Asia like I did when I was a freelancer, but once you've slept in one hostel for a month, you've slept in all of them (or with all of them, or in spite of all of them). Now I can write what I want instead of stealing from that to write junk other people want. There's a magazine editor out in Baltimore, who I really like and to whom I might still submit some work. But aside from him and the odd chickenfeed I get from literary publication efforts, I'm pretty happy not to be involved with monetizing my creative skills.
I find your tales of being working artist utterly fascinating, and admire your bravery in being so open about your mistakes.
I frequently considered trying to become a pro CGI artist, but knowing people who were (VERY) good, and how hard they had to work, and how often they were doing dull projects really put me off.
In the end I stuck with the IT job, (I was good at it, and it was well paid), and learned CGI art evenings and weekends.
Now I'm retired, I'm pursuing it properly, as a top up to my pension. I've got a few great regular customers, and I can turn down dull stuff, or ****-holes.
Worked for me anyway!
Thanks again for all your wise words and art,
Nick
Another nice one, Colleen. Such experiences suck, but it´s better to experience them sooner than later, imho. If the newbie artist survives these douchebag shitebag humans, they learn to spot the red flags in future gigs.
I went through a similar thing on the writer's side. After leaving my long term show biz job (This program required lots of research and very tight and accurate writing -- What is Jeopardy!?), I hoped to find some work -- or at least income -- writing. Selling creative work takes a lot of time.
But I happened to connect with a guy who was starting up an SEO Marketing business as a side line to his computer repair business. He needed writers for this. Part of the deal for his clients was not just building them websites where the pages tracked well with Google searches, but also a blog, where fresh material could be added on a schedule. (Google ranks higher pages that "add to the information" on the web.)
There were challenges to the blog writing, because the subject of the post needed to lead organically into a plug for the business it was written for. SEO writing is HIGHLY structured, and using key words organically in the post was important -- but you couldn't over-use them.
I managed about six years of this and did it pretty well, but it was making me more and more depressed. I eventually realized that the SEO writing was killing my creative voice in my own writing, and that was breaking my heart. I had to stop. I regretted letting my friend down, but by then he had cultivated additional SEO writers, so it didn't have a major negative effect.
And I am happy to have left it behind. Doing freelance editing for writers is MUCH closer to creative writing, and I have the pleasure of helping writers find their own voices.
So yeah, beware the lure of the Almighty Dollar ruling your art. Support yourself otherwise, and be satisfied with doing that job well. Because then you can turn to your art, your craft, with joy and produce things that spring from your heart and not your wailing, empty wallet.