There are no shortages of problems with being an artist. Your work tends to be undervalued, the amount of time and effort required is massive, the rejection is constant and unrelenting…
Somebody once said that “If you want to be a writer and can be anything else, be something else. Only be a writer if there is no other choice for you,” (I’m paraphrasing), and I kind of agree with that. I have to write. I’m miserable when I’m not writing. But by the same token, it’s a very hard road to travel.
But one of the problems I find I’m constantly running into is the desire to do all the things. Like, I have scripts I want to write, short movies I want to shoot, models I want to paint, music I want to practice and play… my desire to create far outstrips my time to do so. And so I am constantly balancing compromises… a few hours of writing followed by a few hours of painting followed by a few hours of playing music, and then back to writing and so on. There is always a dozen projects on the go.
Right now the novel takes priority, because it has simply been too long since I’ve published one and that’s unacceptable. But just because it’s the priority doesn’t mean I’m not doing everything else at the same time… and sure, I’m trying not to start more projects at the moment, but it’s just a question of time before I start another one!
Hope everyone out there is staying safe and healthy!