^ that’s bowie as warhol in basquiat ^
You’ve got to pick your lane.
Writer. Musician. Artist.
Unless you live a long time, then perhaps you can get two lanes.
David Byrne has done nearly five lanes so far.
Needless to say, as an unfamous creative person, what will be your initial thrust? And then, the bigger question, I asked myself at sixty one, “What will be on your bio?”
I was trying to launch a tv series a few years ago with a high school bully. Today, when I think about all the time I spent digging down that rabbit hole, I don’t think I’d want to be known as a tv producer. I suspect that George RR Martin prefers to be called a writer. And we, you and me, are a long way from Game of Thrones fame. A long way.
Here’s the other piece of advice you hear about creativity.
Don’t just work on one project. If you’re polishing one tv series, for example, you’re going to be crushed when it’s ignored. If you have several scripts you’re shopping, books you’re writing, or musicals in development, you don’t have to hang your future on one work of art.
I push into several of these lanes today. But, what should be my focus over the next 20 – 30 years? (Hoping that I’m healthy enough and not prone to accidents.) Should I keep trying to get Adrien Grenier to read my script? (No budget no read, said his agent.) What about poetry, should I focus my energy and social media influence elsewhere?
What is better than poetry to set the expectations about art, commerce, and approval? What compels the poet to continue? How is a poem of any value or significance today?
Maybe “poet” would be the title I’d like on my wikipedia 3000 page. I’ll take Whitman and Paz. But wait, does that mean I have to give up Kerouac and Hunter S.? God no. What about music? Okay, pause, reboot my premise.
Okay, so…
- Limited hours in the day, each day, what are you going to be working on in your free time?
- What compels you to stay up late at night?
- What are you going to continue working on, no matter what?
One of my favorite gestalts these days is to ask a fellow creative person, “What’s lighting you up, these days?”
Do you have an answer?
Um… I’ll wait.
Seriously? Let’s try again.
“What are you excited about?”
I’d like to redirect your mind and your available bandwidth toward something that electrifies you, carbonates your blood, gets you talking really loud. We need to listen to the impulses of the soul. The poet, painter, composer inside.
Take out a piece of paper. Write down your favorite inspirational artists. I’ve given you three of mine. Now, which one of these luminous people would you like to be in ten, twenty, or thirty years? What’s a lifetime achievement award in manufacturing worth? Let’s find our soul fire and bring daily kindling and sparks of joy.
Here’s the last trick, though.
Keep most of it to yourself. Don’t let the energy to create escape by talking too much about what you’re creating. It’s a diversion. You don’t want to lose momentum on a project by talking to a friend about how “well it’s going.” Just say, “It’s going well.” Or. “I’m struggling with one part.” And leave it at that.
Read Rilke’s classic, Letters to a Young Poet. You’ll get the idea. And when you’re done with that, you might also like
I am here, cheering you on. And so is David Bowie who died only eight years older than I am now.
