This is our 4th post in the ongoing series with freelance writer, editor and proofreader Jacqueline Snider, who covers the insights and inspirations she gained by attending the 10th Annual YES Artists’ Conference: Business Skills for Creative Souls.
Last week, she told us that there are strong reasons why we need to do things ourselves. This week, she tells us why we need drive also.
Speaking on the panel Creation & Inspiration – How they did it were several successful local artists, award winning writer and journalist Monique Polak spoke about drive.
She said that when she was starting out she said her there were people that told her that she was crazy for wanting to be a writer. She’s also a teacher and had always been teaching, but she wanted to write too so she did both.
And she said that sometimes, of course it’s hard, and while she has eleven books or so published – she’s obviously good at it – she also said you have to have the drive, you have to be able to, when you’re having a bad day, to sit down and write or do whatever it is that you do, whether you want to or not.
You have to keep at it. But how do you do that? And what happens if you don’t?
One of the points that the panellists all talked about was how often people get really close to succeeding, and then they throw the towel in. This happens all the time.
I think one of the reasons it happens is because people forget to have fun doing what they love. I think freelancers, artists and all kinds of people don’t always remember, or even think about it.
They take themselves so seriously – and while what they do is a serious venture – there’s a difference between being serious about what you do and getting so caught up in it that you forget why you are doing it.
