Making Art, Making a Life – Pt. 1

Those of you who have followed my writing journey on this blog may have noticed I’ve rebranded the website.

When I launched my website in 2011, the tagline was “A horror writer’s not necessarily horrific blog.” I was a fiction writer.

But then I left teaching to pursue a freelance writing career full time, drifted away from my blog, and as I mentioned in my previous post, I spent the last decade working in nonfiction, either editing or writing. Some of my positions were more fulfilling to my creative side than others, to be sure. Maybe you can relate.

Along the way, I had some publishing successes outside of my “day jobs.” A couple stories about my daughter, including one about her imaginary friend that was published by Writer’s Digest (which can be read here). A story about my dad and his fight with Parkinson’s (found here).

Always creative nonfiction – and often about my family, which is paramount to me (more on this in Pt. 2…stay tuned).

I’ve also had my rejections, both with creative nonfiction and fiction. Rejection is to be expected in the writing business, but it still stings – especially when you’ve had some successes.

Last fall, I revisited my website, and I rebranded it with a broader scope of publishing in mind. I’m not just a horror writer anymore, and I wanted my site to reflect that fact.

But I also rebranded with the blog in mind. I decided I wanted to talk about the creative process in general (granted, with a heavy writing slant, as that is my passion), and not just about horror topics (although you’ll probably still see a heavy slant there as well).

I believe the creative process involves more than just creating your art – it’s also about how to live as a creative person, ergo my new website tagline: “Create, revise, live, repeat.”

I believe an artist needs to be doing something related to their art

To circle back to the title of this post, “Making Art, Making a Life,” one of the biggest dilemmas I’ve encountered over the years is how to please my muse and still make a living. I believe an artist needs to be doing something related to their art in some form or fashion; if not, it feels like a piece of life is missing.

It may just be “passion peripheral” (I also like “art adjacent”). Although I’ve heard people say teaching is the worst job for a writer, I found high school language arts instruction fulfilling. Working for a publication that focused on arts and entertainment also had its rewards.

Working in news was mostly grim, beholden to blood and page views and ad dollars. I stayed there too long – and was grateful when they “asked” me to leave, but after that, I felt my creative tank being filled once again by working for a couple motorcycle magazines, where I enjoyed using my editing skills to polish some good human interest or travel stories – or go on adventures and write my own.

But if you aren’t fortunate enough to be making a living directly from your passion – or if your “passion peripheral” day job is not satisfying enough – yet you’re still supposed to be “making a life” for your family and your future, what do you do then?

In the last post, I said I was going to be keeping these shorter from now on, so this is just a teaser. I’ll leave that question I just posed to percolate until Part 2, but in the meantime, if you’re an artist, I’d love to hear in the comments below how you support your passion. Have you made it a regular living? Do you have a “passion peripheral” day job?

Or are you asking yourself, “What do I do now?”

Related post: Making Art, Making a Life – Pt. 2

Before I leave, a little bit of humor. I almost chose Michelangelo’s “Creation of Adam” (seen below) as the featured image for this post. I thought it was a funny double entendre to accompany the post title “Making Art, Making a Life.” I still think it’s funny, but I thought people might be confused just seeing the title and the painting without any context. And I’m no Michelangelo.

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