RKYV Column #1 - Tips for the Artistic

This is a re-posting of a very old column, which will eventually be in sync with my current work.
For now, I hope this advice helps any struggling in the fields known as arts.

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Column 1 – Creation In Our World: Tips for the Artistic

This is the first column of, as I will greedily state, my own that I will have ever had the privilege and joy of writing. My writing experience thus far has been limited to short stories and poetry, with one memoir and one guest article in my high school’s paper. That makes this yet another little journey and step out of my comfort zone to allow expansion of the horizons.

So, to learn more about me: my name is Larissa. I am a soon-to-be college Freshman at the University of Pittsburgh, studying as an English writing major and beginning the quest to find a double that will actually pay my bills in the future. It’s a sad fact that writing alone is no longer a satisfactory job in the economical sense for the author. The environment that we live in today just does not support a single-path lifestyle.

Oddly enough, “environment within society” was the theme I presented to good old Randy when I saw he was looking for new columnists. The very first thought that came to my head was, well, I’ll be living in a city that serves as my college campus – surely, one of the best times to sit back before bed and observe how the day went in the artistical sense.

First, though, I better focus on the present. I’d hate to overstep the now and fail to see its potential. It’s a bad habit some people have, always expecting good in the future to the point they fail to see when the future becomes the now.

This summer was the first that I truly began to feel the taste of being an eighteen year old, and by that token, an adult. I finally earned my driver’s license (although it was a cheap trick: I took it with my school’s instructor rather than the tough money hogs). This meant that as long as I had a few bucks to pitch in for the all important and almost always hungry gas tank, I could drive my ’98 Camry wherever I wanted – and frankly, the car is so reliable and the mileage efficient that it is worth paying the money I do for driving her (yes, her; her name is Clarabel, after a coach in “Thomas the Tank Engine”).

This taste of freedom, however, did present a major change that had to be conquered in the aspiring writer’s lifestyle, and swiftly. See, with a car available, and a steady income from cleaning, redesigning, and painting the house as a form of cheap labor, the mall and the movie theaters were much closer than they once were. There was no longer the need to discuss times with my parents while working around the schedules of my friends, three family members, and myself. I called and planned the event with friends, piled the friends into their safety belts, and off we went.

This meant less discipline and restriction on my part, other than following the rules of the road and ensuring I arrived home in one peace. With more freedom, it became harder to write.

Well, I shouldn’t say that. I would have such amazing nights out I would come home, blab in my LiveJournal, and write a few poetic lines for the future. The problem came when I decided, hey, this experience would make a good memoir, or hey, this poem could be so good…if only I would settle down and design the idea.

As it seems is our habit, I developed a sense of fast-lane ADD: work for a bit, loose interest, and forevermore want to return to the project only to never do so. All the while, I created an ever-growing list of things to do that would probably never see completion.

Luckily, within a few weeks I did manage to quench this roaming side of mine. I wrote several poems and short stories, and with the sparse critique I received, managed to better it enough to send it in to several contests and publishers. No positive results yet, but then, that is the way it always is: a wall of rejections, one gold star for payoff.

There are a few tips I picked up as the summer went along to help myself improve my writing. I have a feeling, though, that these could be applied to some of the other crafts on RKYV. So, for those of you serious about your artwork, here is the best advice I have picked up or come to understand over the summer thus far.

1) Writers, write out morning pages. Just write whatever comes to your mind: the chores you’ll do that day, how you slept the night before, dreams, how you feel in the morning about events from the previous night, ect. These may eventually be able to provide you some inspiration, and if nothing else, can act as therapy to help you sort through your priorities and see just why you are having trouble writing.

2) Work on your craft early. Not necessarily when you wake up; I know plenty of people would fall head-first on their work without an hour to read the paper and drink a cup of coffee (or in my case, milk). However, beginning to write, sculpt, draw, paint, just work on your craft early in the day is the best way to go. There’s two reasons. One, you will have accomplished some progress before your schedule becomes swamped with that surprise call from a friend who made dinner reservations or bought movie tickets to the most anticipated movie of the year already. Two, if this doesn’t happen, you will have stimulated your creative side early, allowing more ideas to flow freely. Many times over, I found I had a better idea or that it was easier to restructure my drafts just by starting earlier in the day.

3) Keep some part of your craft near you whenever possible. I highly recommend an available pen and paper, just to write down the ideas as they come. Otherwise, you’ll lose them. Not everything that goes up comes back down, and that definitely applies to our ideas.

4) To best ensure you work on one thing, limit your time spent on other hobbies. I had a problem with TV for a time. Luckily, I discovered the magic of the DVR, cutting away twenty to thirty minutes of commercials. Now, I can watch the shows I want, often learn something new to use later on, and still have enough time to work and do chores after I’ve begun writing. Like I said: earlier in the day is a life saver.

5) No excuses for why you aren’t working. Even if you think something is blocking the ideas, keep going at it. Many brilliant artists of all sorts have said 95% of their material found its way into the pits of a muddy hole in an outhouse. Well, OK, they didn’t say it quite that way, but I think it makes the point they themselves said: most of what we begin with is indeed garbage. Believe me, I have scraped entire drafts that I spent two long and frustrating weeks crafting because I had to accept: the idea was fathomable, but the work was not quality and it had to be redone. Discipline yourselves to ALWAYS work on your craft for fifteen to thirty minutes a day, minimum. Even if you scrap the work because of its poor quality, you will be keeping that part of you alive and well by practicing.

So, the way I see it, we have one more month of possible summer work. Keep it up, fellow artists. I look forward to the next column. If you have your own complaints about something in your artistic environment, find my name on Facebook and message me, or else pass the message along through Randy.

Best of luck,
Larissa