If this is your first article of mine you’re reading then, hello and welcome to The Practise, a series where I work through different programs designed to improve creativity. This article is episode four of Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way.

To see how we got to this point make sure to check out the rest of the series:

Check out the rest of the series:

Episode 1: The Artist’s Way: Week 1
Episode 2: The Artist’s Way: Week 4
Episode 3: The Artist’s Way: Week 8

Week Nine: Recovering a Sense of Compassion:

Tasks: Completed

Overview:
Straight off the bat Cameron says that this is one of points in the book where its many users are wanting to jump ship, me included - I just felt like I had my fill of internal introspection, but regardless week nine is complete.

This week established the relationship between your inner artist and the trifecta of guilt, fear and anger. Cameron urges us to just let go of the idea of being a great artist “The need to produce a great work of art makes it hard to produce any art at all” - which of course, is just perfectionism again. I think this week, I’m just going to focus on painting for painting’s sake. Just picking whatever art I think looks good on Pinterest, or any other inspiration and attempting to copy it or make it my own - just to put in my own little creative space.

Favourite Quote:

Painting:
That big canvas I bought a couple weeks ago? Haven’t touched it since. I also haven’t made any paintings this week either. I don’t know if my inner artist is on sabbatical or taking a nap, but this week, I just did not end up picking up a paintbrush.

In other news - the winners for the tiny art show have been announced and it is not me. But I did go and pick up my canvas from the library and now it’s sitting proudly next to my T.V.

Blueberries, anyone?

Writing: 56,000k

Quite disappointed with my word count this week, but this week again, just wasn’t it. Hopefully things change next week, but I’m hoping to get to at least 60k soon.

Morning Pages: 7/7

Artist Date: Movie night! Coraline.

Bought Coraline, a film I hadn’t seen since I was a little kid and had a solo movie night in my house. This is the first artist date that’s technically been inside my house, so I’m not sure if that counts or not, but since technically I’m in charge, I’m saying it does count.

Coraline, is of course a very very good film. It’s a bit saddening to watch now, with the Niel Gaiman controversy, but the artists and stop motion animators behind the scenes still deserve some love and praise.

Week Ten: Recovering a Sense of Protection:

Tasks: Completed

Overview:

Monday: In other news, I experienced some synchronicity today! It’s Monday - during my Morning Pages I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do as a second job. With my current WFH job, I spent most of my time indoors and I found that that’s not good for my creativity. For a few weeks I was tossing and turning between a Barista job and something in production management. Today I decided that I would get a Barista job for the rest of this year just to see if it works out. After I finished my morning pages I went on Indeed and found a job opening for a cafe near my house that had just been posted a couple days before. I decided to go into the cafe to check out the environment and ended up talking to one of the workers there, and her name was Grace - as in my DnD character! I’m deciding that’s a good sign. I’m going to put in my resume today.

Tuesday Update: Got a call, interview scheduled tomorrow!

Wednesday Update: Got the job!

Thursday Update: Got my schedule, I start on Monday!

Favourite Quote:

Painting:
Started and finished a painting this week! A huge difference from last week. A couple of years ago I took this photo of my car after I had finished tutoring a student at the library and really loved the composition. I had painted it last year but suddenly this week I thought that I could give it another go and see how my painting has progressed. And I’m really happy with the final result.

I think this painting is the one I’m most proud of, because it’s completely original. I took that photo and I painted it - and I think my blending and proportions have gotten a lot better too.

Passenger Seat

Writing: 58,000k

Got some writing done before I could start my new job, still not at a place that I wanted to be, but at least things are getting written, so perhaps the 100k word count isn’t feasible by the end of Week 12, but we gave it a shot, and maybe I just need a couple more weeks to settle into my new timetable.

Morning Pages: 7/7

Morning Pages have really been interesting this week, on Monday I had the sudden clarity of what I wanted to do, and during my Tuesday morning pages I got the call for an interview.

Artist Date: Boba Tea and a walk.

Not much to update on, this Artist Date wasn’t as good as the others, I left it too late and had a limited amount of options before things were closed, so I did try a new flavour of boba, but just did a short walk.

Week Eleven: Recovering a Sense of Autonomy

Tasks: Completed

Overview:
This week focused on acceptance of our identity as an artist. Cameron makes the distinction between fame and success, which I think is vital to our perception of ourselves as an artist. From an onlooker, especially a non-creative onlooker, the success of an artist is synonymous with the fame of the artist and putting that perspective on ourselves can be damaging to our inner child and our ego. “Success comes to us, we must be vigilant”

Cameron makes a note to “be very careful to surround (yourself) with people who nurture (your) artist”. I’d like to add that this doesn’t work if you don’t nurture yourself first.

Favourite Quote:

Painting:
A great painting week again! This time I painted Lorde’s Melodrama album, the time it took from buying the canvas to finishing painting was 2 days, which is probably my quickest painting ever. I’m really happy with the way it turned out. This was my first attempt at painting faces and I’m quite happy about it. I think I’ve improved my colour mixing skills - that used to be a sore point for me. But after going down a rabbit hole on Youtube, I’m a lot better. I’ve linked some of the videos I learnt from below. I think for next week, I’ll focus more on drawing than painting.

Writing: 60,000k

Writing took a hit this week too. I’m happy I still visited my manuscript this week, but the 100k by the end of week twelve ship has definitely sailed. Again disappointing, but I will say, I’m finding it easier to get into the rhythm of writing and I’m a lot less judgemental of my work.

Morning Pages: 3/7
I’m going to be honest, of the days I did do my morning pages, I don’t think I finished them. I’m a bit disappointed that I couldn’t commit to more this week, especially being one week away from finishing The Artist’s Way, but it is what it is and I think this week sleep won out.

Artist Date: :/ got sick.

Unfortunately I got super sick this week. I did put on a movie this week - not sure if this really counts as an Artist Date, but I think the point of them is to do what your inner child needs and this week, I just needed to stay home and watch a new movie. I ended up watching The Departed, which is actually my first Scorsese movie, (who coincidentally was married to Cameron for a while). I quite enjoyed it, I think I gave it a 3.5 /5 on my Letterboxed. I quite liked the dual timelines and how action packed it was. I will say that I never realised how much Dicapiro and a blonde Matt Damon look alike.

Week Twelve: Recovering a Sense of Faith

Tasks: Completed

Overview:

Last week of The Artist’s Way, the majority of this last week was reassurance that my creativity journey isn’t over when I finish the pages of this book and to trust myself to continue the journey. I do like that this book ends with a ‘creativity is a never ending journey’ and I think I still have gotten a sense of closure from it.

One point that Cameron makes is to establish that when you’re being creative = you’re being productive. She also says to be very protective of our art, our vision, what we see ourselves doing with our career - to “zip the lip. Button up. Keep a lid on it. Don’t give away the gold…only then will you be able to manifest what you desire”

Favourite Quote:

Painting:
No paintings this week, but a few sketches of faces and I think I’m getting better at them! I’ve decided that I want to get really really good at sketching/ painting portraits.

Writing: 60,346 / 100,000k

And officially the last word count of the Artist Way. I started with 31,000k, which means that over the course of the twelve weeks I have written 29,346 which averages out to 2,445 words per week, which is a lot smaller than I would of liked, but work i work and considering my schedule got jam packed the last 3-4 couple of weeks and I’m editing a manuscript too, I’d say that all in all, I’m happy with the result.

Morning Pages: 5/7

In a poetic ending, I finished my notebook! It was like I was meant to use this book for my Morning Pages. There was no dramatic, eureka moment, but it was so nice to get to know me every morning and see what where my mind took me.

Artist Date: : Almond Croissant at a small Cafe.

A calm and soft ending to the Artist Dates. Will I continue to do them - absolutely. Even if it’s just a - I’m taking time out of my day today to go and sketch in the park, it’s going in the schedule. I had a lot of the fun these Artist Dates, I remember at the start of the weeks I was very nervous to do them, but because of the Artist Dates I’ve done a Dnd game, I’ve gone rollerskating, seen good movies and met so many cute dogs alone the way.

So, would I recommend this book?

Yes, but with some notes.

Firstly, the main reason I was able to complete the tasks in the book was because my schedule is quite flexible. Most of my days have a late morning start, so I have time to get my Morning Pages done. I also have flexibility on the weekends to complete an Artist Date. Basically - I have some time on my hands to experiment and play with my creativity which is not something that everyone has. For a 9-5’er or parents, it’ll be quite hard to complete. The tasks at the end of each week can be done in a quick free one hour, but I think that morning pages will be the crux of the working parent.

I would say though that even a half-page of morning scribbles are still beneficial in a way that it’s calming to the mind to just take a minute to do one singular motion -writing, which requires all of your attention.

Secondly, in some parts of the book, the financial difference between artists is quite vast. All the content on trusting and loving your inner artists is accurate but the ability to follow up on that inner work and experimentation relies on taking the time to be in that frame in mind and then doing the work and that’s much more easily gained with the privilege of not having to worry about rent.

Despite this, I would recommend this book to others. Even if you don’t actually do the twelve week course and just read through the book, you’d still get value from it. The joy, pain and endless cycle of tweaking and tinkering with your art is something that Cameron understands very well and a lot of the chapters act like a hug towards that inner critic we all have. It’s worth grabbing a highlighter or just writing out some quotes to put on your wall if you’re particularly negative about your art.

In turns of if it improved my own art, I think it did, but very slightly. Over the 12 weeks, I painted more than I was doing before, but I think the real change was how much less judgemental of my work I now am and how much more curious I was about things I didn’t know. Basically, my internal environment became more habitable for artistic play. I really do think the real results will occur after 3-4 months of completing this book, so I’ll check in after that.

I will say that there has been a shift in my mindset of prioritising my art. For the first time I’m actively putting my writing and creativity as a top priority in my life and I’m much happier about it - again, I can do this, because my schedule allows. Usually, I’d sideline my writing time if something came up, but this time around there’s deliberate allocation of time during the day or week. And deadlines! I’ve found that deadlines are very helpful to actually get stuff done. Shocker.

So yes, I will check back in after 3 months to see where I go. I’ll give updates on my writing and my painting but I’m excited to see what’s coming next.

And thank you for reading this series, if you enjoyed it, let me know! It was super fun experimenting with my creativity and seeing what I was curious about. I learnt so many new things on my Artist Dates, my morning pages and I’m very happy I went through this.

Till next time,

Kaye.

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“The trouble is that we have a bad habit of considering happiness as something rather stupid. Only pain is intellectual, only evil interesting. This is the treason of the artist: a refusal to admit the banality of evil and the terrible boredom of pain.” - Ursula Le Guin

This is my absolute favourite quote of all time and it comes from esteemed author Ursula Le Guin. I came across this quote in high school whilst studying her text The Left Hand of Darkness (very good book, made better if you don’t have to write an exam on it) and it has stuck with me since.

Welcome back to the RoundUp, A series where I scour the internet for answers to common questions that tend to plague creatives and present my findings here.

Let’s end off this month with a bit of optimistic philosophy shall we? Today’s question is:

For those of you who follow SNL, Season 52 premiered recently with new cast members. One of which is Grace Reiter, a 25 year old comedian who started by making comedic sketches on TikTok with friends. After their channel American High became viral on TikTok, Reiter has appeared in Minimum Wage, a web series created by her and her friends, The Chair Company, a comedy-triller on HBO, and is now a member of SNL. Reiter’s first youtube shorts date back only to 2021.

As a first-year cast member on SNL, she’ll be making $3,000 per episode.

The web series Minimum Wage was bought by Netflix and will be premiering in October of this year. That’s another steady paycheck.

In my opinion her best work to date is her youtube video The Hunger Games (but better) - A Parody, which is a (near) shot for shot remake of The Hunger Games created by her and her friends for her birthday, with 14 million views so far, it’s a fan favourite and she’d working on a Twilight (but better) soon.

Another American High shorts alumni is Julia Dicesare. With 416.5K followers and 14.4m likes on Tiktok and 437k subscribers on Youtube, Dicesare’s youtube channel is a mix of her stand up routine, long form comedic series - The Reality of Apartment Hunting, White Women of the West Village and Every Episode of Sex and the City: Fornication and the Metropolitan Area. She is also part of Minimum Wage.

She has video diaries on her page, where she candidly vlogs her days, explaining that she moved to NYC to pursue comedy. It’s a rewarding experience to watch an artist before they ‘make it’, to see that drive and passion that’s so similar to yours, and want to reach out through the screen and tell them that they’ve done it.

What if it all works out?

Sometimes that’s a hard question to ask in the current world. Even from a creative standpoint, the idea of making it big in your industry may seem like such a long and daunting journey that requires items that you just don’t have in your pack.

Nepotism. A high follower count. Time to explore and make mistakes.

The average, has- a-full-time- job to pay the bills - artist is already been wrung out by the day. Then there’s the million other artists in the world ten steps ahead of you with every scroll of your thumb. Comparison is hard to outrun. But that’s not a reason to stop running.

I’ve been writing a book for the past five years. I just completed it at the start of this year (Hold for applause. Thank you) I kept coming back to it on and off absentmindedly. The first few drafts were terrible- that’s not self-depreciation, that’s just statistical- but it was good enough for me to keep writing. In the years of my life being unpredictable, it’s been something steady and growing- a linear progress I could count on while the initial years of adulthood proved anything but an assembly line of predicaments, each trying to one up the last.

I had the fleeting outline of an idea for it lining up to be let in the exam room for a very scary and stress-inducing test on Le Guin’s book. It instantly vanished from my mind when I sat and received lined paper.

When I returned to my locker, two hours later, very hungry and having no faith in my ability to understand the English language, the idea returned and something clicked into place enough for me to mull over it for a couple years, then finally open up a laptop and begin a five year long journey.

What do I have to show for it? What a strange way of thinking of the past five years. I was having fun.

Even if I hadn’t completed the book, it has served me in more ways than one. I know how to keep trying, I know rejection, I know late-night flow states, I know the satisfaction of smashing a word count. I know how to sit with discomfort, irritation, boredom, annoyance, intimidation, giddiness, joy, faith and curiosity.

And I have never had a boring train ride.

I think the reason I like the Le Guin quote is because it sort of says it doesn’t have to all be hard. Trying to get your creative career off the ground is a fun and challenging thing. Don’t let comparison extinguish the giddiness of actually following your dreams. And when you’re so wrapped up in what you could achieve in the next day, month, year, comparison just slowly fades away. Small side comments are met with confused disinterest and little things that you used to play on repeat to ignite your ambition gives way to soft, peaceful clarity.

Dedication beats obsession. Skill trumps talent. It will all work out.

And anyways, you have time.

***

Thanks for reading! It’s nice to meet you! Let us know if you like this type of content or if there’s anything else you’d like to hear from us.

You can find the creatives that were mentioned in this article down below, if there’s any topics or people you’d like to see me cover, let me know in the comments. (And if you’d like to be featured, let us know too!).

Thanks again for reading and remember - be kind to yourself!

Catch you later,

Kaye

Make sure to check out the artists mentioned!

Grace Reiter:

Youtube: @GraceReiter
Instagram: @GraceReiter
Tiktok: @reitergrace

Julia DiCesare

Youtube: @julia_disecare
Instagram: @@julia_disecare

https://www.juliadicesare.com/

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If you enjoyed this article, you might like to explore Steve's latest Deep Dive on why the algorithm keeps pushing creatives towards the average. It's another good reason to stop measuring yourself against metrics and get back to making the work you really want to make.

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Steve

This month for me has mainly been two things: music and reading. I’ve found myself with a bit of time off, and of course, rather than just read one book, I’ve got my head stuck in two. So hopefully, by the next on rotation, I’ll be able to update you on one of those. With that time off, I’ve also been putting on a lot of music, and I wanted to share just three albums today that are really standing out for me.

Salutations by Realizer - 4/5

On my time away, I found myself searching for more relaxing music, some jazz, and some guitar-based stuff. Classical guitar was one of my first instruments that I learned, and that’s why this album by Realizer has really jumped out at me. I’ve had this on rotation because it’s some incredibly beautiful classical guitar playing with really modern and melodic tools. If you want to sit back and enjoy some great guitar playing in the background, this is an awesome album to throw on.

Stream on Spotify:

Act IV: Rebirth in Reprise by The Dear Hunter 5/5

So, being in the process of working on an album with one of my main bands has got me back into listening for a defining album that can help articulate the tone, style, and influence in terms of what we’re playing.

I’ve actually chosen a song off this and suggested it as a reference track for our mixing. It’s got me back into listening after this. It’s one of my favourite The Dear Hunter albums.

Act IV and Act V are both incredible albums. They take you on an absolute journey, combining different styles very much in the alt-rock world, but a very progressive, almost experience going through this album. This would have to be one of my favorite albums of all time. I’ve been listening to it for years, and every time I go back to it, I feel like it’s something new again. So, yeah, this one’s got a lot of musicality in it. Hope you enjoy it.

Stream on Spotify:

Kid A by Radiohead 5/5

Is it possible to have 6/5?

Pretty impossible to not have Radiohead on this month. Of course, they’ve just announced their Australian tour, and I cannot tell you how excited I am to have some tickets to see them in Melbourne on one of the dates. I saw them last time in Australia, and it was hard to think of a show quite like it. Naturally, they’re back on my listening list. Hard to pick an album, but I’ve always been so obsessed with the keyboard line that kicks off the Kid A album. I think it’s such an amazing opening track, and it always makes me want to immediately put this on. If I haven’t listened to Radiohead in a while, I immediately want to start with “Everything in Its Right Place” and go from there. There’s part of me secretly that’s like, whoa, that’ll be great, if they start with that in their live set.

But look, there’s quite a chance that I’ll be sharing a Radiohead album here every month, leading up to their show in May next year. So we’ll see what happens. But yeah, not much extra explanation needed!

Stream on Spotify:

Kaye

A mix of new material and old this time around. Branching out a lot this time this month and found myself at the movies once again.

Six of Crows: a Darker Shore, Leigh Bardugo 5/5

The long awaited, yet surprising third instalment of the Six of Crows duology, A Darker Shore is the perfect, controlled glimpse into the events post duology. As a lover of these books in my teenage years, I’ve been looking forward to buying this book since news came out of its release.

If you haven’t read the duology, do yourself a favour and read through it. Bardugo’s two stories are New Adult, but is a gripping, mature and emotionally poignant story that has stayed with me for years. It’s something special to have characters you grew up with suddenly be the same age as you again. First with the new ATLA movie and now with the resurgence of the Crows, it’s been a good year for my younger self.

The humor, the worldbuilding, the designs, the score, the puzzles - all of it is amazing and fully transports you into the world of Ketterdam once more. One of the highlights of my year and a very very easy 5/5

Serena joy, oliva rodrigo 5/5

A single, post third studio album from Rodrigo and just before her Daisy Chain festival, Rodrigo offers a quiet, rageful commentary on the current landscape of women’s rights in America. As someone watching on from Australia, Rodrigo’s refusal to back down from what she believes in and her constant, brave and admirable stance against discriminatory politics elevates her from a regular pop star into a role model.

Named after an antagonist/ victim from The Handmaid’s Tale the song balances a rage that is so deeply ingrained in the female experience with the youthful hope of togetherness. 5/5.

The Mentalist 3.5/5

A procedural, enclosed story each episode, The Mentalist seems to be a mix of Law and Order and Sherlock, yet with its own optimistic spin.

The character of Patrick Jane, a mentalist - someone who is a master manipulator, stands on his own. It’s a breath of fresh air to have a smart and slightly arrogant character be written as a genuine kind person. Compared to other leading men that share the same mental acuity - Sherlock, Dr. House, Tony Stark, to name a few, Patrick Jane is able to hold his own. Halfway through the first season it’s a good background show or a show to just relax after a long day. 3.5/5

The Box Man, Kobe Abe 3/5

A man decides to live the rest of his life in a box. That’s the premise of the book.

Intriguing but weird. I’ve read one other story by Kobe and that’s The Woman in the Dunes, a twilight zone episodic storyline too. I did enjoy the book, but couldn’t cast the idea that this idea for a story would have such widely different connotations if the author, or even just the unnamed protagonist, was a woman.

Spider- Man: Brand New Day 4/5

The best of the Holland Spiderman movies, in my opinion.

I quite enjoyed the movie. The stunts and choreography were very good and the actual Spiderman suit itself was synthetic which really helped with the realism of the movie. There were quite a lot of mature decisions of the characters that seemed quite out of place for a Marvel movie - in a good way.

It seemed to be quite a feat to produce a very good movie after the introduction of Toby Macguire and Andrew Garfield’s respective spidermen in the third instalment of the franchise, (spoilers, whoops) but Brand New Day delivers on plot, character development, pacing and humor.

Personally, whenever there’s a fight scene, regardless of genre, it’s always more interesting to me when characters of different strengths, sizes and powers fight each other - waterbenders vs earthbenders, (ATLA) or humans vs titans (Attack on Titan) , or even a wrestler vs a bjj fighter (Physical 100).

With the lack of female-led superhero movies, the dynamics of a fight scene with Spiderman, a hero that relies heavily on gymanstics is really fun to view and shows what we could have had with more Black Widow movies.

The only note in the film is the normalisation of surveillance equipment by Peter Parker, which seemed to be very out of character - that and his rewritten financial situation, it seems like they’ve slowly moved away from the broke student since Mcguire’s interpretation.

Melodrama, Lorde 4/5

Inspired to listen to the album for the first time because of a recent painting and very happy I did.

The second studio album by the Royals singer, Melodrama is the perfect blend alternative/indie/ pop album. My favourites are Green Light, Liability and Supercut - I have listened to those songs before, but they did stand out again against the others. As a theatre lover, I do very appreciate the use of Liability and Liability Reprise.

Prima, ADELA 4/5

The first full album of the Slovakian singer and a very strong sound.

Despite being a relatively new artist Adela has her branding locked down, her particular taste of music is so succinctly fine-tuned throughout her album. She knows exactly who she is and what she’s selling. Her unique fashion of punk-ballet,her soft, sultry vocals and evocative lyrics blend seamlessly together. Her songs range from club bangers (Boys, I’m the Man, Nicole Kidman) to soft sentimentalities (Hitachi, Therapy), to her pride of being an immigrant runs through the whole album from the opening track KGB to the closing track Ain’t in LA.

What have you been reading, listening to or watching? Let us know in the comments below. See you next week for a brand new article. And next month for another rendition of On Rotation.

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This poses a significant problem; these platforms must rely on technology to ensure they remain relevant to the people that use them.

Over time, algorithms have been fine-tuned on large quantities of data; 0’s and 1’s that make predictions about what someone will likely want to consume next.

But great creative work is not itself made to be easily predictable. So using these prediction machines, while useful & important is also highly flawed (in more ways than one).

The problem is the promise they offer to everyone; the same promise that a poker (aka slot) machine offers. Unpredictable rewards to the few.

It’s these unpredictable rewards that keep people playing. Seeking the reward of gratification as we consume, and accomplishment as our content performs.

When it comes to content produced for today’s platforms it’s no wonder that creative people talk of burning out, of feeling stuck on a hamster wheel, of being pushed and pulled in endless directions.

Because when we bend our creativity to what we think a machine wants, we break something in the process; we break a binding promise we once made to our creativity; to serve it, to nurture it, to explore it, to listen to it and to bravely publish it.

But creating for the algorithm is not creating for our own creativity; it’s creating for someone else’s. And in this case, that someone else is merely a near infinite array of 0’s and 1’s.

No wonder it makes us feel icky. So in this Deep Dive, something a little different today. Really it’s a question for us all to reflect upon: What would it look like if everything you made was to honour the promise you made to your creativity, and nothing more?

What you’ll find as you read along:

• Why algorithms are not as smart as we’re led to believe

• The MrBeastification of YouTube and why it serves us an important reminder

• The only way to create true outlier content and campaigns; and it’s not what people usually talk about when they talk about outliers.

The algorithm isn’t making our work better

Average stuff for average people; that is what algorithms are naturally pushing towards, surely? All those datapoints, pooled together to create an average of people like you; to make an assumption that “if you liked that”, someone else like you “will like it too”.

Well my friend, tell me this is not a game of averages. And in a game of averages what is produced? Something entirely predictable; something that looks and feels similar to what’s worked before. Something average.

Competition in a market based economy is naturally going to create the environment for this; where one thing working becomes another person’s opportunity to compete.

Where there is demand, there will be competition. This occurs in all industries, but in the creative industries it’s ever more perilous. It’s getting easier for everyone to make good work; so much so that we find ourselves consuming more stuff that’s just a bit, well, mid.

And it’s worse on social media than anywhere; with unlimited pulls on the lever, and a determination to find that magic outlier; something that can feel like striking gold.

But the promise of gold is a myth and the search for it arduous and full of risk. Because we only have finite time on this planet. And do we really want to be using that time to hopefully win that jackpot of views? Or do we want to spend out time making work that actually serves a purpose; work that serves our creativity?

And so the question becomes: Would you rather seek the approval of an algorithm, with your work that comfortably fits in what those 0’s and 1’s understand? Or, would you rather commit to your creativity and make your thing your way, anyway?

The idea for this article was first explored as a video essay over on our YouTube channel; you might like to watch this next.

The MrBeastificaton of Everything

There was a time where every thumbnail on YouTube began to slowly but surely look like a MrBeast thumbnail. Why? Because of the promise of gold.

But what happens when everybody fitted within this design trend? Everyone that isn’t MrBeast began to look like a copy cat idiot.

Same thing always happens when we have an outlier brand or campaign. Remember when Charli xcx went anti-marketing on us and produced the most influential marketing campaign of 2024? It didn’t take long for every business try to captilise. I noticed everything from real-estate commercials to billboards for bratwurst sausages in that unlikely green moss tinge and sans-serif font.

There’s an old saying that marketers ruin everything; and in today’s world we are at risk of everyone being one of ‘those’ marketers. Trying to piggy-back on everyone else’s results but not really making anything unique of their own; getting diminishing results over time, and turning to more desperate tactics to try to force the marketing to work.

Of course this is getting worse with AI, but I won’t turn this into another AI response. Because that cheapens the fact that humans are at the foot of this mountain, deciding whether to climb and how they’ll do it.

Point being, content isn’t an easy climb. Distribution of your creative projects, not an easy climb. Marketing, just like mountaineering, is hard. And you have choices to make; what tools you’ll use. Who you’ll travel with. What resources you’ll bring along for the journey.

Most importantly is the direction you’ll take. The long way, the fast way, will you try to shortcut it, or will you be present through the process for as long as it takes.

You only get so many attempts at climbing this mountain. And of course it pays to move down a path that’s well worn. But to truly breakthrough, we need discover something new, something of our own; so simply trying to replicate others, in my mind, is unlikely to achieve the real goal most creative people set out to achieve.

And if you were to listen to the algorithm, with the promise of an ever-faster climb, are you going to do it the best way, or the most predictable way? We’ve all been on those weird side-roads as Google Maps assures you there' is a faster way, only to follow a train of other cars who are also trusting the algorithm.

If everyone’s on the mountain at the same time, climbing the same way, what happens? Like any major city traffic jam, you’ll be there on the same road as everyone else.

Thinking there was only one path; but everyone’s on it.

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This is not how creativity works

Great marketing is inherently creative; that’s in all industries. But especially important when your actual product or service is creative. When what you produce as an artist, a maker, a creator is inherently your creative output.

You need your marketing to be more creative, not less. And I believe this is only going to get more important as humans tune out of the noise of AI slop and become active audiences again; seeking new things out with purpose, not on autopilot.

Creativity is asking this of you; to produce for it, not for an algorithm. To allow yourself to be average for as long as it takes, not by bending yourself to the most average of common denominators, but by wrestling with the creative process and making average things on your own accord until they aren’t average anymore.

The only way to produce things that will stand out in the future, in my mind, is to commit to your creativity for the long-term, in all ways that the public sees it.

There is no good argument anymore that creative work and marketing are separate; today we are challenged to produce our creative work in different formats that allow all our work to be explored in different ways. Gone are the days where our marketing was purely in existence to promote our creative work.

And we cannot forget that algorithms function to keep consumers happy; which means they are a bi-product of a platform’s economic incentive.

We must remember this; these platforms do not win when you make better work. They only win when people are kept on platform. All they need to do this is to get better at making average recommendations and to have an endless sea of options in what to recommend.

But you my friend, you benefit only when your creativity wins.

And if your creativity wins, from the hard-won slog you went through to nurture it, you might, just might, find yourself with a real outlier on your hands.

Now that isn’t easy, nor guaranteed, but the prize is that if nothing pans out you will still feel accomplished. And if indeed it turns out the algorithm does love what you made, well you and your creativity stands to benefit significantly more.

It won’t look like everyone else’s work.

It’ll stand out. It’ll be yours. And suddenly, everyone will be racing to copy you.

But you will know that that doesn’t matter. Because the only way to be a true outlier, is not to create for the algorithm, but to create for yourself.

A few questions to sit with:

• What would your content look like if you made it to nurture your creativity, not the algorithm?

• How would marketing your creative projects change if you didn’t study what worked for others, and let your creativity lead the charge instead?

• Is it possible to find a way to reconcile the allure of the algorithm with the desire to honour your creative self?

Ready for more?

Read this next: We are all overthinking our content strategies

If you enjoyed this article you might like to explore our first update on building a content strategy for Futureative; in it I give real-world insights from over a decade of building creative brands. What we’re learning in real-time as we build this brand from scratch.

Front Row by Futureative is for independent creatives who want to start, finish & launch their best projects yet. Come explore the future of creativity with us.

We’re also publishing on: Instagram | YouTube | TikTok | LinkedIn | Threads

The first is that creative people who commit to making their best work over time, have a shot at living a creative life. In this process, those hard won creative skills become assets over time that pay dividends in other areas of our careers and our lives.

The second is that this goal is far more likely to be realised when those same creative people commit to the marketing process, as an extension of their creativity, as something that can and should be planned for, that can be a contribution to the world in and of itself, that houses pathways and opportunities for audiences, sustainability and impact.

I share this note because Futureative is being built quite literally from the ground up, in real time, it is not a clean, clear or simple process. It is creative, messy, exploratory and we are learning things daily, weekly, monthly.

At the start of this year we learnt our biggest lesson yet; that great marketing is as creative as the larger body of work itself. We are learning that because we set out to “do marketing” one way and immediately the market showed us a way to do it differently; a better way.

A more creative way.

What came next was significantly more experimentation and iteration than I ever expected for 2026.

But we are beginning, now at the 8 month mark, to begin to see the earliest signs off payoff; a unique creative brand that will stand tall, proud and be resilient to the test of time.

And over the next few minutes I’ll be sharing my current reflections on what we’re learning this year about marketing through a creative lens and some ways it might help you to bring your creativity to the world too.

What we’ll explore together as you read along:

• The problem with trying to create an optimised content strategy for your creativity.

• Three real-world lessons looking back on projects that have worked.

• How we are framing our content strategy today, but not even calling it a content strategy.

Optimise For This, That & The Other

If you want to extract every bit of soul, fun and creativity from your projects, the best way to do this is to try to optimise your marketing by using today’s hot new marketing strategy.

And even the best of us can find ourselves there. “Here’s what works” is a well-used hook because it draws attention; humans crave answers, shortcuts and results. We are biologically wired to seek these things, even if we’ve been burnt before.

That’s why this article, is about marketing, but not in the way that’s designed to get readers. This article is really about creativity because I believe the best marketing is just creative work existing in new spaces and in new formats.

But the world doesn’t want you to think that way; that your individuality could be a super power. That your time and effort could be better spent by ‘wasting’ time not optimising your time. That' doesn’t get the same amount of clicks.

The world wants you to optimise, and deep down you may at times want this too. Because wouldn’t it be lovely for our marketing to ‘just work’ for once so that we could go back to being creative?

But optimisation culture does not make your marketing better; it makes you bend yourself towards the shape of a box that somebody else made. And you know better than that, don’t you?

This is why I think we are all overthinking our marketing; especially when it comes to content and our creative strategies.

How do I know this is true? Because this year it happened to me again; and it’s not the first time. Where the thinking, design, strategy made our marketing perform worse, not better.

Over January & February of this year we began rolling out a content strategy that was months in the making. And then watched it get outperformed by a couple of completely unplanned posts on a channel we never expected to be on.

At first, I was surprised, but then again, I also wasn’t at all. Because every time I’ve experienced growth online, it has never been about what the marketing we planned for; it’s always been about the creativity that followed.

The best way to explain what we’re doing now and why, is to go back and explore a few lessons learned over the last decade (and then some) of throwing my entire being at being a working creative. So here goes.

Lesson #1: Connections

This lesson came in 2013, when I was getting started in the industry as a music industry consultant, I spent my first 12 months on Twitter just connecting with people; I connected with new folks daily, whilst posting perspectives, ideas & commentary on the music industry. People that had shared interests became more than ‘connections’, we grew a connection. Some of these people I would go on to collaborate with for years to come, others became clients, one I still meet with for a weekly creative mastermind call.

Simply following people wouldn’t have worked, nor would posting content for content sake. I was able to grow my first real following and get my start in business because of a presence I was bringing.

Within 12 months I’d grown to about 3 or 4,000 followers from memory, which turned to 10k over the next year or two. Perhaps small by today’s ‘standards’ but I think there lies the problem; the standards and expectations we’ve placed on volume, which encourages us to do things that are against our very nature. And believe me I got things wrong back then too; overoptimising for reach instead of connection, despite the lesson staring me in the face then and there.

We are forgetting that audiences are built by shared experience; and that shared experience is what creates connection. Isn’t that what the promise of ‘social media’ was always meant to be, anyway?

Lesson #2: Community

Fast forward a few years, I had just enough clients to call myself a business but needed a breakthrough to be able to make my business model more sustainable. I had been learning everything I could about community based marketing concepts and what goes into a powerful community.

I also always wanted an actual brand-brand (not just operating under my name) so in 2016 after a good 12 months of planning I launched a new brand called the Music Launch Hub; it began as a Facebook Group and an email list. It had an event attached to it called the Music Launch Summit and the idea was to create a home for independent music artists and professionals online. I wanted to specifically bring these two groups of people together. It was certainly not the first music industry group like this but it was the first large-scale online music conference in the world.

I brought together quite literally all of the DIY industry’s top names into one event for the first time. Over the course of 6 months our little Facebook Group grew from its first few members, to about 2,500. No ads, nothing went viral; we just sent out invitations and put on an event.

Why did it work? It was community at the core. People connecting with people.

The first hundred or two hundred members came because I emailed everyone I knew personally that I thought might be interested in a new community. Those people invited others as the network effects kicked in.

Only one problem; it grew faster than I expected, and my business model wasn’t clear enough. It wasn’t long before the community grew to 10k members and I’d lost the magic; the connection became harder to faciliate at this scale and I began to burn out from the sheer weight of trying to make this initiative sustainable.

But the lesson has always been obvious to me, even then; this worked because I was on a mission to bring likeminded people together; it worked for as long as I was able to effectively bring people together. I didn’t shut down the Music Launch Hub because I didn’t know what worked, it was the opposite; I knew that connection was the key and I simply ran out of steam to be able to deliver on that promise.

It turns out, lesson #2 looks a lot like lesson #1, doesn’t it?

The idea for this Deep Dive was first explored as a video essay on our YouTube channel, you might like to watch this next.

Lesson #3: Content

Fast forward to 2026 and a new lesson appears; this time, about content. But I can’t ignore the fact it’s the same lesson again. Because content in today’s world that is devoid of community & connection is devoid of the thing that makes it work long-term.

We started a content plan and we’ve ended with a creative project; why? Because creative projects stand the test of time. I standby every decision we’ve made over the last year of developing our content strategy, what got us here was simply beginning the creative process. But that doesn’t mean we got it right from day one. Here’s what we did:

We dialled in our brand voice and our brand kit, we chose our platforms and created a way to produce a weekly YouTube video that could also be turned into daily content across TikTok, Instagram & LinkedIn. Video first, easily replicable; it ticked all the boxes, until it didn’t.

As we began to roll this out, news broke of SXSW Sydney being cancelled. I wrote an article n a whim, needed somewhere to put it, opened up Substack, hit publish and then over the next week began posting notes across Substack. This experimentation brought me back to my early days on Twitter, which led me to Threads as well.

We had our first connections forming right there; not on the content that we were meticulously crafting, but on the real-time thoughts and discussions.

Shared interest + shared experience = better creative strategy.

What’s followed is an entirely new journey of creative output. Where we’ve slowly shifted our focus towards acting less like a thought leader and more like a publication, which makes far more sense for the brand and our founding team of two.

Now we have been experimenting creatively on social media for the past few months as we’ve been using this experimentation to also improve our brand voice and brand kit.

We no longer have a content strategy; we simply have a creative strategy.

Because a content strategy that isn’t creative lacks something key; it lacks an opportunity for connection. It lacks a chance to build more than audience; to build community.

And that’s where I think it’s so easy to overthink our content strategies. We all need to start somewhere and it helps to have a plan. But at the end of the day, the goal can’t be to “just go post”. It has to be to move the needle on our own creativity.

It has to, surely, be about creativity itself?

I hope you notice this is not a blog telling you what to do. We are far from at a point where we “have the answers” and we still have a long way to go to prove to ourselves that Futureative is a brand worthy of people’s time.

But I believe we are taking the right steps to get there. We’re doing it our way. We’re not following one person’s step-by-step plan. We are not determined to produce at scale just because we can.

We are doing our best to be creative, reflect on creativity, document that process.

And when it’s time to teach best practice, we’ll have our online conferences for that; so we can bring together multiple perspectives, voices and experiences (not just our own).

The future of creativity starts with being creative. Creativity first, always.

Next, it’s how we turn that creativity into experiences people can consume; an opportunity for 2 or more people to connect.

Then it’s about making sure we’re evolving our creativity to something people can participate in; by opening the doorway to community.

That’s why we’re calling this a creative strategy; not a content strategy.

Creative people, need more creative strategies, not less.

And I only write that with so such certainty because this is the reminder we needed as we started a content strategy and bit by bit used that as a gateway into a creative strategy.

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The Takeaway: Our Creative Publishing Phase Begins

That sounded like the takeaway, didn’t it? Even I thought it was, until I walked away and came back the next day. This Deep Dive keeps asking something more of me, to go dig for the next layer. Here’s the actual takeaway…

Creatives find marketing hard because it takes us away from our creative work. But what if our marketing could also be our creative work? What would need to change?

I explored this in my last Deep Dive; Fast Lane, Slow Lane. In it, I discussed a mental model I use to have two complimentary creative projects running at once. One that acts as a deeper body of work, the other as a form of marketing.

But the whole point was to help eliminate the need to “go do marketing” and instead replace it with something focused, fun and creatively rewarding.

Well it turns out, what we learned and what we’ve ended up doing, is to go all-in on our fast lane. So much so, that we’ve ditched the idea of having topics to talk about. Instead, we’ve created formats to create within.

Our first strategy involved a weekly idea, turned into the video, cut up into repurpose-able content for other channels. A totally plausible, well used approach to creating content.

Then, we shifted gears and starting focusing more on creative practice, exploration and creative development; it kept things moving and allowed us to test out content ideas and make some connections; we turned out content strategy into a creative strategy.

Now though? We have by nature of our creative strategy found ourself with a publishing strategy; instead of topics, we now have formats.

We now have a clearly defined fast lane project that isn’t simply content creation; it’s a publication that houses a range of formats interesting to us.

• The Deep Dive — Steve’s long-form take on creative practice, process, and where the creative industries are headed.

• The Round Up — Kaye spotlights working creatives (and, soon, our summit speakers) to unpack what’s actually driving their creative careers and creative projects.

• The Practise — Kaye road-tests real creative programs and practices in the field, with our own creative experiments to follow.

• The Rotation (formerly Futureative Favourites) — Our monthly overview of what’s on rotation at Futureative this month; what we’re listening to, reading, and watching that’s inspiring us creatively right now.

• The Toolkit (coming soon) — Practical rundowns of tools for creative professionals, and for launching and running a creative practice.

• The Gameplan (coming soon) — Paid-subscribers only, step-by-step mini workshops and sprints to get a specific project or goal into the world.

Our formats create a space to produce content that inspires us creatively, that is a creative project in and of itself, that it just so happens can inspire other creative outputs.

We don’t have a content strategy anymore. We have a publishing strategy.

And not a traditional publishing strategy; not about deadlines and reach but one that is being designed to continually inspire us creatively. So we can produce things for the world that we actually want to produce.

The resistance to “go do marketing” surely comes from a place where marketing is taking us away from our craft.

What if our craft could simply exist in new ways, or in this case, new formats, so we never have to do marketing again?

I appreciate it’s early days; this isn’t an article sharing what I intend to be my new found approach to content that while change your life. I don’t yet know how this story ends. I don’t yet know if it’ll work.

But I do know it’s working for us. Creatively. And with that, I have clarity on what we’re making.

A space that can allow once again for real connections, real community and content that’s designed to savoured.

We’ll keep you posted on how it goes.

Some questions to sit with:

• What would your content strategy look like if you led with creativity first and let the platform strategy follow?

• How would your overall marketing change if you looked at it through the lens of creative exploration first, outcome and output second?

• What’s one thing you’ve always wanted to produce creatively

Ready for more?

Read this next: Fast Lane, Slow Lane

This article goes hand in hand with my last Deep Dive. In it, you can explore how I use a mental model to balance the competing demands of creative projects and it just so happens to be a way to bring a creative publishing strategy to life.

Front Row by Futureative is for independent creatives who want to start, finish & launch their best projects yet. Come explore the future of creativity with us.

We’re also publishing on: Instagram | YouTube | TikTok | LinkedIn | Threads

In case you’re new here, hello and welcome to The Practise, a series where i work through different programs designed to improve creativity. This article is episode three of Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way.

Check out the rest of the series:

Episode 1 - The Artist’s Way: Week 1
Episode 2: The Artist’s Way: Week 4
Episode 3: The Artist’s Way: Week 8
Episode 4: The Artist’s Way: Week 12

Last we left off, Julia Cameron was accurately predicting every major self revelation I was having and my skepticism of the first couple weeks had melted away.

Super excited to dive into the third instalment. Let’s go!

Psst.. If you’re not already subscribed to Front Row, consider joining us so you don’t miss a thing!

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Week Five: Recovering a Sense of Possibility

Tasks: Completed

Overview:

Again, this book has predicted almost word for word my thoughts the week previously. I thought I was a unique person, but apparently not. There have been multiple times I have written ‘this woman is in my brain’ in the margins of this book.

It’s quite confronting to know that your procrastination, hesitance, nervousness, confusion, apathy and anger is textbook. But it’s also quite liberating. If it can be predicted, it can be handled. This week slightly skims into a heavier topic surrounding mental health, so depending on which way on the pendulum you are, the text for this week might be easier to read in intervals.

Favourite Quote:

Painting:

Bought the biggest canvas I have ever bought and decided to paint a photo from when I surprised my friend with a surprise picnic in the park. Right now only the underpainting is completed, but I’m excited for it to go on my wall.

Also, to note - usually it takes me forever to decide what to paint, but this was such a quick decision.

Writing: 48,000 / 100,000k

3k this week. A bit slow but I think this weekend I’ll be writing a lot more. Also - almost halfway through my manuscript!

Morning Pages: 7/7
I’ve been doing this for five weeks now, and this week it was really getting to me. The first couple of days were tiring and annoying. I feel like I’ve leeched my brain of all interesting, subconscious anecdotes that have made me act and become who I am. I’m getting quite tired of introspection.

Artist Date: The Odyssey in IMAX

If you haven’t been to the movies by yourself before, I highly recommend it, it’s great - especially in the middle of the day, if your work schedule allows. And in this instance if you have a spare 3 hours.

So - my review of the Odyssey. I really liked it. I’ve enjoyed Christopher Nolan’s movies and I think this is my favourite of the ones he’s done, seconded by Momento. I think Nolan does cinematography and plot very well, I absolutely loved all the visual effects, the sets and the animatronics, the score - I think it was all masterfully done and it easily makes it into my top ten favourite films.

The pacing was very good too, despite being 3 hours long, there was no lull in the storyline and the only movie that I wasn’t looking at my watch around the 2 hour mark.

All the actors were great - obviously, they’re all household names for a reason but it would have been easier to immerse myself in the story if it had been faces I hadn’t seen before. I also would’ve liked Penelope’s character to be fleshed out more. I do recommend reading The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood.

I have not read the Odyssey yet - but I have read surrounding texts, as well as being a loyal Percy Jackson fan.

Week Six: Recovering a Sense of Abundance

Tasks: Completed

Overview:
This was the first week of the book where I lost the message a little bit. This week was all about money, and how to overcome your ideas that your art won’t pay your bills. The book talks about ‘luxuries’ which might be fresh fruit, or a subscription to a magazine - it asks you to examine where your money goes and what you spend for your own little luxuries. One of the tasks this week was to keep a pocket notebook and write down where your money goes - and I happened to buy a pocket notebook on my Artist Date two weeks ago, so that’s another coincidence in the book.

However, one sentence in particular that threw me off was “Recently, I bought myself a horse for the first time in a decade”

I’d say up to this week, the advice in this book could be broadly applied to every person, but this simple phrase just took me completely out of it and was a stark reminder that the ‘starting point’ varies a lot for each artist.

I wouldn’t say that it’s enough to not go through the book though, and flicking through the rest of it, it seems that this is the only ‘money’ chapter. Though if similar phrasing pops up it is definitely disengaging.

Favourite Quote:

Painting:
My local library has a tiny art show and this week I gave in my piece - some small blueberries, inspired by a browse through Pinterest. Winner gets a gift pack from Officeworks, so fingers crossed.

Writing: 52,000k / 100,000k

4k this week and officially past the halfway point - this is the point where I actually start to lose momentum in my manuscripts so we’ll see how the next couple of weeks fare.

I’m aiming for 100,000k for draft one of my manuscript, which is Book 2 of a series I’m writing. Book 1 is being sent to an editor at the start of October so another thing on my radar before I send it off is to do a couple of passes of editing. So that might halt my word count, but hopefully, we will still make steady progress on both.

Morning Pages: 7/7
Again, I really struggled this week. I really did not want to write. For one of my journals I just wrote the word ‘yes’ for half a page because it was really not coming to me.

Artist Date: Rollerskating Lesson

Do I know how to rollerskate? No.
Did I cling to the wall for all of it? Yes.

But it was super fun! Apart from a long forgotten kids birthday party I attended as a child, I have no experience rollerskating, so it was fun and interesting to go to a session. I think I would have been embarrassed if it was only children there, but luckily, there were the parents of a kid that was in the class and they graciously adopted me for the majority of the lesson which was great. I’ve been recovering from an injury for the greater part of last year, so it was a big mental hurdle to go and do an activity that pretty much guarantees at some point you will fall over.

I’m quite envious of people that can glide easily in the rink, so I think this might be a fortnightly activity for me. I’ll check in on the next couple weeks to see if I go back and if I gain a little bit more grace than looking like a giraffe on ice.

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Week Seven: Recovering a Sense of Connection

Tasks: Completed

Overview:

This week focused on perfectionism and jealousy. We’ve begun shifting our perspective from discovering what our subconscious thinks about the creative practise to to making the right attitude to begin creating. I think there will be a big difference between the second half of the Artist’s Way and the first.

Favourite Quote:

Painting:

This week is voting week for the Tiny Art Competition at my library, so fingers crossed. Two winners and around 30 people have submitted canvases, so a 1/15 chance if my maths is correct. The politics of the Tiny Art Show has become the most talked about subject in my friend group, which gives you a glimpse into the riveting worlds of our lives.

In other art news, I did a couple of random oil pastel drawings. Put the timer for 10 minutes and just doodled. I always wanted to make a range of cards, but always get stumped on what exactly to put on them. There’s a couple friends’ birthdays coming up at the end of this year, so I’d like to make something for them.

Writing: 53,000k / 100,00k

Unfortunately, I got sick this week! So it was three days of being completely out of it. The writing definitely took a hit but I managed to put a book on editing on hold at the library and I’ll be going through that this week. Funny how 100,000k by Week 12 seemed so doable 2 weeks ago and now seems way too little time.

However, as I work through the book and shift some chapters around, I think the final count for Draft 1 may land somewhere between 90,000k and 100,000k, so I might just be on track.

Morning Pages: 5/ 7

5/7 due to getting sick. More than a few of the morning pages where done mid morning but regardless they were done - I’ve found myself suddenly infused with ideas about my manuscript. I’ll be writing about my life and then suddenly start writing about the decision my main character makes in chapter 3.

Artist Date: Dungeons and Dragons

Over the years a couple of people from different friend groups have said that I’d enjoy D&D, so I looked up games in my area and found one that runs every 2nd and 4th Saturday of the month. I wasn’t as anxious about this Artist Date as I was rollerskating and I had a lot of fun.

For those who don’t know, D&D is a role-playing game where players create characters that exist in the world created by the Dungeon Master. Characters can roam freely within the confines of the game, completing quests, defeating enemies and adventuring.

As it was my first time, I was given a character type, I believe it’s called and I was an Elvish Solider called Grace - why ‘Grace’? because I had recently re-watched Project Hail Mary (5/5 amaze, amaze, amaze). We ended up defeating a bad guy for the whole session and it was a lot of fun.

There was a lot more maths and acting that I anticipated, everyone around me was pulling grammy award winning dialogue at the drop of a hat. It was overall a fun experience but I’m not sure if it’s my thing. The sessions went for 5 hours, which I think is a standard session for D&D and I don’t know if my attention span allows that. Still, I’m so glad I checked it out and everyone I met was super lovely. I also gained 350exp and a flaming sword, so, a great Saturday night.

Week Eight: Recovering a Sense of Strength

Tasks: Completed.

Overview:
This week - revolved around the actions that you are taking - or not taking. The chapter talks about ego deaths, the survival of the inner artist and the roadblocks that you’ve subconsciously digested over the years, especially since you were a child. One of the tasks consists of you filling in the blank on role models you had as a child and how that affected your view of creativity.

It’s interesting to note that creativity - the actual act of creating has been framed as a side effect in this book. At no point so far as Cameron instructed the reader to spend 30 minutes a day on their craft, or set a goal for a crafting business. All the work is intrinsic, aimed to get into the core root of your relationship with art. And I think it was an excellent decision to frame it that way. I’ve picked up a paintbrush more times these past couple of months than I have this year.

This chapter had a lot of tough love as well, it asks us to remember times we betrayed or shut down our creativity and allow ourselves to firstly grieve and then move on.

Favourite Quote:

Painting: Bad news friends, I don’t think I’ve won the Tiny Art Show at my local library. Winners are apparently contacted this week and my phone has stayed silent. I know it’s devastating news, but hey, we took a shot, it was a fun time and I got a free canvas to paint on.

Writing: 55,700k /100,000k

Slowing down with my writing this week, I really have to put it into gear for the next coming weeks if I want to make my 100,000k limit in 4 weeks. By quick maths estimation ~ 44,000 words / 4 weeks is 11,000 each week, which is…rough. Don’t know how that happened.

Morning pages: 7/7
Back in the flow again this week and also nearly finished my notebook!

Artist Date: Spa
Used a gift card from my birthday months ago and booked a spa appointment. 10/10.

Final Thoughts

I think the biggest change I can see is my feelings about the Artist Dates. I think I’m going outside my comfort zone a lot more. I’m also much less anxious than I was before, which is interesting.

I think I’ve been looking at creativity through the output - how do I measure creativity, through a word count or a finished painting, but I’ve been implementing it in other aspects of my life. I’ve been wearing different combinations of outfits, going to see different things. I’ve also ventured out to different items off the menu whenever I go to restaurants. A couple weeks ago I tried coffee and now I’ve started drinking it. My morning and evening routines have been switching up too.

This week - as a self proclaimed night owl - I woke up extra early just so I could eat breakfast and watch an episode of The Mentalist before starting my day. These little things don’t seem like such a big deal, but they’ve been little tests against the invisible structures that guard my day - I’ve never watched TV before 12pm my whole life, because that was just something I never did, or questioned. I’ve always chosen a hot chocolate over a coffee - it’s just interesting to note how creativity infuses throughout the rest of my life.

My writing consistency has stayed the same, but my scrutiny of my work has lessened. I used to re-write specific scenes in my drafts over and over because I didn’t like how unpolished they looked, even though that was the point of the first draft. Now I’m happy with the imperfections, happy enough to leave them and continue on with the big picture changes rather than fussing over every single little detail.

Something else I’ve been toying with is maybe selling some art. I quite like the business aspect of it, but I always fell flat at what I’m actually going to paint. I tend to paint things for people in my life, rather than just create art for art sake. I also shunned away from the idea because I don’t really paint that much, I also don’t hold it to such high regard as writing. I think of myself as a writer who paints, not a painter who writes. But maybe that descriptor is good, maybe it lessens the grip of perfectionism. I’m not sure. I guess a couple more weeks of The Artist’s Way and some more morning pages will help me figure out what I want to do.

But I do have a new goal - create some greeting cards! I think that’s a nice chill activity I can get into. They’re also easy to create too - make a print and send it to either an Officeworks or Kmart (or canva!). So we’ll see how that goes.

Goals:

1. 80% finish editing Book 1 Manuscript

2. Finish Draft 1 of Book 2 (90,000 - 100,000k) (currently at ~55k)

3. Make x2 paintings for myself to put on my wall.

4. Create x5 greeting cards.

Artist Dates so far:

Week 1 - Local shopping centre.

Week 2 - The Nutcracker Ballet

Week 3 - Aimless driving

Week 4 - Bookstore

Week 5 - The Odyssey in IMAX

Week 6 - Rollerskating Class

Week 7 - Dungeons and Dragons

Week 8 - Spa

Week 9 -

Week 10 -

Week 11 -

Week 12 -

I’m excited to see what I get up to in the next 4 weeks. Hopefully, my writing amps up so I can make my goal, and I’ll know more about what I want to do with my paintings.

Next week is the final instalment, and I will officially be an alumni of The Artists’s Way so make sure to check that out, and I’ll see you in another month for Ep 4 of The Practise.

Catch you later,

Kaye

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“Falling in love again with your craft is inevitable. Creativity is disinterested in the hive of productivity; it rejects the notion of optimisation and demands rest when it is needed. So rest.

And anyway, there’s always tomorrow.” - Me

We’ve got to that point in the RoundUp where I’m quoting my own past articles. Not sure yet if that’s a good sign or bad, but it does deepen the RoundUp cinematic universe I guess.

Hello, new reader who has no idea what’s going on and the other three regulars, - Welcome to the RoundUp! A series where I scour the internet for answers to common questions that tend to plague creatives and present my findings here.

Today’s question continues on from last article’s question - how do you fall back in love with your craft?

Falling in love, or falling back in love is really not up to you, it’s quite easy to follow the shiny new idea that pops into your head after watching a masterpiece of a tv show. Motivation and inspiration are excellent tools to get you started, but what happens when they slowly dribble away and you’re left with a dozen scribbles that require a lot of effort to make sense of and that next new idea is vying for your attention?

So, today’s question is a much more harder one to answer:

Answer: Discipline

Sitting with discomfort

American fantasy author most known for her Six of Crows duology (surprise third book already out, teenage me is screaming. adult me is too), is none other than Leigh Bardugo (has her own substack, check it out!). Her debut novel, Shadow and Bone, was the first book in her Grisha trilogy and was nominated for the Romantic Times Book Award and South Carolina Children’s Book award; it was picked up by Netflix in 2019, cut after season two.

It also came almost fifteen years after she graduated from university - something that she outlines in her TedTalk - The art of discomfort. It’s a masterful TedTalk which details the importance of sticking with your craft, even when the honeymoon phase ends.

Bardugo says that in that 15 year gap of finishing her degree and writing that first book, she “spent those fifteen years working a crappy job, trying to write a book but failing”. Why? Because she had not honed “the ability to tolerate discomfort”. Obviously, she has trained this skill, having completed the Shadow and Bone trilogy, Six of Crows duology, King of Scars duology, Ninth House trilogy and many more.

The beginner artist has very good taste and bad skills.

When they practise their craft, they can see the looming gap between what they’ve written and what is good. They are clever enough to recognise greatness yet not skilled enough to evoke it.

Yet.

That comes with years of practice, of repetition and curiosity. You may be able to write a scene with the most stunning prose ever written, but where does that sit in a narrative? How do the characters stand on their own, what drives them to that place in the story?

And can you mimic that same ease and flow for 150,000 words?

Perfection is never attainable but mastery is, it just takes years. Perhaps a decade or two. And time is the only difference between those who write a book versus those who only have an idea.

It takes more than one person to write a book.

Keeping with the book theme, it seems only fitting to talk about an editor next.

Alyssa Matesic is a developmental book editor -( she’s on Substack too) With 7+ years of editorial and publishing experience, Matesic first realised her passion for book editing when she was the editor in chief of her high school newspaper. From that she went to New York University for English and American Literature with a Certificate in Book Publishing. She’s worked for Ballantine Books, Henry Holt and Company and the Book Group. Now she has her own developmental editing agency, where she offers book editing services, publishing and writing tips and story self-assessments.

Her youtube channel, @alyssamatesic, which she started over 6+ years ago, has now grown to over 170k followers. If you’re a writer looking to get traditionally published or even self- published, her free resources on her website (linked below) and her youtube channel is very insightful into what developmental editors are looking for in a manuscript.

A series on her youtube channels features Matestic offering critiques to her subscribers, often picking from a range of genres and levels, her genuine, helpful advice anchors between tough love and good support.

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How do you stay in love with your craft?

I think it’s the same basis as the question ‘how do I love myself?’ It’s self-answering, really. If you try to love yourself, then you already do - that’s where the trying comes from. The same can be said for your craft, you just keep trying, on the good days and bad days.

This has been a very writing-focused RoundUp, but the same can be said for any other creative output. Taste is curated early, you know what you like, you know what’s a good piece of drawing or writing, or piece of music. The creation of your own sloppy drafts is ego-crushing and disappointing, but just because you can’t mimic the same ease that your favourite creator has, doesn’t mean your taste is wrong, it just means you’re young in your craft.

Being a good writer takes years to achieve. People put in years simply because it’s fun. And when it’s not fun, they still keep going because they know they’re onto something, that all that’s standing in the way of them realising the book they visioned years ago is dedication to their craft.

So believe in yourself, I guess, is my ultimate message. And there’s no shame in being bad at something. Everyone was bad at something at some point. Learning compounds differently for each person, perhaps you get better bit by bit, perhaps everything clicks into place in three years. Don’t judge success on other people’s triumphs, focus on your own.

And besides, learning to fight for what you want is never a bad thing.

***

Thanks for reading! It’s nice to meet you! Let us know if you like this type of content or if there’s anything else you’d like to hear from us.

You can find the creatives that were mentioned in this article down below, if there’s any topics or people you’d like to see me cover, let me know in the comments. (And if you’d like to be featured, let us know too!).

Thanks again for reading and remember - be kind to yourself!

Catch you later,

Kaye

Make sure to check out the artists mentioned!

Leigh Bardugo

Instagram: @lbardugo
Website: https://www.leighbardugo.com/

Substack:

We are the weirdos, mister.

#1 NYT best-selling author of The Familiar, Ninth House, Shadow & Bone, Six of Crows, The Invisible Parade, and suchlike🌙

By Leigh Bardugo

Alyssa Matesic

Youtube: @AlyssaMatesic

Instagram: @alyssabookeditor
Website: https://www.alyssamatesic.com/

Substack:

Chapter Break

Writing advice and book publishing insights from industry leaders and established authors put together by your friendly neighborhood book editor!

By Alyssa Matesic

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Futureative Favourites = On Rotation.

Welcome to episode 2, the August edition of what we at Futureative have consumed over the past month. This month: Some new media and some throwbacks.

Enjoy!

Steve

Talking With Strangers by MAXON - 5/5

Maxon is a local, Victorian-based artist and an incredibly talented songwriter. I was lucky enough to go to uni with them, actually. They have an absolutely incredible band, and this year, they released their debut album, Talking With Strangers. It is an absolute start-to-finish classic album with incredible songwriting and production.

This is the sort of album you can tell is hard-won, the kind of album where you can hear pure craft and care in every song. It’s definitely on my list to get out to a live show soon. For now, if you find yourself on a Sunday afternoon in need of a little pick-me-up, it’s the perfect album to turn up the volume on, sit back, and just appreciate something written so beautifully by some absolutely incredible musicians.

You can stream it on Spotify using the link below, or, if you’d like to support this independent artist, consider buying the album on Bandcamp.

Stream on Spotify:

Support them by buying in Bandcamp:

Behind the scenes for a day with Bears coach Ben Johnson - 4/5

Reading has always been an obstacle for me. I absolutely love it when I get into something, but if I’m busy or preoccupied, I find it incredibly hard to focus. So, I don’t have a new book that I can talk about this month; but I have been reading articles, it’s just a little left of field...

The thing that has my attention right now is this article about the head coach of the Chicago Bears. Yeah, okay, super niche, Steve. A couple of years ago I found myself getting fascinated by the NFL and here I am now interested in everything that goes on behind the scenes in building a championship caliber team. A reporter from The Athletic was able to spend one day with Ben Johnson and has written an article exploring what it’s like to see the Chicago Bears through his eyes.

Ben Johnson is trying to create a culture that can win a Super Bowl and go beyond that. A functioning organisation versus a non-functioning organisation in the NFL is a fascinating topic to me (for reference the Bears have been dysfunctional for a long time but are being turned around by Ben), and there are aspects here which flow through into any industry, including creative industries. I’ve read it twice, learned a lot about culture, discipline & goal setting and I will read it again for sure.

You should be able to access the article via this link.

Spit - 3.5.5

It is so hard to remember to consume creative work that is actually Australian. It’s just the sheer reach of American culture and distribution. So I’m definitely trying to keep a lookout at the moment for Australian works.

This movie popped up on Netflix and it’s a star-studded Australian cast of absolutely incredible actors. David Wenham is, look, no surprises, fantastic. This is just a fun movie. Is it the best movie ever made? Is it going to win awards? It’s not that type of film; this is just fun and well worthy of your time. Because David Wenham plays such a strong character, and it’s the sort of performance that you can just be entertained by. There are some really heartwarming moments. It’s funny, it keeps your interest and it’s just fun seeing a lot of classic Australian actors appear throughout. You can see that the cast had a lot of fun producing it.

So let’s keep getting behind Australian cinema whenever it’s there. In my mind, it’s worth the watch.

Kaye

The Fall - 3.5/5

On the anniversary of her husband’s rock climbing accident, Becky and her best friend climb a 2,000ft broadcasting tower and become stranded at the top.

Released in 2022, Fall is a survival thriller that keeps you on the edge of your seat (pun intended). 127 hours adjacent, the film interjects the personal growth of the characters in between the dizzying drop. Excellent pacing and great moments of hope and determination.

Perfect if you’re looking for a movie to get your anxiety up a little.

I found that I’m quite fond of horror movies where the goal is just: survive. Whalefall, Alien, any shark movie - I’m completely intrigued regardless of how out there it might be. Fall 2: Deadpoint is coming out in a couple of weeks (tagline: Are you down?) as well as Whalefall in a couple months time.

The Odyssey - 4.5/5

The story of Odysseus trying to get home after the Trojan War.

With a powerhouse cast, The Odyssey delivers on cinematography, score, set design and animatronics. Although 3 hours, the pacing and sporadic plot movements keep you seated for the whole run time. As someone whose read around the Odyssey (Ransom by (xxxx), The Penelopiad, Margaret Atwood and of course, Percy Jackson, Rick Riordan) it is my favourite Christopher Nolan film.

Half a star shaved off because I would have liked to explore Penelope and the maid’s storyline a lot more. A really good movie!

petal- 4/5

The eight studio albums by the popstar, the pop / R&B album, the album is deep, moving and sonically interesting. It’s very intriguing to see Grande move from pop towards darker, smoother vocals. My favourite album from the songwriter to date.

What have you been reading, listening to or watching? Let us know in the comments below. See you next week for a brand new article.

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Read the newest issue of The DeepDive: Fast Lane, Slow Lane

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This idea first appeared during a coaching session with an artist client back in 2015. It became obvious in the call that there are just two types of creative projects. And in choosing two projects, one might have a chance to make both happen.

It’s a response to demands within the mind of a creative; the competing ideas for what comes next. The ever difficult tradeoff of choosing one project over 5 others.

This isn’t revolutionary, nor difficult; in fact the reason it’s become something I’ve used so often myself and with others, is because of it’s sheer simplicity.

You might even find you do something similar? If so, I’d love to hear about it in the comments. Without further ado, let’s get into Fast Lane vs Slow Lane.

In this article:

• The only two types of creative projects that really exist

• Why these two categories are key to juggling the demands of a modern creative life.

• How both lanes can co-exist and become equally important creative projects.

• A simple way to implement this in your creative life.

Fast Lane, Slow Lane

This mental model changed how I think about creative projects.

It’s one way of seeing your projects sit side-by-side each other; and, I think, once you see them this way, you’ll want to always just have these two projects on the go at all times.

No more, no less.

Even though this framework appeared in 2015, that wasn’t the start of my journey as a creative person. I’ve been a working independent creative for going on two decades now; basically my entire adult life.

With this, comes what can feel like a constant pressure to perform. You are expected (both deep down inside your soul, and by ‘the world around us’ to always be showing up, to always be producing, to be prolific, exceptional and ever present.

It’s an impossibility. And that’s why I think all working creatives need to find some way to balance the competing priorities of modern creative life.

This mental model encourages you to design for a few outcomes:

• To focus on one meaningful project that will level-up your career.

• To focus on one lightweight project that serves as both marketing and your creative practise.

• To balance your priorities between these two projects only.

• And help you identify when you are choosing work that’s outside of your core goals.

The value in this is that it’s so simple that it can be a mental model you easily live by. But don’t mistake simplicity for ease; most of the challenges I’ve had in my creative life has been an inability to stay on track with my Fast Lane & Slow Lane.

The times when I’ve achieved significant momentum, I look back and this model was in play.

Similarly, so many of the obstacles I’ve explored with my students, coaching clients & also discussions with peers, is when there’s competing projects, priorities; when there is too many things in one lane or both.

Enough rationale, let’s get into it. I call this mental model Fast Lane, Slow Lane so that it’s something you can recall at any moment. And in case you’re not familiar with a mental model, it’s basically a simple picture you hold in your head that helps you make better decisions. You see something through a particular lens and it changes how you act on it.

The idea of this came up because when we’re working as a creative, we’ve often got two competing types of projects running.

A Fast Lane project is something that is regular, consistent, designed for output over outcome. It should be easy. It should focus on exploration, inspiration, ideation. And it should be something we can ship easily for the world to see.

A Slow Lane project is the opposite; it’s something designed to be a body of work, a level-up, even a breakthrough. It’s a showcase of you producing something that tested you and your abilities. It’s not designed to be shared quickly; and when it lands it usually asks for a great deal of marketing support to get it into the right hands.

The question we ask to recall this model is: “What’s my ONE Fast Lane project & what’s my ONE Slow Lane project?”

If it’s not a fast, easy answer, you have some hard but important decisions to make.

Because if you have more than one Slow Lane project, unless you have significant team and infrastructure around you, you will struggle to finish any of them.

And with too much in the Fast Lane, it’s easy to lose focus, produce without making an impact and run out of time to produce your Slow Lane work.

What makes the Fast Lane work?

The Fast Lane is about speed, taking easy action, consistency, or perhaps experimentation. These are projects where speed matters more than perfection. You’re testing ideas, you’re putting things into the world quickly. Lightweight projects or practices that happen frequently.

This is the author’s weekly newsletter. The musicians series of cover songs. The documentary filmmakers series of mini interviews. This is the project where you document your journey; for example, a daily short-form video diary documenting your creative work over 30 days. 30-second videos, lightly edited, posted for 30 days. Perfect example of a Fast Lane project.

The main goal isn’t creating the most awe-inspiring piece of work. It’s about committing to a project that has lots of little actions or moving parts that optimises for pressing publish, warts and all.

And I think little Fast Lane projects like this are great because they solve two problems with the same action; “how do I stay creative” and “how do I promote myself” can both be answered with one well designed Fast Lane project.

You can come up with a creative concept, do it for a period of time, and it gives you something that feeds your Slow Lane work. At the same time, it’s easily shareable and allows you to publish and build routine in the market.

This way you’re not stuck just trying to promote things all the time. You’ve got a creative project that you’re actually documenting, exploring and refining as you go. It helps you improve your workflows, refine your brand, story and much more.

But the best part is the entire time you’re just asking yourself “how do I make something simple today”.

The Slow Lane

The slow lane is where your bigger projects live. This is where your body of work goes. This is the musician’s EP or album. The Filmmaker’s documentary. The authors next book.

These are larger, deeper projects that are going to take significantly more time, resources, and care. They usually have multiple parts to them. They likely require team. They will always take longer than you plan and eat up more resource than you expect; they do this because the creative work, and your determination to make something great, will supersede and previous notion of what’s possible in a certain budget or timeframe.

The slow lane is purposefully slow because of its size and gravity and the depth of the work; but also because of the potential it has for breakthrough.

Slow lane projects are the ones that are going to give you something to show up in the world with; they validate your creative existence and they give people a reason to stick around.

In a world that has increasingly optimised for Fast Lane projects, take note that work in the Slow Lane is not easily replicated, by humans or machine, and I believe will become increasingly valuable.

With that in mind, the creatives that choose to exist only in the Slow Lane, run the risk of never being seen.

Just as they always have co- existed, both types of creative projects will only become more important in the future.

This Deep Dive was first explored on our YouTube channel, you might like to go deeper there. Watch on YouTube →

The lines between creativity and marketing are blurry; and rightfully so.

It could be easy for some to mistake this as a way to have a creative project and a promotional campaign. But that’s not what this is.

I have always felt the best marketing for creative work is more creative work.

Things that are experiential, expressive, explorative and evolving.

Marketing, or work created with the objective of reaching a marketing goal, doesn’t design for those 4 things. Marketing is about formula, repetition, clarity and actions. So when creative people try to “do marketing” I think they (we) falter because we get lost in the formula and the outcomes.

Marketing is increasingly becoming creative, in all industries; but a significant amount of marketing today is simply providing a scientific formula for creativity that people can copy and replicate. So what do the masses do? They copy and replicate, until that idea isn’t creative anymore.

But creative people, with hard won creative skills, aren’t formulaic, we seek the 4 E’s I mentioned above. So when we create a great Fast Lane project that we can be proud of, we give ourselves a fighting chance at a; staying creative, but also b; creating something that can be seen by the public as marketing, but by us as creative output.

That’s a win = win in my book.

Both lanes need space to feed & breathe

I also want to highlight the value of these two lanes feeding each other. because one optimises for publishing, it helps displace the dreaded world of perfectionism.

On the other hand, our Slow Lane is vital to give us meaning and purpose and something bigger to work towards. Only producing 1x 500 word article or 1x 10 minute YouTube video per week for the next 30 years sounds like a great way to disincentivise the entire project.

The big project coming adds validity to your Fast Lane and makes it worth more. And when people get to experience both, they’ll feel the connection. And connection they have; creativity breeds creativity and I truly believe you need deep work and light work to go hand in hand to get the best of both worlds; without one, the other suffers.

The other risk is space; not having enough. If you’ve ever tried to get two or more major projects off the ground at the same time, you’ll know what I’m describing. I have found myself in this situation more times than I can count and it’s never ended well.

Recording a studio EP with a renowned producer, planning an interstate tour and major pr campaign whilst finishing a bachelor degree and starting a grassroots music festival and producing a TV show pilot all at once wasn’t a sound plan for sustainability.

Launching a community and conference series whilst managing and performing in multiple bands and getting a consulting business off the ground and developing a range of courses whilst attacking the conference speaking circuit = A recipe for burnout (and boy did burnout follow).

I used to conflate ambition with busyness. And hey, I have no regrets; my incessant determination to explore the creative industries was (and still is) insatiable. I’ve just learned that despite one’s appetite, there is only so much that can exist in either lane.

I really do think one project in each as a major focus is the only option. I’m not saying that’s easy. Most creative people I know have multiple passions and projects. As I write this, I know full well that by complete unfortunate chance I am likely to have a debut album ready for a major promotional campaign in 2027 alongside Futureative’s first 3x online conferences.

Which is why right now I’m making plans to strengthen and clarify the Fast Lane projects alongside the Slow Lane priorities so they have breathing space.

How will I go? Only time will tell, but I’m sure hoping that past failures, better delegation, clear boundaries, protecting personal and creative space and my own personal and our business goals here at Futureative will help make 2027 a sustainable & focused creative adventure.

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How to implement Fast Lane, Slow Lane

The first action is to specifically name and identify the scope of both projects. If you think of “all your big projects” and “all your marketing” you will end up with an unfocused mess.

If you have a clear project outcome, with a defined scope, in both columns, you will have something to aim for and achieve.

At Futureative as we right this our Fast Lane is our Substack. We’re committed to a weekly article and exploring new content ideas, particularly on Instagram right now and largely in thanks to ’s incredible work.

(If you want an example of the 4 E’s I mentioned earlier in action, check out some of their recent articles in The Practise & The RoundUp)

Our Slow Lane, is a series of online conferences; we had originally slated them for 2026, but time got away from us. We’ll 100% have these going live in 2027.

That’s it; our scope for both projects is evolving, but they are locked for 2026 and into 2027. We are focused on Front Row + our summits. If we can produce and evolve Front Row and keep pushing how that feeds our socials, and when we run our conferences, we’ll be in a place where our Fast Lane feeds our Slow Lane and our Slow Lane feeds our Fast Lane.

So, then what?

Well then you need to make sure your actions match your lanes. A project management app can help a lot. Ask Kaye, I’ve tried every app under the sun often many times over. Recently we’ve come back to Asana as it’s giving us a way to manage tasks, goals and a calendar, perfect for a significant event live a virtual conference. In the past, I’ve often preferred a simple pipeline in a Kanban board like Trello or Notion, moving tasks from left (inbox) to right (completion). This is great still for Fast Lane projects.

But you need to audit your workflow and audit your tasks.

How are you finding space for both lanes and are other non-priorities finding their way in? These are the questions to get relentless about.

You may have foundational work that needs to be completed in order to really make your Fast Lane & Slow Lane’s work. We have found that this year as we’ve been evolving our workflows, brand & content strategy. This is ok as long as this becomes its own Fast vs Slow project, with an end date.

I also think it’s important to know what lane you’re operating in each day. It’s highly unlikely that you will get to be in both lanes on a given day. And if you were, I would hope you can look back on your week and see you prioritised both. If one gets more focus than the other, working out why and how long that will happen for is key. In an ideal world I think it’s good to say: is this a fast lane day or a slow lane day? Is this a fast lane week or a slow lane week?

How to make sure the model is working

Now there’s one last thing to consider and that is ongoing maintenance; with a such a simple idea in theory, it’s so easy for it to fall away. So here are a few common issues that I think so many creatives find themselves in and what to do instead:

Too many slow lane projects at once. If you’ve got an album and a tour and you’re recording a mini-documentary and you’re doing it mostly alone and you’ve never produced those projects before, well you might find that the weight of it all is going to pull the whole slow lane apart. If you can’t make meaningful progress in a 30, 60, or 90-day window on one part of your project, you’ve got too many things in the pipeline. Better to put a song out and do one gig over the next 90 days, then see if next time you can do a little more.

Audit your lanes regularly and be ruthless in cutting out busy work (even if it feels important).

Stuck in the fast lane only. If you’re just posting content and your fast lane is the same all the time, you’ll get sick of it, your audience will too. I think it’s a really easy way to burn out and lose connection with the purpose of the creative project itself. In my experience it’s not always the workload that burns us out. It’s the lack of connection to our creativity and therefore our vision.

Optimise for the 4 E’s we explored earlier, and check to make sure you’re not falling into a outdated formulaic “marketing for the sake of marketing”.

They don’t have to both always be on. You don’t have to right away know exactly what’s going to go into each lane. Sometimes it’s important to just step away and say “I need to do a bunch of research and discovery to work out what my slow lane project is, or if it’s something I really want to do.” So make research and discovery your Fast Lane activity. Poorly defined slow lane projects get stuck and stifle creativity. The same can be true if you’re overly optimising for marketing goals, where you might lose sight if the purpose. If you genuinely need to hide away for a while and make some slow, real work, do it, just make sure you have an end date. And vice versa, if you have a goal of experimenting publicly to reignite your creativity, do it, with a goal to ask the universe for your next Slow Lane project. It’ll show up as soon as you allow it to find you.

If you’re stalled, choose a lane and a timeframe, let yourself off the hook and go have fun again.

What do you think of Fast Lane, Slow Lane?

That’s it, that’s my simple mental model and a whole bunch of insight behind it; remember simple doesn’t = easy. This one requires constant reflection and refinement. But I hope the idea is something you can reflect on, make your own, or even just see how you might be able to tweak how you’re already doing something similar.

As always in these Deep Dive articles, I’ll leave you with a few final questions to reflect on. I’d love to hear your insights in how you are already doing something like this or how you might incorporate some ideas here.

So with that in mind, I’ll leave you with…

A few questions to reflect on:

• Right now, do you know what ONE project is in your Fast Lane and your Slow Lane?

• If you have multiple options, can you temporarily make one project a focal point in each lane, at the expense of your other projects?

• Is your fast lane fuelling your creativity, or has it become repetitive marketing tasks that aren’t moving you forward?

• Is your slow lane moving forward each week and if not what’s one thing you could do to reignite that momentum?

Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this article, there’s much more on it’s way to our free and also paid members.

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If the idea of making work that matters sounds like something you want to explore further, this piece goes deeper into why meaning is the one thing AI will always struggle to replace.

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This article is episode two of Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way.

In this issue I’ll be going over Weeks 2, 3 and 4 of the Artist Way!

A quick reminder on the structure of this series:

Episode 1 - The Artists Way: Week 1
Episode 2: The Artists Way: Week 4 Check in
Episode 3: The Artists Way: Week 9 Check in
Episode 4: The Artist’s Way: Week 12 Check in.

Without further ado, let’s jump in : )

Psst.. If you’re not already subscribed to Front Row, consider joining us so you don’t miss a thing!

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Week Two: Recovering a Sense of Identity

Tasks: Completed

Overview:

This week was all about protecting your space from people and thoughts that might get in the way of your creative desires. A lot of the tasks ask you to figure out who specifically in your life might be blocking you. Cameron calls these people “Crazymakers”.

Crazymakers could also be in memories that have stayed with you since you were a child. Somewhere along the way you’ve internalised whatever they said about you and constructed it as a prison where you place your art.

Favourite quote:

Painting:

Attempted to continue x2 paintings this week and absolutely failed, nothing went the way I wanted to. It was just one of those weeks.

A couple of months ago, I found that my local library is having a mini art competition, for a small painting on a mini canvas - I tried to paint something small this week but the artist block was completely immovable. I’m taking this to mean the process is working?

Writing: 32,000k / 100,000k

Only a thousand words this week, a bit of a slow week but I’m still taking it as a win. I think because I’ve been writing more than I’ve been painting, it comes a bit more quickly to me, or I’ve stayed consistent enough that writer’s block is just something that’s easier for me to work through.

Morning Pages:

7/7 pages done this week, a step up from last week. I am not a morning person, however this week I found myself actually writing the pages in the morning. It was still hard to fill out the third page, but yet to find it tiresome or rewarding.

Artist Date: The Nutcracker Ballet

A step up from last week - went to opening night of the Australian Ballet, as they begin their National Tour. I haven’t been to the ballet before and I think I’m a fan. Act I was a couple of contemporary dances and Act II was the second act of The Nutcracker. Though I had a limited knowledge of the Nutcracker story beforehand, the story was easy enough to follow and it was very interesting to consume content I hadn’t before.

It was also nice to dress up and go by myself. I’ve been to quite a lot of musicals and theatre shows, (Favourite: Hamilton and Phantom of the Opera) but this was my first Ballet. I do know that Dracula is coming to Melbourne later in this year so potentially another Artist Date for that!

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Week Three: Recovering a Sense of Power

Tasks: Completed

Overview:
Somehow, this book is predicting exactly what has happened the week previously. I haven’t skimmed through the book before starting this journey, and there’s been a repeating instance of a specific action or thought the week before cropping up in the text. It’s quite eerie.

Although I’m not seeing a rise in how creative I’m being per say, I do feel a sense of unwinding - like I’m tackling deep rooted issues first before I can start being creative again.

Favourite Quotes:

Painting:
Again, another painter’s block week! Though not for lack of trying I might add. The weekend mostly consisted of painting over and over a painting, including multiple re-coats that the canvas is looking a little worse for wear.. Despite much concentrated effort, the best thing I could end up with was blacking out the canvas and giving it a rest.

Writing: 40,000k / 100,000k

8k this week which I am much more happy about! In my dream productive week I do around 10k a week, but I take it as a win when I return to my manuscript consistently. I find it quite hard to continue with writing when I’ve had more than two days break.

For context, whilst I’m in the editing depths of my first manuscript, I’ve been working on the first draft of my second. My goal is to reach 100k until I move into editing and draft 2. I think draft 2 will be around 120 - 130k.

Morning Pages: 7/7

I came into my stride with my morning pages this week, started writing some random book ideas - rambling prose style and ended up filling up my three pages each day quite quickly. A huge difference from last week.

Artist Date: Aimless driving around my neighbourhood

This week was quite hectic and socially draining, so a good half an hour in my car driving around on a calm Sunday evening was just what was needed. Quite a step down from going to the Ballet from last week, but I think that the point of an Artist Date is to fuel yourself and this week, my inner child needed to just relax and cruise through familiar streets.

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Week Four: Recovering a Sense of Integrity

Tasks: Completed

Overview:

Last week I went through my wardrobe and packed a lot of boxes to donate clothes to an Op shop. I didn’t think much of it until this week’s text, which said that had probably happened by now. It is like this book is following my thoughts. It’s the spiritual creative version of House of Leaves. There have been multiple instances where something will happen, or I’ll have a string of thoughts that I’d put in my morning pages, only to read the text for the next week and have my past actions described to me in a casual accuracy.

This week also had one of the hardest tasks so far - no reading. I was quite annoyed at that, especially since I like to listen to audiobooks while painting. Put me in a terrible mood most of the week, looking forward to breaking my fast next week!

Favourite Quote:

Painting:

After a week break I finally sat down and completed my dog painting! I do think it has some final touches, but after hours re-doing the face, I’m quite happy with it. I’m also realising that it’s the biggest painting I’ve done so far, so I think for the next painting I’ll opt for an even bigger canvas. This painting is also a present - I tend to do paintings and give it to others, so a personal goal I’m setting is to make paintings to put in my house. Right now my painting space looks a little boring.

Quite happy with how it turned out!

Writing: 45,000k / 100,000k

Approaching the halfway mark! Only 5k completed this week, but a lot of plot and character development. I ended up getting rid of two chapters as well, but I think the end goal will still be 100,00k.

By quick maths, I think I can get to 100,000k by the end of Week 12. That is now an official goal of the Artist Way! We’ll see where I end up, but I’m feeling good about that goal.

Morning Pages: 7/7
Again, morning pages came quite easy this week. A lot of social things happened this week, so rambling quickly turned into a gossip session, which was quite rewarding. However, by the end of the week it was hitting me that I’ve been doing this for almost a month and I’ve still got two more to go. I am halfway through my notebook!

Artist Date: Shopping at a big outlet

Ventured out away from the usual shopping centre and went to a big outlet mall a 40ish minute commute away from home. I had a free Friday so it was quite good to stroll around a semi - empty building and explore shopping. I did have one errand, which was to buy my friend a birthday present, but I ended up buying a calendar, small pocket notebook and a boardgame for myself! I’ve been looking for a pocket notebook for a while, to doodle on train rides and in between moments rather than go on my phone, and Dymocks provided. 7mm lined.

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Final Thoughts:

If I remember correctly, I was quite skeptical during Week 1.

I am not anymore. I think this book is very well structured. Over the past couple of weeks it has accurately predicted my reactions to the tasks. I also think that I picked up the Artists Way at the right time in my life - I’m in a position to look inward and diagnose the way I am and my habits.

At first glance, it doesn’t seem like I’m making progress in my creativity, but small actions have been taken that are all adding up, I sorted out my painting supplies, and I reorganised the desk where I paint. Mornings become much easier to wake up to when I have the buffer of 3 pages of prose before I start the day. My wardrobe is cleaner, I’m making an effort to paint for myself. I think about my manuscript more often. I don’t agonise about buying new paint if I need it. Mentally I’m quite all over the place, I think I’ve made quite an improvement - and I’m not even halfway through the book.

So far, I haven’t encountered any advice that isn’t specific to a certain demographic. There are still a lot of references to religion and ‘God’ but not so much that it takes away from the tasks or advice in the book. I would say that this book starts by looking at the bigger picture, there are no instructions on dedication of craft or ‘you must write for 30 minutes every day’ it just positions you to think about your craft and your actions in the in-between moments of each day. Which I think is immeasurably helpful.

I also think that if you’re in a position where you need to heal from something mentally draining, doing the Artist Way could be a light hearted way of figuring out how that affected you. I think Morning Pages have a use outside of creativity and even if you don’t consider yourself a creative person, it could be really helpful to get all your thoughts on a page. There’s something cathartic about putting pen to paper and then never re-reading what you’ve written.

After a couple weeks of doing the Artist Way I now have a list of goals!

1. 100,000k words in my manuscript by the end of Week 12 AKA finish Draft 1

2. Making paintings with the intent of keeping them, rather than making them for someone else.

Feeling good about my progress. See you again for the next issue of The Practise ~ coming out next month, for a Week 8 update - and as always, be kind to yourself!

Catch you later,

Kaye

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Ready for more?

Read the last issue of The Practise: The Artist’s Way: Week One

Read the newest issue of The RoundUp: How do you fall back in love with your craft?

Read the newest issue of The DeepDive: The World Needs What You Make

Read the newest issue of Futureative Favourites: July 2026 Edition

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I have no idea, but you’re here aren’t you, with all that wonderful creativity that- let’s be honest, you wouldn’t trade for the world.

Happy Sunday everyone! Welcome back to the RoundUp, A series where I scour the internet for answers to common questions that tend to plague creatives and present my findings here.

Today’s question is:

Answer: When your brain gets quiet again.

Our first creator of this article is Linda Sun, a Youtuber that I found back at the start of lockdown (which was six years ago!?). Her youtube channel @lindasunyt has amassed over 1.58 subscribers and her videos can be consistently described as feel good, introspective and wildly motivating. Although her content leans more towards fitness, food and navigating adulthood, her video editing, voiceover narration and overall approach to being grateful for life and living is infectious and a wonderful accompaniment while you’re eating dinner or doing household tasks.

A core part of Sun’s brand is her healing journey with food and fitness and how she chooses to move her body in a way that’s fun and rewarding. She’s competed in the London Marathon, the Berlin Marathon, half marathons, Hyrox and is currently training for an Ironman. Between fitness and food content, she has travelling vlogs - Seoul, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore. A long scroll down to the start of her channel and you’ll find clothing hauls and ‘what I eat in a day’.

Although perhaps creative-adjacent, Linda Sun’s story details someone who shunned away from something passionate - fitness - and returned years later to form a healthy relationship with her craft.

Sometimes we warp our self worth with the state of our creative projects - and how can we not, it’s a piece of our identity, a very deep and personal piece of our identity. But sometimes it’s good to peel yourself away from your desk and realise that it doesn’t have to be that deep, it doesn’t have to impress anyone but yourself and once you allow yourself to take a break if you need it, motivation and curiosity will return, if given the right elements to blossom.

***

Viral ice-skating star Alysa Liu captured the hearts and interest of the internet at the Olympics a few months ago. At 13 years old, she was the youngest ever US women national champion, she then went on to be a 2022 world bronze medalist and a 2025 - 2026 grand prix finalist, finally winning gold for America in 2026 at just 20 years old.

And at just 20 years old, she’s developed a perspective that can best be described as optimistic nihilism. Her ubermensch-like ability to detach herself from her art and do it for herself is something that people much older than her have struggled to do. After burning out and retiring from skating some years before, Liu returned to the skating rink for herself, to simply have fun - and by having fun, she won a gold medal.

At the ISU World Figure Skating Championships she’s stated that “I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t retire for a little bit, so I just am glad that I listened to myself and do whatever cause it just works out in the end”

And it did work out for her. She’s been in Teen Vogue, Time Magazine and Sports Illustrated. She is the new Brand Ambassador for Louis Vuitton, as starred in Laufey’s Madwoman music video and presented an award at the American Music Awards.

Perhaps all you need to fall back in love with your craft is a little rest.

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How do you fall back in love with your craft?

Burnout and artists’ block are real things, it often means that we’ve spent too much time creating our art without flexing our consuming muscle.

In the middle of re-writing a draft, it’s embarrassing to then switch to the masterpiece of a book that’s been edited fifty times over and marketed with your person in mind. Suddenly, your afternoon writing session seems amateur and basic by comparison. It’s easy to close the laptop and shun away from your art, wondering where you got the audacity to keep writing and how on earth you’re going to get it back.

But sooner or later you find yourself drawn back to your manuscript, a moth to a flame, re-reading your past work with such speed because you just couldn’t let it die. And that’s the truth of it; you fall out of love by mid morning and return after dinner, sleeves rolled up and ready to write into the night, because at the end of the day (no pun intended) this is you.

Comparison is fine if it helps you realise what you might need to change. Copying the greats, investigating why the band in the same genre as you is headlining, wondering how that sculptor is affording their studio, these are all seeds that will grow into insights as you go about your craft.

Comparing yourself to the yet-to-be-published writer next to you who’s putting in more consistent hours than you are will have you reflect on your writing habits. Comparing yourself to a published author, twice your age will rob you of the genuine fun you’re having.

Because at the end of the day, you don’t create for an audience, or a market, or a deadline, you create because you picked up a paintbrush/pen/pan/pick/ (say that three times fast) when you were bored and created something wonderful. And you’ve been chasing that feeling ever since.

And anyway, there’s always tomorrow.
***

Thanks for reading! It’s nice to meet you! It’s been a while since the last RoundUp, we’ve been testing out new articles, so it’s glad to see you back here.

You can find the creatives that were mentioned in this article down below, if there’s any topics or people you’d like to see me cover, let me know in the comments. (And if you’d like to be featured, let us know too!).

Thanks again for reading and remember - be kind to yourself!

Catch you later,

Kaye

Make sure to check out the artists mentioned!

Linda Sun:

Youtube: @lindasunyt
Instagram: @lindasunyt

Alysa Liu:

Instagram: @alysaxliu

Ready for more?

Read the newest issue of The RoundUp: How do you create consistently?

Read the newest issue of The Practise: The Artist’s Way: Week One

Read the newest issue of The DeepDive: The World Needs What You Make

Read the newest issue of Futureative Favourites: July 2026 Edition

Front Row is your backstage pass to our essays, workshops, and online summits on navigating the future of creativity. Built by, for & with independent creatives.

We’re also publishing on: Instagram | YouTube | TikTok | LinkedIn | Threads

7/12 months into the year and the official end of the financial year. Hopefully, you’ve gotten your tax returns in!

We’re introducing yet another new series to our little corner of Substack - Futureative’s Favourites, that we’re calling “On Rotation”. In short, it’s a list of the media that both Steve and I have consumed over the past month that we have some thoughts on. A book recommendation can tell you a lot about a person, so hopefully you get to know us a little better!

Kaye’s Favourites

Whalefall by Daniel Kraus - 4/5

The Martian meets 127 hours.

While diving to retrieve his father’s bones, a scuba diver is swallowed by a sperm whale. He has one hour to escape before his oxygen runs out. Poignant, gripping and with exceptional prose, Whalefall is a dual timeline novella that will leave you emotionally invested, incredibly claustrophobic and rooting against the impossible.

I would recommend listening to the audiobook, like I did, while being under a weighted blanket. Makes for quite a unique experience. The movie comes out in October and if you’re not too claustrophobic, I recommend watching the trailer!

The Poppy War by R.F.Kuang - 4/5

Game of Thrones meets the Priory of the Orange Tree.

After acing the Keju, orphaned nobody Rin gains admission to Sinegard Military Academy. There, she realises she has a gift for the forgotten art of shamanism.

With its lyrical language and thoroughly researched and blooming world, The Poppy War beautifully captures the toil and turmoil of war on a nation and a singular person.

As an avid fantasy reader I can’t believe I’m waiting this long to read The Poppy War, but it lives up to its hype. I’ve gotten the trilogy for my birthday so I’ll be going through the books in rapid succession.

you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love, Olivia Rodrigo - 5/5

The third album from the pop singer doesn’t disappoint. Alongside Sour and Guts, this third installment beautifully encapsulates the tragic-comedy of being in your early twenties and is a microcosm for girlhood and change.

On par with her first two albums, this third one hits all the right notes. Though, the cure might be my favourite.

The Book of Mormon - 3.5/5

Two missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints attempt to preach their faith to the people of a Ugandan village oppressed by a local warlord.

Balancing the nervous discussion around religion, faith and real world problems, Book of Mormon toes the line of comedy and heart.

As someone who went into the show without knowing anything about the show, I was very surprised and entertained. The songs are catchy, the cast was fantastic and as someone who didn’t watch South Park, I’m now intrigued by their other works.

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Steve’s Favourites

The God We Made: The Treat and Promise of Artificial Intelligence by Anna Goldsworthy - 5/5

Gosh. So, I was really trying to think of something else that I could rapidly read, because this probably points to the weirdly nerdy, analytical part of my brain, more than my creativity, but here we are. I’m actually reading the latest quarterly essay, which I find fascinating because it is written by a creative person. They’re reflecting in a very thoughtful, theoretical, and research-backed, but also practical way on the current state of AI and how it’s impacting the world. In particular, there’s a lot of discussion about how it’s likely to change and reshape the creative industries.

I’m finding it a fascinating read, just as a way to pause and reflect on the world that we are moving into. It’s definitely getting me thinking more and more about the importance of how we find ways to protect human creativity.

Deadloch, created by Kate McCartney and Kate McLennan - 4.5/5

When a local man turns up dead on the eve of the Winter Festival in Deadloch, Tasmania, two detectives and an eager junior constable are sent to investigate the crime.

This is one of the best pieces of Australian TV that I’ve seen in some time, and it is on so many accounts. If this was created by anyone else or in another country, I just don’t think I would be into it. But if you haven’t seen either of the blocks, they are brilliant because of the writers, the creators of the show, known colloquially as The Kates.

This is, start to finish, one of the best scripts I think I’ve heard recently. It has over-the-top, rapid-fire lines that place a lot of trust in the viewer to follow along and keep up with the gags, which are constant, clever, and crass.

The overall season two of Deadloch does not disappoint. It follows the story and narrative of another kind of detective series, which usually isn’t the sort of thing that I’m into. But with the way it’s been written and cast, it’s an exceptional show and well worth the time.

The WOW! Signal, Muse - 4/5

I’ve been a Muse fan since the beginning. Absolution was one of the albums of my adolescence that inspired me to keep wanting to get better at guitar. They were for many years one of my favourite bands. And here we are, with their latest album, The WOW! Signal.

It can be a rocky road, I think, following a band like this for such a long period of time. It can be your favourite band for a number of years, and then their genre and style changes and evolves, as do your tastes. I’ve even had moments where I’m unsure if Muse is for me still, but I put on this latest album, and it took me one full listen through to work out “Is this an album I’m going to like or not like?”

After the second listen, I was just absolutely hooked. It’s like some type of snapshot of all the different eras that Muse has been through. It has aspects of their newer, more pop side, but also aspects of their earlier rock side. There’s even some of their older-style guitar solos starting to shine through.

It’s an epic album, and I can’t turn it off right now. It’s definitely bringing the vibes; even if those vibes are somewhat dystopian. Funnily enough, it would also be an outstanding soundtrack whilst reading the latest issue of The Quarterly Essay. Maybe it’s the perfect album for the times.

What have you been reading, listening to or watching? Let us know in the comments below. See you next week for a brand new article.

Ready for more?

Read the newest issue of The RoundUp: How do you create consistently?

Read the newest issue of The Practise: The Artist's Way: Week One

Read the newest issue of The DeepDive: The World Needs What You Make

Front Row is your backstage pass to our essays, workshops, and online summits on navigating the future of creativity. Built by, for & with independent creatives.

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For those of you that have been reading the RoundUp - first off, thank you! Secondly, don’t worry, I haven’t pivoted genres suddenly, there will still be a semi-regular RoundUp article from me in the near future, I haven’t run out of creatives to cover.

We’re looking to expand our articles here in our little corner of Substack, so hello and welcome to The Practise, a series where I work through different programs designed to improve creativity, and on our debut episode, we are starting strong with Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way.

The Artist’s Way

Taking the creative side of the internet by storm, Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way seems to be the way to connect with your inner creator and overcome artists’ block once and for all. I first learnt about the book by watching Doechii’s (singer, rapper, grammy-award winning, you know the one) old youtube videos, where she credits The Artist’s Way as being one of the reasons she went out to garner such success.

Quite a good selling point for the book. So, here I am trying it.

For context, no, I don’t want a grammy, but I am a habitual creative, both a writer and a painter, who has struggled with creative block for a while. I’m in that weird liminal space that is your mid-twenties, where childhood dreams require both raging audacity and dedication to stay alive, especially when it’s so much easier - and harder- to sell your soul to a regular 9-5.

As someone who is a perfectionist, I’m approaching this with a ‘better done than perfect’ attitude. I don’t really have any hard and fast goals for the state of my creativity at the end of this book, but I would like to gently lift the claws of perfectionism that have cleaved itself into my soul every time I pick up a paintbrush or read over my work. : )

The Structure

A 12-week course, with about an hour of tasks per week, as well as:

1. The Morning Pages - 3 pages of prose every day, for the duration of the 12 weeks.

2. The Artists Dates - an allotted amount of time per week to take yourself out on a date. (walk in the park, visit a bookstore, see a movie. Anything really, but you have to do it alone )

I’ll be giving updates for Week One, Week Four, Week Eight and Week Twelve, so stick around if you’re interested, or wait until the very end. Either way, hopefully you figure out if this is something you want to try out too!

Week One : Completed.

Tasks: Completed
Artist Date: Apple juice and window-shopping
Morning Pages: 5/7 days

Notable Changes:

Painting: I picked up a paintbrush for the first time in so long! Dog-sat for a couple of days this week and got inspired by an adorable poodle, won’t be finished with the painting until next week, but here’s a past one I did:

Writing: A couple weeks ago I started looking into editors for a finished manuscript and I signed a contract this week! I don’t think this really has much to do with me doing the Artist’s Way, but the book is quite adamant that there are no coincidences. While I wait for work to continue on my first manuscript, I’m working on draft one of a second manuscript, and am currently at 31,000 words- though I will admit, not much writing got done this week.

Morning Pages: As someone who has the ability to ramble, I didn’t find the idea of the Morning Pages that daunting, but by day three/four they got a bit tiresome. Some days got away from me, but I’m saying it’s a good start.

Artist Date: Went to a local shopping centre on the weekend, bought an apple juice and perused some books. Wasn’t exceptionally profound but surprisingly this is a task that I’m having trouble with - something that I didn’t foresee.

I’m quite an introvert and I am more than happy to go and explore a place by myself, but that’s usually at the last minute, in a ‘oh-that-place is interesting’ way and less a dedicated time in my calendar to pursue. I also work from home, so for the past couple years I’ve made a note to go to new places with other people for the ~ human interaction ~ so planning for myself seems a little counterintuitive, but regardless, an artist date was planned and executed. (Apple juice rating: 8/10)

Tasks: The theme for this week was ‘Recovering a Sense of Safety’ and combatting some of the negative stereotypes about being or becoming an artist - and to square up against these allegations, we use affirmations. I’m still at the part where affirmations seem very silly, but in the moments I start slowing down in my morning pages, I just write down the affirmations.

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Final Thoughts:

Doing some more research into The Artist’s Way and Julia Cameron, I don’t think this book has my specific demographic in mind, but not many mainstream media do. However - the act of looking inward and allowing yourself to pursue your dreams and dissect how you see yourself is universally a good practice; if done with self-love.

So far, this book seems very well structured, it does make several references to ‘God’ and ‘Him’ which could deter some readers, I have just been reading it as ‘The Universe’ instead. There is a section in the book that accounts for this and says to just interchange the word to what you want. Though the book leans slightly religious in some instances, I wouldn’t say it’s a hinderance.

Motivational quotes and instructions can get you so far, the real work is the time you put in on the self-reflective prompts and the morning pages, so you can structure them however you like.

This is my first time doing some type of self-guided creative challenge and I’d say it’s a good bite-size amount. Reading through each chapter takes maybe 10 minutes. Morning pages take me 20 and the tasks just open tabs in your brain that you can flit through when doubts come bounding back - they take around 30 minutes.

As with anything in life, do what you can. An artist date is quite hard if you have to look after kids, or lack a mode of transport, have a chronic illness - the list goes on. Sometimes life happens, weeks vary and plans are sidelined in an instant. Things happen.

Seasons change.

I’ll be back with the second rendition of The Practise at Week 4, hopefully with a much bigger word count and a few more paintings to share. Until then, as always, be kind to yourself and happy creating.

Catch you later,

Kaye

Ready for more?

Read the newest issue of The RoundUp: How do you create consistently?

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Ah yes, Sanderson. While the rest of us writers are being hounded by our beta readers for the next chapter, the man’s written his next bestseller. So of course, (spoiler alert) he’s going to be one of the creatives I cover in this week’s RoundUp.

On that note, good afternoon and welcome to the RoundUp! A series where I scour the internet for answers to common questions that tend to plague creatives and present my findings here.

There comes a certain point that the words optimisation, monetisation and productivity becomes the siren call that enchants the finance bros from their mutli-level marketing meetings.

Yes, consistency and dedication are very good skills to have, but not at the expense of curiosity, boredom and discomfort. And creativity lives in the middle of that trifecta. Just because you do not have a grind mindset, does not mean you are any less creative than the person next to you.

Case and point, when was the last time Rihanna put out an album? And would you slander Rihanna?

No. Exactly.

Before, this introduction gets away from me, today’s question is:

Answer: Just keep going

Best known for his fantasy series Mistborn and The Stormlight Archive, Sanderson has dominated the writing industry since he first made his debut with Elantris back in 2001. He has become synonymous with the ability to write consistently, working on multiple projects simultaneously and still outwriting others around him by treating his writing as a 8 hour work shift, clocking in and out each day.

The Final Empire, Mistborn Book 1 - Brandon Sanderson

Recently, the Cosmere universe - the world where most of his novels reside in, has been picked up by Apple TV and he retains a huge amount of creative rights.

A progress bar can be seen on his website, outlining his current projects, including the Mistborn screenplay as well as Ghostbloods Book 1, Songrise 3.0 and Riftwake Book 3.

In addition to his fantasy novels, he’s written young adult novels - The Reckoners and Skyward, has two graphic novels (White Sand and Dark One) and has finished Robert Jordan’s series The Wheel of Time.

His podcast, Intentionally Blank, co-hosted by Don Wells, and his youtube channel @BrandonSanderson (871k subscribers) has incredible advice to young creatives and interesting reviews about all things music, movies and storytelling.

In a video entitled “How to write 100k words a year” and ‘How do I Motivate Myself to Write’ Sanderson states that his first book took him 3-4 years to write. Since then he’s honed his practice to 100K a year - that’s a draft per year. He articulates that it’s important to know what type of writer and/or worker you are. Is it easier for you to block out a few hours on the weekend to get to your word count? Or is multiple 30 minute sprints throughout the week more your style? Both are the right answers, “Learning how to make yourself do the things you want to have done” is how you get words on the page. It’s also how you go through adult life as well, funnily enough. For Sanderson, a progress bar and the steady upping of percentages each day is what motivates him, for others it could be something else, like writing groups, a writing partner, external motivation or some form of the carrot and the stick.

Writing is hard. Even before you take the leap and try to publish, there’s a thousand re-writes before you get critiques. The trick is to just keep going, to keep writing and more often than not, if you like writing, it won’t take that much to get back to your desk. Your love for writing was never in question, your talent has no choice but to compound over time. Consistency is a muscle that you can train and the worst thing you could do is write a bad book. And that’s not the end of the world.

***
Sam Yang, aka SamDoesArts, is another creator that’s developed his art through arts of consistency. Having an aptitude for drawing and painting growing up, Sam started to take his art more seriously than a hobby around 2020 and has since then created a youtube channel with 2.04m subscribers (@samdoesarts), as well as a patron, instagram and online shop. He is also featured in 3dtotalshop with his art book entitled The Art of Same Yang, featuring his anime/manga style digital illustrations. With his friendly and funny narration, his youtube videos debunk drawing myths, offers tutorials on art techniques and reviews his subscribers’ art. In his video entitled “You’re a better artist than you think (here’s why)”, he drops multiple insights on the realities of pursuing art.

“You see your own worst work while you see everyone else’s best”

Comparison is the thief of joy, that’s well documented, but this supposedly inevitable rabbit hole can be avoided by realising that you’ve been trying your best for years; which is why you’re blind to how much you’ve improved.

The Art of Sam Yang - Sam Yang

And imposter syndrome stems from insecurity, yes, but also humility. You understand that you are not the best artist in the world and you have the ambition to realise that there are things you still need to learn. That positions you to become a better artist, a better writer, a better dancer. The ability to accurately establish where you are and what you have to do to get better is a useful mechanism to keep going.

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One of the most common excuses for a late draft, or an unpolished script is that ‘life got in the way’ and I always thought that was such a strange phrase. I understand the need to show up consistently to be creative if that’s your job, if you’re relying on that income but, for the creatives out there that do not rely on their creativity for income, or are just looking to start monetising their craft and are stressing about being unable to focus completely - there’s no need to put pressure on yourself.

You didn’t write because you were tired from work. You didn’t paint because you were out dancing with your friends. You didn’t go through that song because you started chatting with the drummer.

…okay? That’s good!

Before you take that step into diversifying your income stream (that sentence was painful to write), just relax and let the ideas flow, for not every moment sitting at your desk needs to be productive (brought it back, phew).

And anyways, comparing yourself to others never has the desired outcome.

***

Thanks for reading! It’s nice to meet you! Let us know if you like this type of content or if there’s anything else you’d like to hear from us.

You can find the creatives that were mentioned in this article down below, if there’s any topics or people you’d like to see me cover, let me know in the comments. (And if you’d like to be featured, let us know too!).

Thanks again for reading and remember - be kind to yourself!

Catch you later,

Kaye

Make sure to check out the artists mentioned!

Brandon Sanderson

Website:

https://www.brandonsanderson.com/

YouTube:

Spotify: Intentionally Blank, Brandon Sanderson and Dan Wells

Instagram: @brandonsanderson

SamDoesArts

Instagram: @samdoesarts

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cw/samdoesarts

Website: https://samdoesarts.com/password

Book: https://store.3dtotal.com/products/the-art-of-sam-yang

YouTube: @SamDoesArts

Ready for more?

Read Next: How do you find your artistic style?

Front Row is your backstage pass to our essays, workshops, and online summits on navigating the future of creativity. Built by, for & with independent creatives.

We’re also publishing on: Instagram | YouTube | TikTok | LinkedIn | Threads

Thanks for reading Front Row by Futureative! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

If you’re new here, hello and welcome to the RoundUp! A series where I scour the internet for answers to common questions that tend to plague creatives and present my findings here.

Today’s question is more of a quiet contemplation and I invite all of you in the comments to let us know what has worked for you as with all aspects of the creative process, unlike maths, there are no wrong answers! (No, it was not my favourite subject in high school, how’d you know?)

Anyways! Today’s question:

Answer:
Throw everything at the wall and see what sticks.

Process > results

Melbourne born contemporary visual artist Tahlia Stanton, best known for her Borrowed Wing collection, has been dominating the arts industry long before she first opened her print house in 2020. As an abstract-expressionist mixed media painter, Stanton began as a self-made artist when she decided that art school was not for her. She won Young Australian Artist of the Year from 2015 - 2017 and has amassed hundreds in her collection including fine art prints, woven tapestries, commission and The Pioneering Artist - a painting workshop.

With over 15m on TikTok and 327k subscribers on youtube, Stanton has a range of videos from vlogs to commentary. In her short entitled “Make work you’re not proud of” she states:

“who cares. It’s just a painting, have fun express yourself, it’s not that serious…we need to make work that we’re not proud of, we need to make work that is experimental and fun and weird and just an absolute explosion of expression because without that, we’re just chasing perfection and what is perfection, it doesn’t even exist”

Finding your art style requires the continuous repetition of finding the fun of the process. Every time you put brush to canvas, you find out what you’re drawn to, what would make sense to your eye. But this must come from a place of playfulness, of fun.

“Strong Heart” Oil on Canvas, Tahlia Stanton

Follow what piques your interest

Being a good painter requires painting (wow, can you imagine). As is writing, public speaking, cooking etc.

It also requires research and study. Not in the stressed, hunched over a laptop, late into the night in a coffee and Redbull induced haze, but in the follow-what-makes-you-curious way.

The book that catches your eye in the local library or the youtube video you see on writing during your lunch break whilst working in a cafe. There are a lot of free resources for you to use to improve your art. (Support your local libraries!)

As a writer, I stumbled across The Closer Look some years ago on Youtube and I insist that any writer or anyone interested in storytelling should watch his stuff.

*A small side note here to say that as always, all links to the creators mentioned are at the bottom of the article :)

Created in September 2016, The Closer Look’s youtube channel has steadily grown to 1.15m subscribers. The creator, Henry Boseley, offers free video essays “where (he) helps aspiring writers hone their craft”. He’s covered a range of topics from ‘How to introduce a character’, focusing on Death from Puss in Boots 2 (a very good movie), “How to write a terrifying villain” - Homelander from The Boys and ‘How to do a plot twist’ - Knives out.

His works mostly focus on screenwriting, though sometimes he veers into gameplay (How to Fail At adaptation - The Witcher) or writing prose.

Finding other creators that can explain how they work their creative process is just as fulfilling as creating yourself.

Finding a space to share mutual appreciation and interest in a creative work infuses your own practice.

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***

An important thing to note when you’re finding out your artistic style is that heyo- nothing is original anymore.

Billie Ellish’s early work sounded a lot like Birdie with a hint of Lorde and Lana Del Ray.
Art Deco looked at Cubism and said, ‘mmm, a little to the left’.
Brandon Sanderson, George R.R. Martin and Robert Jordan could all sit at a table and point accusatory fingers at each other.

Artistic style is curated by consuming a range of media that piques your interest. Creativity is like wit, it sharpens when put in different conversations. Consume like a madman and start making whatever makes you curious. Place quantity over quality to overpower the nagging voice of perfectionism and slowly but naturally you will stumble upon a genre or niche that delights you every time you pick up a paintbrush or scroll through Letterboxed.

Eventually, eventually. You will come across something.

Rare? Maybe. But undeniably unique. And that’s your style - built on the frequented Pinterest boards and dog-eared novels that kept you entertained for years.

Ultimately;

Because at the end of the day, it is fun. Creating is fun. Fun infuses progress, progress rewards dedication, dedication is born from curiosity.

And anyways, the best doodles are made in the margins of graph paper during maths class.

***

Thanks for reading! It’s nice to meet you! Let us know if you like this type of content or if there’s anything else you’d like to hear from us.

You can find the creatives that were mentioned in this article down below, if there’s any topics or people you’d like to see me cover, let me know in the comments. (And if you’d like to be featured, let us know too!).

Thanks again for reading and remember - be kind to yourself!

Catch you later,

Kaye

Make sure to check out the artists mentioned!

Tahlia Stanton

Website:

https://tahliastanton.com

Youtube: @tahliastantonart

Instagram: @tahliastanton

Henry Boseley / The Closer Look

Youtube: @TheCloserLook

Pateron:

https://www.patreon.com/henryboseley

Ready for more?

Read Next: Should You Monetise Your Art?

Front Row is your backstage pass to our essays, workshops, and online summits on navigating the future of creativity. Built by, for & with independent creatives.

We’re also publishing on: Instagram | YouTube | TikTok | LinkedIn | Threads

After every art block, it will come back.

And this self-regenerative ability is very attractive to capitalism. Capitalism thrives on the next new thing but there comes a time when an iphone cannot be improved annually, a company cannot squeeze out more money from their usership without cutting corners, or putting in add-ons to simply jack up the price (looking at you Netflix).

But creativity? Creativity is liminal and self-planting. Unfortunately for the finance bros, it takes a long time to curate - hence, their clear besotment with A.I.

Before this becomes a diatribe on artificial intelligence, I’ve brought this up to articulate that we live in a hustle culture and it’s not uncommon that the question posed has not entered our minds, even for a brief period of time - and this is the Round Up after all, a series where I scour the internet for the answers to common questions that tend to plague creatives and present my findings here.

Am I getting better at segways? That’s not today’s question - today’s question is:

Answer: Sure.

Do it the right way

To aid in the defence of monetisation, let me introduce Kelsey Rodriguez, a visual artist and content creator. As well as selling her own oil paintings- picturesque scenery that blends earthy tones with soft sunlight, Kelsey is an avid Youtuber, whose channel @KelseyRodriguez has over 298k subscribers. She offers free advice for up and coming creatives looking to start a brand on their own terms. Her videos range from business breakthroughs to specific art advice. Her approach is to “(guide) creatives toward financial stability without sacrificing their integrity”.

“California Coast” 18x18 by Kelsey Rodriguez (all links at bottom of article)

Rodriguez’ approach to monetising your business comes from a genuine place of love for art and I highly recommend following her, or other creatives that understand how to become a successful creative without compromising why you started.

Another artist that offers free advice and teachings is Mark Carder, also known as @DrawMixPaint on youtube. Creating his channel in 2012, Carder has a range of videos on the specifics of oil painting for realism, from paint mixing, brushstrokes, painting supplies and studio setups. In his own words “My goal is to eventually cover all essential instruction for painting realism in oil so that anyone can learn to paint for free”

His videos are easy to follow, I highly recommend his ‘how to mix paint videos’ which have cut down my prep time for paintings by about half. In his video ‘paint what you personally love - something new - do not listen to anyone else” he states. “You have to trust your own taste, it’s the only thing you have”.

As an artist who started professionally painting in 1986, he’s most well known for his commissioned painting of George W. Bush and has sold paintings for up to $75,000. It’s invigorating to know that a person of his mastery and experience still stands by the fact that as an artist, we know what’s best for ourselves and we know when our art needs changing or when we’ve gotten it right.

“Portrait of a Little Girl” - Mark Carder

I think it’s important to follow through with this advice when we’re asking if we should monetise our art. There is no universal answer, but take comfort in the fact that thousands of creatives before you have tossed up the same decision.

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My own answer:

Annoyingly, I think that only you will know that answer, I also think that answer can and should change depending on where you are in your creative journey.

In all honesty, it’s not as big of a question as it seems to be. Both answers are perfectly okay, but come with some headaches that we may toss and turn over that in the end, for example:

I want to monetise my art but what if people don’t buy it?

Say you put out a song and no one listens to it. You’re in the exact same position you were in five minutes ago. If no one listened to your music when it was in your private folder and no one listened to your music when you promoted it on socials, then you have experienced no loss. It’s still 0-0.

I want to monetise my art but what if it’s really bad?

Say you wrote a script and my god, it’s terrible. It’s so ludicrously inane and that it makes Riverdale look like a Shakespearean drama. That’s fine. Perhaps pivot to comedy?

Just kidding, what I mean to say is that consumable art to a third party is either forgettable or good.

Both are fine. Both do exactly what they’re supposed to do. Perhaps you need to write several chewing-gum novels before you discover your magnum opus.

It takes a lot of directed, focused effort to make harmful art. Anything other than that is good, and where all genuine creatives operate. There’s no such thing as bad art, only forgettable art, and that’s brilliant because when you do make that good piece of creative work - which you will, all that hard work and training compounds - that will be what you’re remembered for.

I want to monetise my art but I don’t want to be an influencer

So don’t. You can’t keep up forever anyway. Post what you like, follow who inspires you and document what you would love to look back on.

And now let’s look at the adverse:

I want to keep my art as a hobby but people keep telling me to monetise.

Non-creatives often have this bright idea and it’s usually coming from a very eager, genuine place, but only you know if monetising will lead to burning out. If painting is something you only do a couple times a month to unwind, then turning it into a profitable business where you churn out a print each week is not going to be sustainable and will lead to you not picking up a paintbrush in years.

If you want to monetise now, go for it, if you want to do it in a year, do it, but don’t take advice from someone who isn’t on the same wavelength as you.

Perhaps you monetise your writing. Perhaps your painting is just for your loved ones. It’s all good.

And anyways, it’s never too late to change your mind : )

***

Thanks for reading! It’s nice to meet you! Let us know if you like this type of content or if there’s anything else you’d like to hear from us.

You can find the creatives that were mentioned in this article down below, if there’s any topics or people you’d like to see me cover, let me know in the comments. (And if you’d like to be featured, let us know too!).

Thanks again for reading and remember - be kind to yourself!

Catch you later,

Kaye

Make sure to check out the artists mentioned!

Kelsey Rodrigeuz

Website: https://www.kelseyrodriguez.com/

Youtube: @KelseyRodriguez

Instagram: @kelseyrodriquezart.

Mark Carder / Draw Mix Paint

Instagram: @drawmixpaint.

Website: https://www.drawmixpaint.com/

Youtube:

Ready for more?

Read Next: How do you know if your idea is good enough?

Front Row is your backstage pass to our essays, workshops, and online summits on navigating the future of creativity. Built by, for & with independent creatives.

We’re also publishing on: Instagram | YouTube | TikTok | LinkedIn | Threads

…Or are you delusional?

Does it really matter?

Genuinely, does it really matter? Before creativity got warped by the idea of monetisation, we all went to our sketchbooks and journals with the thought of putting an idea into the world simply for the sake of its existence. And some of those ideas sucked.

Most of them were unpolished, unfiltered, unrefined.

Some were masterpieces in the middle of the night and a jumble of chicken scratches impossible to decipher over coffee the next morning. So what did we all do? (after a moment of insecurity and deflation that lasted between 5 minutes to 3-5 business days),

We tried again. For the fun of it all. For the rush of getting it right.

And on that note, hello again! Welcome back to the RoundUp! A series where I scour the internet for the answers to common questions that tend to plague creatives and present my findings here.

Today’s question:

1. Rejection

2. Perseverance

3. A gut feeling

Answer: All of the above.

“If you have an idea, that you genuinely think is good, don’t let some idiot talk you out of it”

- Stan Lee

The quote from Stan Lee comes from a Keynote presentation at the UCLA 2017 Graduation Ceremony. The late great comic writer explains the initial stages of pitching the superhero ‘Spiderman’ to publishers, only to be told it would never happen. Cut to now, Spiderman is one of the most popular superhero comics, with three separate live action eras, the newest addition being second highest-grossing film franchise of all time, grossing over $11 billion worldwide, a groundbreaking animated movie series (Into the Spiderverse), and several spin offs like Vemon, Morbius and Madame Web.

Needless to say, he was onto something.

Spiderman is a very well written character, obviously. But some reasons stick out.

1. A teenage superhero - not a sidekick. Spiderman is a nerdy, nervous, scared to talk to girls school student, something that teenagers - the primary demographic of comic books, especially in the 1960s, could relate to.

2. Spiderman is the story of the little guy, the “friendly neighbourhood spider”, he’s not a super strong alien (unrelatable) or a billionaire orphan (somehow less relatable). Spiderman’s story lends itself to social commentary on wealth, privilege and doing what’s right by the means you have.

3. Spiderman could be anyone - an accidental custom design, but something that allowed readership, regardless of background to imagine themselves as the character

In hindsight, these notes seem like a home run for publishers, but if Stan Lee had not backed himself, we wouldn’t have gotten the beloved character we have today.

Believe in Your Art

Speaking of backing yourself, we’re pivoting from comic books to live wedding painting! With that smooth segway, let’s talk about Rebekka Lord-Johnson, or as she’s known online, The Wedding Painter.

Live wedding painting is exactly what you think it is. A live wedding painter has the time during the ceremony and reception to create a portrait of the happy couple. Touchups and small edits can be made in post production, but speed, accuracy and skill are required to have something beautiful within 4-5 hours.

Starting her current business in 2021, Rebekka has captured over 275 moments on canvas and has over 722k followers on instagram, with her most viral posts frequently hitting the million mark. The South- East Melbourne painter has won numerous awards for her work and is brilliant at her craft. Her portraits so easily capture the small facial expressions and beauty of the moment with a level of precision that reflects decades of practice.

And although she’s painted since a child, a business this successful suddenly looks all the more amazing when you realise that she started it in 2021.

A quick check onto her instagram account will tell you:

2026 = Fully Booked

2027 = Fully Booked

2028 = Currently open

5 years ago she had an idea.

Now she has a legacy.

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My own answer:

It’s a curse that siphons a lot of joy from creativity. That’s a whole other article in itself, but there is some intersectionality between the pursuit of perfection and the desire to do better.

Understanding that your work is unpolished, but could be something great, keeping it to your chest until it’s ready for an audience is a nuanced, practical decision that might be doubted by others but is ultimately right because you’ve decided it so.

Scrapping draft after draft because you hate the ‘youness’ of your voice and wishing you weren’t anything remotely recognisable as yourself is an ouroboros paradox that won’t get you anywhere.

A complete ten book series doesn’t come full fleshed out to someone one Monday morning, nor does it appear ten hours into a writing session, it’s revealed, excruciatingly slowly, bit by bit in the half-moments between our mundane tasks and only when we pool our findings together night after night do we mold it into something we can begin to write draft one, then two, then three, then eleven!

The genuine truth is, you create for the sake of creating and there’s nothing wrong with that.

And anyway, the journey is fun. :)

***

Thanks for reading! It’s nice to meet you! Let us know if you like this type of content or if there’s anything else you’d like to hear from us.

You can find the creatives that were mentioned in this article down below, if there’s any topics or people you’d like to see me cover, let me know in the comments. (And if you’d like to be featured, let us know too!).

Thanks again for reading and remember - be kind to yourself!

Catch you later,

Kaye

Make sure to check out the artists mentioned!

Rebekka / The Wedding Painter

@the.wedding.painter

https://www.theweddingpainter.com.au/about

Ready for more?

Read Next: Is the Fear of Being Seen Holding You Back?

Front Row is your backstage pass to our essays, workshops, and online summits on navigating the future of creativity. Built by, for & with independent creatives.

We’re also publishing on: Instagram | YouTube | TikTok | LinkedIn | Threads

Unfortunately, he has a point.

Welcome back to the RoundUp! A series where I scour the internet for answers to common questions that tend to plague creatives and present my findings here.

Today’s question is less of a self-reflection and more of a threat to the introverts out there (just kidding, game recognises game), but it does sit differently for half of the population out there. Speaking as a once very shy child, the idea of putting myself out there was an insane prospect and speaking as a slightly less shy adult, I have to say, they had a point.

Regardless, let’s dive into the question:

Short Answer: Yes

“Who is the judge in your head?”

This question is posed by Jen Carmiel, a watercolour artist based in Colombia, whose portfolio showcases idyllic, heart-warming frames of cats, coffee and the small joys of life. As an art school graduate and a full time artist, Jen has achieved what beginner artists have dreamed about. In her video “How I Got Over the Fear of Being Seen (An Artist Perspective)” she asks the question:

Is it a grade three bully? Is it a colleague from a past job? An unsaid but somehow very loud social presumption that takes the form of someone in your childhood town? Someone’s voice in your life has weaseled their way into the folds of your brain (yes, that’s the scientific term) set up shop and sometime between the sprouting of an idea and the execution of it, you’ve determined that their voice has more merit than your own.

Carmiel offers a solution to this, saying “what you have to come back to is why are you doing this?”

Most of the time, it isn’t because we want attention. Yes, we want our art to garner attention and maybe sales, but that’s a side effect of making something you’re proud of. Assuming that the world will have the same instinct to be negative towards your work is narrow-minded. Especially when the truth is:

Your art is not for everyone.

Kayla Carlile is an Australian artist, specialising in realism and portraiture. Her ethereal underwater paintings evoke feelings of calmness and femininity. Starting by selling her artwork at Saturday markets, Carlile has grown her platform to become a full time artist, working on murals, art classes and growing her youtube channel, already at 141K subscribers. In her video entitled Your fear of being perceived is holding you back. Carlile states that “if people don’t like (your art) then you have succeeded because you’ve actually done something of substance in the world”, she reiterates that “as a creative, art is supposed to make people feel things”.

“Things” unspecified. Walking around a gallery, people will be drawn to different art pieces. I prefer Monet over Van Gogh. A Van Gogh over a Picasso. A Gentileschi over Monet.

The point is, Carlile is right on the money when she states “if my paintings angers someone but it makes someone else feel seen then I think I did my job as an artist”

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***
My own answer:

I think one of the most difficult parts about being known is introducing ourselves. As a creative, no one wants to show up to an online space being an amateur, or sub- par to everyone else. We assume that we must work on ourselves until our work is polished and shiny and anything less than immaculate must be sent back to the drawing board instantly.

The truth is that the best writers, singers, dancers etc, all started out as people terrible at their craft (except maybe Meryl Streep, she can just do that), who toiled and thought and kept coming back to their workspace with genuine love and interest, until they got big enough to catch our attention.

Sometimes we assume that our work is too unoriginal, too similar to another work and - barring actual plagiarism, (don’t do that, obviously), therefore shouldn’t exist. But what’s better than one well written action adventure book series with great characters and a brilliant plot? TWO well written action adventure book series with great characters and a brilliant plot.

There will never be another Billie Eilish, or The Last Airbender, or Jumanji.

Scratch that last one.

The point is, no one can truly be you except you and the world should not be deprived of your creativity because of your fear of what might happen.

And anyways, it’s all for fun. : )

***

Thanks for reading! It’s nice to meet you! Let us know if you like this type of content or if there’s anything else you’d like to hear from us.

You can find the creatives that were mentioned in this article down below, if there’s any topics or people you’d like to see me cover, let me know in the comments. (And if you’d like to be featured, let us know too!).

Thanks again for reading and remember - be kind to yourself!

Catch you later,

Kaye

Make sure to check out the artists mentioned:

Jen Carmiel:

Website:

https://jencarmiel.com/?srsltid=AfmBOoqZ-03pH6qt-vH0PKOumEkyZfdNu3KvjPCKsk3Gke6P5MmV5YUy

Kayla Carlile

Website:

https://www.kaylacarlile.art/

Ready for more?

Read Next: Is Failure As Important as Success?

Front Row is your backstage pass to our essays, workshops, and online summits on navigating the future of creativity. Built by, for & with independent creatives.

We’re also publishing on: Instagram | YouTube | TikTok | LinkedIn | Threads

What’s the RoundUp?

A curated piece of content where I scour the internet for answers to common questions that tend to plague creatives and present my findings here. I’ll be sifting through established creatives, eager ingenues as well as hopping across multiple industries - music, art, filmmaking - to see what answers people have come to for the hard hitting questions.

And today’s question:

Short Answer: Yes.

Failure as Redirection

Demi Lovato’s It’s Not That Deep Tour is officially in progress and whilst Lovato’s journey is a beehive of the importance of persistence and re-direction, I want to focus on the opener for her concert.

Adela Jorgova, or known by her stage name Adela is a Slovak singer, songwriter and dancer that debuted her first solo song in 2024 and now has signed to Capital Records. She has slowly but steadily grown her artistry and fanbase to become a household name. All of this began because she was eliminated from a pop survival show.

Adela was one of thousands of girls that auditioned for the chance to debut as one of the members of global girl group KATSEYE, a K-pop inspired music group created by Hybe x Geffen. Over 120,000 auditionees were whittled down to 20, to participate in Dream Academy, later shown in the Netflix reality show Popstar Academy: KATSEYE which was released in 2024.

Despite scoring amongst the highest in vocals and dance, Adela did not gain enough public votes to stay in the competition which led to her heart-wrenching leave from the competition just before the remaining girls were set to journey to Korea.

And thus started her solo career.

Her newest single KGB hit No.11 on the Hot Dance/ Pop Songs chart, just above Madonna’s I Feel So Free. She’s set to sing at Lollapalooza 2026. Her solo career is skyrocketing in a way that can be compared to Chappell Roan, and as a solo artist, she has the creative autonomy to pursue her passions in a way that fulfils her.

Adela is not the only person out of Dream Academy to find their footing as a solo artist, Karlee Tanaka, known as Karlee Girl, launched her solo career in April 2025 and her newest single “Right Back!” has amassed over 2.3 million views on Youtube. Another three auditionees Lexie Levin, Samara Siqueira and Emily Kelavos are set to debut in girl group SAINT SATINE.

Pivoting Careers

Our next deep dive is on Eve Cornwell, a trainee solicitor turned tech product manager. - I did say we were shifting through multiple industries - I’ve been a long time fan of Eve Cornwell, her casual yet sophisticated youtube vlog-style videos date back since she was studying law at university.

With just over 345k subscribers, @evecornwellchannel has grown into a community of like-minded, studious people who became invested in the one dream that became synonymous with her brand - becoming a lawyer. Yet, in a 2022, in a youtube video entitled “I quit my dream job”, Eve explains that through the self-reflection that being in a global pandemic will have you sit with, “the one thing (she) could not compromise on was having a creative outlet” and refound her purpose as a tech product manager.

As one of her long-time fans, this news was first surprising and then uplifting. The comments under that video are littered with cheers and well-wishes, fellow creatives who enjoyed watching her videos happy that she’d found what works for her.

We tend to amplify them and think that that will be all the reaction there is, but the honest truth is, most people are happy for your success or indifferent to it. And both are blessings.

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The Sunk Cost Fallacy

The Sunk Cost Fallacy is the human tendency to continue with an action or behaviour that is proving ineffective because we’ve already invested our time, money or energy into it.

For example: Sitting for an entire movie’s runtime because you’ve paid the full ticket price even though halfway through you realise that horror films aren’t your thing.

Another example: Continuing with a career that you know you don’t have enthusiasm for, because you’ve burnt out, the industry has changed or maybe you’ve changed. We have a tendency to push down those nagging thoughts and persevere, because the alternative looks like giving up and heading home with nothing.. The realisation that if you stop now, all those long nights of work, those early mornings and monthly sacrifices were useless because you thought you were making progress instead of mistakes.

This is the wrong frame of mind, anything that you’ve learnt will be helpful to you in the future.

If you’re a carpenter turned film- maker, you know the colloquialisms of the work place, you’ve met a range of diverse people with unique voices that will inform your writing. You’ve seen homes that could inform set pieces. And then there’s the practical skills - you know bargaining, time management and working in a team. Everything informs everything. Adaptability is a skill and trusting yourself will only get easier over time.

***
My own answer:

Failure is the most consistent thing in my life. That’s not a complaint - (well sometimes it is) and I believe the same is true for all other creatives out there.

A little bit of background on myself - finishing high school, I had no idea what I wanted to do other than write, I had no idea about the publishing industry, or indeed the entertainment industry, I just knew that no one was going to pay me for writing just yet. Cue a good couple years and a few failures that incurred a mound of student debt, it was only through my seemingly endless assembly line of failed ventures did I stumble upon Futureative and land this job and now - I’m being paid to write. Isn’t that funny? It would be more funny without the student debt, I agree, but my point is, none of the paths that lead me here would have appeared if I didn’t have the courage to make mistakes, have the humility and self-reflection to keep going, even if I didn’t necessarily know where I was heading.

I think creatives are so hard on themselves, and we don’t need to be. At all. Especially since “success” means different things for different people.

Non-creatives tend to confuse success with virality and income. Oftentimes, they don’t understand that some creative people do it for the love of the game.

That sometimes they have an idea in their head that just. won’t. go.

That takes work. That takes failure. But that’s the point.

And anyways, you can always just start again : )

***

Thanks for reading! It’s nice to meet you! Let us know if you like this type of content or if there’s anything else you’d like to hear from us.

You can find the creatives that were mentioned in this article down below, if there’s any topics or people you’d like to see me cover, let me know in the comments. (And if you’d like to be featured, let us know too!).

Thanks again for reading and remember - be kind to yourself!

Catch you later,

Kaye

Make sure to check out the artists mentioned:

Adela:

KARLEEGIRL

Eve Cornwell:

Other:

https://thedecisionlab.com/biases/the-sunk-cost-fallacy Pilat, Dan, and Sekoul Krastev. “The Sunk Cost Fallacy.” The Decision Lab, 2021, thedecisionlab.com/biases/the-sunk-cost-fallacy.

Ready for more?

Read Next: Creative careers sure don’t work like they used to.

This article is the first of a 3-part Deep Dive on the future of creative careers; current obstacles and solutions we can all work together on.

Front Row is your backstage pass to our essays, workshops, and online summits on navigating the future of creativity. Built by, for & with independent creatives.

We’re also publishing on: Instagram | YouTube | TikTok | LinkedIn | Threads

As if we have reached the end of the road, no more could a new book, podcast, film or album benefit humanity.

It’s an easy reach, when you’re desperate for a click. But completely misses the point of creativity, creative work and what consumers want.

There is an oversupply of creative work, yes. And that is increasing at an exponential rate. But with that increase, comes a growing undersupply.

I’m here to make the case that high quality, human made, creative work, made by humans, is going to grow in demand, because it’s going to be harder to find.

Let’s dive in!

In this article:

• Why the “oversupply of creative work” proclamation is flat out wrong

• Why there is an undersupply of one type of creative work

• Why it’s key to think about the creative journey, more than the work itself

• Why creativity is never a race and how to stay in the game

The world doesn’t need another “_______”.

“The world doesn’t need another podcast.”

“The world doesn’t need another album.”

“The world doesn’t need another book.”

“The world doesn’t need another film, blog, photograph…” You get the point.

I hear versions of this all the time. And look, I get it. People are desperate for a click. Spouting the death of the next medium and the rise of another is a great way to do that.

And yeah look, there is a supply problem in the creative industries. There is significantly more creative work being brought into the world every day than can be consumed by humanity. The quantity, it’s growing.

But this proclamation misses the whole point of creativity.

Of the things we as consumers of creativity yearn for.

We yearn for work that means something to us.

And the only way to get more of that, is if creative people keep creating, and keep pushing the limits of their own creativity.

The world might not need everything you make…

And that’s ok. That is part of the process. Being a creative person does not mean you are guaranteed success, a career or that people will like your work.

You are not guaranteed that all your work will be good. In fact, if anything, if you are to truly pursue this as your vocation, you are guaranteed that the vast majority of your work will be average.

Because it is through the process of creating average, the hard-won determination of showing up over and over again. Iterating and experimenting and combining and moulding. That the creative process has a way of creating those hidden gems.

Making incredible creative work is as hard a goal as there is, because there’s no destination you are really seeking. You have to be able to produce and produce and produce, no-matter the quality.

And without this? You may find yourself the proud owner of ‘just another podcast’ or ‘just another album’.

This is an article not about the supply and demand economics of the creative industries, but really about grit, determination, belief and persistance.

And in a world that is making things easier and easer to produce at our fingertips. I think the thing that will become more scarce, is the thing noboidy can ever take from you.

Your persistance to create and to push the boundaries of what’s possible is always in your hands.

The world absolutely does need what you make.

Whenever it looks like something has already been done 100 times over, you need to show up anyway.

That voice that says “that’s been done better than I could do” doesn’t help you.

That voice that says “the world is too saturated, I may as well try something else” is just throwing you off course.

And some version of this voice has shown up for me across the last 20 years or so of me trying to work out how to be a creative person (which I’m still figuring out, mind you).

It shows up in the creative work itself, just as easily as the marketing work we must do to prove our relevance.

That voice that says “gosh, maybe I do kind of suck at this” is the same voice that also bothers people who proclaim we don’t need more creative work.

Because there’s a voice telling them their creative work sucks. They’ve already decided they’re not going to do it, so they’re annoyed when somebody else goes and does it anyway.

What the inner monologue is really trying to tell us

It’s not all bad; that voice has a purpose. And shutting it down I don’t think helps. Acknowledging it, does. And acknowledging and heeding it’s not-so-wise words are very different things.

Our internal quality checks, the parts of our intelect that determine taste is trying to move us forward. As artists, creators, makers, in developing our skills, craft and practice, of course we are going to be discerning. We are going to find nuance in our understanding of what is good and great work.

It’s hard when you know your work isn’t the best. It’s hard when you know it’s perhaps not getting the recognition that other people seem to be able to get.

But that voice is just egging you on; to keep challenging yourself.

To keep being the best creative you can be.

That part of ourselves that critiques our work should, in theory, help us keep striving to make better work. It should ring alarm bells when we’re cutting corners, when we’re trying to optimise for attention instead of quality. That voice becomes a useful guardrail.

But sometimes it stops us from starting. And when other people who hold some kind of positional authority say it, it can be way more dangerous.

So I’m here today, with the very limited positional authority I have to say this:

F#&% what anyone else thinks, and what the inner monologue might say. The world needs you to create anyway.

Saturation assumes that all work is the same and equal.

Back to the supply and demand of creativity for a moment.

Because yes, there is an oversupply of creative work. Factually, that’s true. There is an insane amount of content uploaded to every distribution platform, every day; more than is consumable by the people on the planet, and of course not everyone is going to be able to make a career from it.

But I’m here to make the case that there is an undersupply of high quality, human made creative work; of new work, with meaning; and that that’s unlikely in my opinion to change.

As the barrier to entry for easy, average, fast-food creativity grows. The time, skill, patience, exploration and long-road required to produce standout creative work will become less palatable for many.

The oversupply of average work is going to continue, if not increase. So more than ever, I think we need to work slower. To put creativity and the creative process first again.

Putting the effort in, the energy in, over a long period of time is actually the whole game. It’s always been the point. And yes some who take shortcuts have won and will continue to win. But overall humanity does not.

We only win when artists are brave and determined and resilient and go forth challenging and bettering themselves over the long-run.

And I think it’s unfair that this question is asked of creatives, when we don’t ask the same question when there’s an oversupply in other industries in the same way.

You rarely hear someone say “the world doesn’t need another investment banker”. But we don’t criticise them in the same way we do creative people.

We don’t stop that person and say “no, we’ve got more than enough of those, how about you don’t do it.”

But for some reason in the creative industries, we say “there are too many creative people, so please everyone stop.”

If I had to choose a future world where everybody was an investment banker or everybody was an artist, I’m choosing the creative world every time.

This was first published as a video essay; you might like to watch it on YouTube →

The people who deserve more support

I think anybody who wants to be an artist should be able to be one. And I think the people who are willing to do the really hard work that it requires, to wrestle with ideas, fight against self doubt, create in obscurity for as long as it takes, and realise that it doesn’t work out in two years and it might not work out in ten but if you keep going maybe in 30 things will pan out; those people deserve more support than they’re getting.

Because it’s really easy to look and say “oh creative people just get to write music every day.” But creative people who are genuinely building real creative skills and making really deep creative work spend an enormous amount of their time and energy and resources on this thing.

And that determination is going to become more valuable.

At the same time, creative people cannot live with expectation that they are somehow owed something by society. Not everybody will produce work that demands a career. And not everybody will build the audience that funds the career. We are not owed anything and feeling sorry for ourselves or expecting parts of our job (like marketing) to magically not be there is mythical at best.

No career on the planet comes without hard work and doing hard things. A creative person who just wants to be creative but complains about how hard the rest of it is; that’s missing the point of being a creative.

The whole point is the ongoing challenge.

Creative people who choose this path and life, knowing full-well the odds of success are stacked against them. We choose this path because we know no other and want no other.

And with that path comes a whole range of very hard things we’re going to have to do. To make our creative work the best it can be and to find the people that can help us to sustain our creativity.

How AI is actually helping every creative

The more I reflect on where the world is heading with AI, there are moments where I think things are going to get worse for creative people. And then I think, no, this might be the moment people needed to realise something important.

If you can just manufacture “art”, then suddenly there’s a massive differentiation. AI generated work is predictive and there are already studies showing it’s significant limitations that will persist even as the models get “smarter” because they homogenise ideas.

People that don’t use AI for creative work, create more ideas, not less. So let others go and AI generate their work, and skip the years, decades even of craft and practice.

But know this is your differentation; the unique combination of perspectives, experiences, trials, challenges and findings is what makes your work unique and original. Your creative practice is your fingerprint and therefore your differentation.

And people are going to want more of this, from real creative people, not less.

And that doesn’t mean you have to be a creative person for 30 years before anybody takes you seriously. I just mean that if you have this drive and desire to be creative for the longer term, for the purpose and pursuit of being creative, knowing that your creativity is more than just making a thing.

You’re actually making a thing that people can interact with and experience a story or connection with. That is a massive advantage. And that is what’s going to help you to stand out in an oversupplied world.

Intention is all we’ll have left soon

It boils down to this word: intention. A word that every creative person has a choice over.

What are you making and why?

What world are you building for others and why?

What experiences are you creating to share your work, and stories and experience with all of us and why?

I think without the right intention, it’s too easy to take shortcuts, ignore our values, and settle. Instead of listening to the voice of pride that says “take the time to make your best work” we too easily succumb to voice of fear that says “your work isn’t worth it, may as well take that shortcut, everyone else is.”

Our intention allows us to either keep building our craft and practice the right way. Or to take the easy way out and say “it was never gonna work out for me anyway.”

Your next step is this: keep exploring

If I was to think of an analogy to describe this, maybe it’s like a video game where you’re at the beginning with an unexplored map surrounding you.

Think Age of Empires esque. The world is there but you can’t see it, and the only way to figure out the objective is to walk around, start to explore, uncover sections of the map.

I think our creative journey is very much like that. You have a sense of “I’ve got to go over here” but you don’t really know how big the map is in each direction. And the only way to uncover parts of it is to chip away over time.

Each time you chip away, you find something else that informs your creativity. And over time, more and more of this revealing of the terrain helps you see the things that don’t matter to you and the things that do.

We meet people on the journey. We get feedback and data. Some of it we listen to, some we don’t. But we have to uncover all of these things ourselves.

The error I see is that too many people uncover a bit of the map, realise it’s difficult, hear a voice from someone else saying there’s already too many podcasts, and then stay in this tiny little bit of their map because it’s safe. They set out just enough but got just enough negative feedback to stop moving. I’ve been this person. And it doesn’t feel good, nor does it help you make better creative work.

The only way to really uncover the map is to make stuff on your terms. To make things that are interesting to you, combine those things, find other people to create with. Even when someone rocks up and says “we don’t need your stuff,” you’ve got to go anyway.

We have to do this because creativity is not a race. A lot of the economic and distribution systems in the creative industries are set up to make you think it is, but they’re not set up that way because it’s true.

The platforms we spend our time on, the ones we think we depend on to get our creative work out there, they are seeking advertising revenue so that their shareholders can make money. So they reward fast-food style creativity with attention. That’s why it feels like a race. Because they are in a race to extract more money from human attention before another platform does first.

So these platforms feel more competitive which in turn incentivises more fast-food creativity. “If you don’t create now, it’s game over.” When you think about it like that, everything just points back to coming back to where you are on your own map (not everybody else’s).

We cannot be afraid of missing out. Of missing that next bandwagon. Or opportunity like it’ll never come back. We cannot simply start injecting AI into our work, like its a performance enhancing drug, just because everyone else must be.

We must stay true to ourselves and our craft. I know for me, every creative project I’ve enjoyed working on the most, or loved consuming or experiencing, it’s always the projects that clearly put creativity first; in its rightful place.

And I have a hunch that this is the secret of all the artists that have these lifelong careers. They keep creating regardless of that voice and regardless of nonsense proclamations.

The world might say it doesn’t need your creativity anymore, but that’s just someone else’s story. The artists that really make a difference keep creating regardless. And we know that the best creative work only appears because people are determined to keep making better work over a long period of time.

So keep making your work.

Keep trying to uncover that map.

Share your work with the world knowing what it’s for and why it’s entering the world, knowing that the big picture is always making better work.

If you’re always doing that, you are slowly but surely contributing to the undersupply of high quality, awesome, creative, independent, made by human work that people need now and are going to need way more in the future, not less.

You may pause when that that inner voice is tempting you to take shortcuts in your creativity. But ignore the noise from outside that’s telling you to stop.

A few questions to sit with:

• When you hear “the world doesn’t need another _____” what does that voice actually sound like? Is it yours, or someone else’s?

• If you stopped measuring your creative work and against others, how would you approach your work differently?

• Where are you on your own map right now, and what’s the next section you want to uncover?

Ready for more?

Read next: Meaning: The one thing AI will always struggle to create.

The essay you just read was initially inspired from another person’s foolish proclamation on LinkedIn; but also intertwines with the last essay I wrote on meaning and how it’s the only thing that AI can never recreate.

Front Row is your backstage pass to our essays, workshops, and online summits on navigating the future of creativity. Built by, for & with independent creatives.

We’re also publishing on: Instagram | YouTube | TikTok | LinkedIn | Threads