Lit Carnivale #22
Toi here and welcome back to Lit Carnivale.
Today, I want to talk about the duality of being a creative person.
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1. Last week I was out addressing my ongoing health issues and I’m so happy to be back this week. With season 3 of The Read Local Show and The Read All Over Show approaching, I’ve been thinking a lot about the duality of being a creative person. I’ll mostly be focusing on writers, but I think what I have to say will generally apply to other creatives as well. Before I go more in-depth on this topic, here’s a reminder of the line up for the two shows.
The Read Local Show will feature: a special guest, along with Virginia Slechta, Jana Sun, and T.L. Pass.
The Read All Over Show will feature: Sherry Ellis, Brenda Covert, Patricia J.L., and Glorious Raine.
2. Speaking in purely general terms, most creatives would love to be able to create all the time without having to worry about income, promoting, or meeting expectations. For those who’ve chosen to express their creativity without monetization, they’ve limited their need to think about these other concerns. When creativity isn’t connected to financial need or desire, you don’t need to worry about promotion and societal expectations. Unfortunately, one major downside to being a creative, is the desire to connect with other people over your creative expression. This can be done without monetization, but not without exposure to other people’s expectation. Then take it one step further and reject the notion of working a traditional job or starting a practical business model and you have a creative who has to master promoting and meeting expectations. The creative person now becomes a businessperson, whether they like it or not.
3. This is the duality many creatives struggle with. I know there have been times when I’ve written something that I knew other people would connect with or relate too and I was torn with whether or not I should give it away for free or go onto promo mode to share it. If I decide to share it, I’m then torn with why I would put so much effort into sharing it if I wasn’t at least attempting to make some income with- income help fuel future creativity. It’s a tough situation to be in and one I’m constantly traversing. That’s one of the reasons I make so much effort to help promote other authors. Whether they are seeking recognition, monetary gain, or simply a connection, I wish I’d had someone offering me a platform to share my creativity, so now I’m offer it to others.
Question: Would you rather create for a living or keep creativity separate from your income? I’d love to know. For me, I’m open to both. I would write only for myself if it got to be too much to share it with others, but I could also write for a living if I choice to focus my attention on that, but it mostly likely wouldn’t be the fairy tale of being a full-time novelist.
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Until next time, stay safe, keep reading, and be blessed.
Credits
Lit Carnivale Season 1, Episode 22.
Staring Toi Thomas.
Featuring no one else at this time.
Topics Discussed: Duality, Creativity, Income Possibility
Produced by Toi Thomas in association with The ToiBox of Words and Lit Carnivale.
Directed by Toinette “Toi” Thomas.
Thanks again to the Lit Carnivale Community at Substack, YouTube, and wherever you can hear this podcast.
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