Comments on: The Big Payoff

By: Kim Patron

Kim Patron — Mon, 17 Sep 2012 18:48:37 +0000

Steven Pressfield! You the man. I just found you via your book, The War of Art. Doesn’t it count as a payoff for you that you touch your readers so deeply & profoundly? Because you do. I’m a fan for life.

By: Diane Sherlock

Diane Sherlock — Sat, 15 Sep 2012 16:58:48 +0000

A painter warned me about this years ago, right before he married for money! He called it the trap of lotto mentality

By: Barbara Curry

Barbara Curry — Fri, 14 Sep 2012 17:45:14 +0000

so true…..loved this, and finally I get it!! There are those wonderful moments of sitting back in admiration of something I’ve accomplished…..and soon I’m back up again, moving on to the next thing…

By: Stephanie Austin Edwards

Stephanie Austin Edwards — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 18:54:53 +0000

Wonderful post. What comes to mind is the film “84 Charring Cross Road.” Ann Bancroft’s character, Helene, was a struggling writer and passionate bibliophile who just kept her writing practice going and going and going, because she had to. It’s not only a unique and complex love story, but Helene’s life as a writer is really about Doing The Work. Today I find that family and friends want to know why we are doing all this “writing” work, when we could be doing so much less and having more fun. I think they must mean their definition of fun. And often others see “purpose” in the writing life only if certain acknowledgement is given – another Payoff. For me, writing is my third career,and even though the right agent hasn’t yet fallen in love with my first novel, I’m working on my second one, writing and publishing some short stories, developing my blog, and teaching some of what I have learned. Maybe I’m already experiencing The Payoff.

By: the pencilneck

the pencilneck — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 17:56:54 +0000

I find alot of creative people get hung up in the “If I could only” thinking. They procrastinate with it by daydreaming how wonderful everything would be, uusually meaning “I won’t have to do this particular thing anymore”.

It also seems to accompany “money dreaming”, where they’ll get all wound up over improbable figures including such klunkers as “If I only sold 1% of the market/what so-and-so sold/etc.”

I get asked several times a month by other artists “How do you manage to sell 100 ltd. edition prints at a time?!” or more often, “How can I sell 100 prints?”. The answer – and frankly it’s gotten to be a little glib on my part – is “There’re very few ways to sell 100 prints, but I can show 100 ways to sell ONE print”.

And they don’t wanna hear that…

By: patti/altered attic

patti/altered attic — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 13:07:53 +0000

Once again, thank you, thank you, thank you.
And congratulations!!!

By: R. Leo

R. Leo — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 12:17:19 +0000

Thank you. This is the 3rd or 4th time your posts have been exactly what I needed to hear…karma, G-d’s will, the Spirit hovering, the corrective Muse…whatever you want to call it. I’m just about to release my second book (a memoir) and my wife asked me last night if I was excited. I said-why no one will read it. I was already disappointed knowing the ‘big payoff’ wouldn’t come. Maybe I was trying to trick fate with reverse pyschology but you reminded me that my job is to write it—work my practice. Thanks again!

In Art and Labor,
R Leo Olson

By: Fi Phillips

Fi Phillips — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 11:11:49 +0000

Congratulations on the new arrival. It seems like a long time since there was a baby in our house. My daughter turned 10 years old yesterday.

This is a great post. I’m coming to the end of a first draft at the moment and although I enjoy writing, the resistance is always there in some form. I know that it’ll still be there with the next novel too and everything else I write. It is definitely an ongoing process rather than a race to a finishing line. Thank you for sharing.

By the way, I blogged about Turning Pro yesterday because I found it a very helpful, insightful read.

By: Joe Tribby

Joe Tribby — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 01:11:29 +0000

Steven, congratulations on the addition to the family. I’ve come to understand what you described in the above article over the past year. There are goals and good times to reach, but then its going to be more uphill.. Always. As the Navy SEAL saying goes: the only easy day was yesterday. Also, Im pretty sure this quote is from Winston Churchill: “Everyday you make progress. Every step may be fruitful. Yet there will stretch out before you an ever-lengthening, ever-ascending, ever-improving path. You know you will never get to the end of the journey; but this, so far from discouraging, only adds to the joy and glory of the climb.”

By: Seth

Seth — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 21:43:07 +0000

Recently watched the documentary on Kevin Clash, “Being Elmo”. This guy has had the big break and it doesn’t seem to matter to him. He loves what he does and has relentlessly pursued the craft of puppetry inside and out since he was a kid. It is his world and he does it regardless of the payoff. May we all have the joy of work for it’s own sake.