The Price of the Artist’s Journey
The First Rule of Artist’s Journey is this:
However hard you think it will be, the reality is ten times harder.
However long you imagine it will take, the term is ten times longer.
However much you think it will cost, the bill is ten times higher.
Charles Bukowski said that he wrote for thirty years before he finally composed a single sentence that was true to his vision. Mathew Syed’s Bounce and Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers both posit ten years of full-time work—ten thousand hours—to achieve mastery in any field.
(It goes without saying that in art or entrepreneurship, “mastery” is a guarantee of absolutely nothing.)
Robert McKee has a criterion that he applies to the protagonist in any novel, play or movie. Does this character possess the drive and passion—the madness—to see the story all the way through to the end? Will he or she go to any length, pay any price to achieve his or her goal? If the answer is no, there’s no movie.
Same with us on the artist’s journey. Only we can answer:
How much do we love it?
How much do we want it?
How much are we willing to give to achieve it?
DO THE WORK
Steve shows you the predictable Resistance points that every writer hits in a work-in-progress and then shows you how to deal with each one of these sticking points. This book shows you how to keep going with your work.
THE AUTHENTIC SWING
A short book about the writing of a first novel: for Steve, The Legend of Bagger Vance. Having failed with three earlier attempts at novels, here's how Steve finally succeeded.
NOBODY WANTS TO READ YOUR SH*T
Steve shares his "lessons learned" from the trenches of the five different writing careers—advertising, screenwriting, fiction, nonfiction, and self-help. This is tradecraft. An MFA in Writing in 197 pages.
TURNING PRO
Amateurs have amateur habits. Pros have pro habits. When we turn pro, we give up the comfortable life but we find our power. Steve answers the question, "How do we overcome Resistance?"
100000000000% true. These are things we need to hear from time to time, especially when you’ve been at it so long you start to wonder why you’re still doing it when you have verrrrry little to show for aaaaaaaall your hard work. When you hear these things, you remember like the second your eyes hit the words and you feel like, “Okay, I can keep going. I don’t care how much longer it takes or even if I never get there (wherever “there” is, for you). I’m going to keep working at this no matter what.”
Thank you so much for these posts <3 They're like, soul vitamins in my inbox ^_^**
On the flip side…if it was easy, everyone would do it. I laughed out loud reading the email because it’s just so true. It’s a really hard road being a creative person. It’s a blessing and curse. The dreaded problem is…if you don’t make it work it’s a massive massive curse. I really love receiving your emails Steven, thank you!
Truth! Passion. Purpose. Perserversvxe.
“Letter to myself back in 2011” would be one great tag for saving this one…
Im ready for it.
Best wishes, Steve. Hope your current project is paying off, at least internally.
Boy did I need to read this today. It is so so so true. Thank you for your amazing books and for this column each Wednesday. I am continuing to grow my coaching biz and working on processed food addiction. I need to just settle in because neither will be quick. Thanks again!
I’ve been in fine arts for 40+ years and I’ve had my ups in my downs. I think this is very true of all the arts 10 times by 10 times by 10 times. I also think it’s true of life in general because I’ve looked at other peoples careers in other entrepreneurial endeavors and they have had their 10 times harder than they thought it was going to be for whatever they’re trying to do as well. So i’ve come to believe it’s a life condition. In the United States we aren’t recognized for a lot of what we do and we’re not honored for the persistence and skill level that is achieved because people don’t have the educational background to do so. I really think that’s the hard part of it For me at least. At the same time I am grateful to be doing the arts at 40 years in and hope for another 26. It would be so much harder to do something that I didn’t love for 40 years.
Sinto que é verdade. Como é verdadeiro que a ‘chama’ não se apaga.
Yes, perseverance is a person’s greatest possession. Without it, there is no book, no business, no lifelong dream brought into reality… Be like the ant collecting its food for a long winter, always moving forward.
I feel like I am really late to breakfast, clocking in at nearly 8 AM, but yes, I’ve been asking for “Recognition” for almost my full 82 years. Applause for my efforts with shirt cardboard and crayon, whatever. There have been surprise comments from people I admired along the way. RECOGNITION in any form keeps me sustained. But it seems to be the continual “Laying of the eggs”, how else to put it, that seems to be the inner drive. Very little in concrete form of something to hang on the wall ( paintings or awards or such ) just reminders of what to finish, catalog, and start a new project.. Thanks, Steve for giving us a place to shelter and compare notes. This is my first “Writing Wednesday”, I knew I was crawling out of the covers for a reason!
Why does something so wonderful have to be so hard?
Absolutely the question, Amy. Thank you.
Another great post. Thanks for sharing your thoughts! They never fail to motivate me. Although, I’ve now read enough of your books and those of others, I’ve internalized this to a good extent. Now to maintain it over that critical period of time. Thanks again!
About 800 AD, a famous poet in Tang Dynasty Jia Dao wrote that it took 10 years to sharpen a sword. It is uncanny that 10 years is the magic number to separate pro from wannabe. It is probably by design, divine design.
BTW, I am reading the Daily Pressfield and the current theme is about hero’s journey. The column here and the Daily echo each other. How lucky I am to have Cesar to both.
Have access not Cesar. Sorry.
Steven, you are just a lighthouse of sharings, turning me around when I’m lost at sea at night. Everything I read gives me a jolt forward. I’ve had my “But in the chair” since 5:30 AM and wrote nothing. But I purposefully stopped to look for your Wednesday email because I saw it pop up on my phone when I woke, and now I feel okay about these hours of staring and typing with not much to show for it. HOPEFUL. This is all part of the process, which is easy to forget or get down about. So, I may only say this once in a while here: I once sent you an email about your “GEORGE BAILEY” effect on writers worldwide, but it’s an ongoing thank you for your writing wisdom—and LIFE wisdom! Peace, Michael
Wow! If the protag won’t go to any lengths, there’s no movie. So is THAT why we love stories? Because we get to watch people do what we know we should be doing?
36 years and counting. A younger me might not had made the trip had I known how long it would take or how far from home I would go, “the path to salvation is narrow and as difficult to walk as a razor’s edge”.
There’s a point after the all is lost moment. After you are no longer a tiger but a cat. Where all you have is madness. Such beautiful fuel to get you to Redemption.
I empathize. At the end of the day, may the fruits of this Redemption not be offered as a commercial product to distracted public!
https://www.themarginalian.org/2014/03/04/the-distracted-public-saul-bellow/
“to a distracted public”
I love hearing or reading about a new artist, seeing them described as “an overnight sensation,” then to read that “they’ve been playing the guitar/singing at church/making stories since they were four years old.”
OH AND YES…AS YOU AGE AND EXPECT WISDOM AND PERSPECTIVE ALSO EXPECT MEMORY LOSS AND TURBULENT SLEEP ..CHUCK
This truth bomb took a rigorous workout and a pep talk from the husband before I could check- in.
I’ve logged nineteen years as a writer and thirty-two years as a painter with extremely modest and mostly personal success. The numbers, coupled with my sister’s recent feature in Professional Photographer Magazine, made me ask myself, “Why am I still at it?” I am damn proud of my sister’s accomplishments. (Absolutely no jealousy.) But you see, she is ten years younger than me. I’ve been at this 10x longer. Then I read Steve’s post with all those 10x’s.
My husband asked me, “Are you going to let your head get in the way of your heart? It’s called stick-to-it-ness, right?” (Don’t you love when they toss your words back at you?)
So, here I am. I showed up exhausted from beating myself up at the gym. And I’ll be at my desk tomorrow as well. Thanks, Steve.
OOPs forgot the name. The above is from Jackie. I’ll own it and put my name to it. Wish all a good week.
Great comments today, as always.
The flip side of this idea is also useful. If you knew what it took to get the life of someone you’re envious of, would you still want it?
And at the risk of sounding like an ad now, if you like Writing Wednesdays you’ll love Steve’s inspiration on Instagram. This post, for example…
https://www.instagram.com/p/C-7wf60ynaY/?img_index=1
…changed how I feel about shame. I used to think shame was bad, something to transcend. Steve made me realize that whame imposed by others is fraught, shame that’s internal reminds us there’s so much more we could be if we would just get back to work.
correction: WHILE SHAME imposed by others is fraught
Sorry about that!
I got back to work before I proofed that comment! 🤣
Great to read this. This is a long, arduous journey, and I’ve been struggling as of late.
Olá ! Tenho vivido exatamente isso! Obrigada!
Stuck the landing again, Steve-O!!! 10 outta 10, brother…
Well said and sooo true both on the writers part and the hero part. Writing is a journey not a destination
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Thank you so much dear Steve.
Yes, it is ten times more or even more for me too.
And it’s not the happiness of moving a great plot forward. Not any more.
It’s like screwing in screws and refine the surfaces of the table and carving slits and peels and doing all that indifferent stuff on it, instead of living good, every minute of every hour for the last years. Steven King would say, it’s like trying to dig up a Tyrannosaurus’ bones from a wasteland with your a toothbrush as your only tool. You are a madman, and that’s not good. I’m now on 6000 hours more or less. I hate every hour that I sit doing those things instead of creating a great and interesting plot or instead of trying to live the unlived life. Where is the unlived life in that procedure?
Otherwise that work of art is so ugly. You can’t believe it. If I brought that to people to read it, they’d feel extremely discussed. And that is so unfair, because when I write it my heart is trying to be full of the dream of the world. There is a dream there. But it can’t be transformed into a poem. No way.
You don’t want to wake up the next morning to read the text I wrote last night. It emits all the ugliness or indifference in the universe. Last night you thought these words were elves that will drive humankind to the Elysian Fields or something. In the morning they are uglier than everything you ‘ve ever read.
Maybe worse. Indifferent. Remember? Indifference is worse than hate.
And I’m sorry that in such a struggle there is no guarantee at all.
It’s very possible that I followed the wrong path.
We will know at the end. Only then.
Even the wrong path can teach us all the dynamics of life though.
Another positive thought is, that doing such a work you have the advantage that noone will sit down to do something so ugly and time consuming, so it will really be your own field. You own it. Noone wants an ugly field anymore.
watchmovie
You mean stick your neck out at the risk of failing?
Who asks that of anyone these days?
Just kidding. Back to the grind.
I’ve been working on my writing for years, and it’s been a long and often frustrating journey. But I keep coming back to it because I love it so much. I’m willing to pay any price to achieve my Slope Game goal of becoming a published author.
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The Price of the Artist’s Journey explores the emotional, financial, and societal challenges artists face while pursuing their craft. The article masterfully weaves personal anecdotes with broader cultural insights, offering a deeply empathetic yet candid view of the creative journey.