by Ticia Valcer
No, they never tell you. It would crash the magic of the artist’s muse. But the truth is that writing, drawing, painting, or any other form of art is hard. The only activity that may be as hard as art is, probably, professional sportspeople.
There are no enterprises that pay you to become a professional: you need to become a professional on your own so the enterprises may pick interest in paying you. And this means that you will have to work mostly in your free time. Sacrifice sleep or time with your family to train and practice and write and edit and promote your work. All-by-yourself.
If your lucky, your beloved ones will have some words for you. Most of the time, they don’t. Especially children. For them, it’s hard to understand and you need to make an exception that can feel so overwhelming. Or you will feel guilty: am I being selfish for work on my interest instead of staying up five more minutes with my girl? Or had forgotten to bath her at night because I got myself so up with that comic? If I were earning a living on this, it would be easy to tell myself “It’s for her, for buying all her needs”, but when you’re just starting, when you have failed so many times because you were afraid or shy, choosing between arts and family become stressful
Ticia Valcer 