Performing on the Stage of Love No Money

“…whenever I’m asked for my advice on becoming a writer I say: advance slowly.  Shore up your position now by getting a stable job and write in the evenings.  This way you will write more of what you want and you’ll get to keep writing it for longer. 

Only throw yourself and your handful of sonnets directly onto the mercy of the world if you’re convinced you’re a commercially viable genius.  Or your parents are paying the rent.” (James Marriott)

If you do a creative job, sometimes other people will ask you how they could do one, too.  For me, this offers a cuddly sense of validation; particularly since I used to work in corporate HR, and nobody ever asked me how they could do that.

Whenever I daydreamed about becoming a professional writer, I’d imagine myself ditching my dull office job, straight into writing pieces that lots of other people would want to read. I never imagined myself writing into a void, wringing out my heart and soul into pieces that other people couldn’t care less about reading… because why on Earth would I do that?

You don’t ever imagine the tough stuff, the drudgery, or the downsides when you daydream.  The whole point of daydreaming is to escape the tough stuff, the drudgery, and the downsides of real life.

I think that’s why it can be so disappointing to discover that creative careers take just as much slog as any other.

Actually, more.

Because if you want to be really, really, really good, much of your creative slog has to happen on the creaky, barren Stage of Love No Money.

“We spent years writing and recording stuff, making mistakes no-one was listening to.  I feel sorry for the kids now, putting everything on YouTube where it’ll haunt them forever”. (Bob Odenkirk)

Actor and comedian Bob’s latest book, Comedy, Comedy, Comedy, Drama, has a lot to say about the Stage of Love No Money.  It’s a fantastic reminder that successful creative careers tend to spring from something people already love doing.  So much so, that they were doing it even when nobody was watching… or paying.

The young Bob Odenkirk was a huge fan of comedy.  So he spent his formative years trying out idea after idea after idea, dismissing the things he didn’t like or wasn’t great at (stand-up) and honing the things he did and was (impro, sketch comedy).

In his words, Bob ended up creating “a cool artistic life” for himself.  One which incorporated the 10,000 hours he needed to be good enough to write and perform when the right chances came along.

And come along they did.

There’s no such thing as an overnight success

“Eventually, you are so experienced that there’s a confidence that comes out.  I think it’s something the audience smells.” (Steve Martin)

This quote is from Cal Newport’s fantastic book, So Good They Can’t Ignore You.  The title is taken from another Steve Martin quote about building a creative career, which goes like this:

“Nobody ever takes note of my advice, because it’s not the answer they wanted to hear.  What they want to hear is, ‘here’s how you get an agent, here’s how you write a script’… but I always say: ‘Be so good they can’t ignore you’.”

After I changed my career, people asked me how I managed to make what seemed like a ridiculously smooth transition from HR to writing.

Against all good advice – including from the company that actually helped me change my career! – I gave three months’ notice at work, then threw caution to the wind.  (“You’ll be on the dole within a month,” said my boss at the time).

I told those people all the predictable things about effort, luck, and the benefits of taking a structured career-change course… and all those elements seeming to come together, just like magic.

Then, it hadn’t dawned on me that I’d really spent years honing my skills as a writer, performing on the Stage of Love No Money.

How?

Not only was I taking creative writing courses to develop my ‘hobby’, but I wrote a regular blog in my spare time, and I’d also completed the first draft of a novel… all of which was read by a just handful of people, and only because I’d twisted their arms asked them nicely for their feedback.

As Bob Odenkirk says in his book, I’d sweated it out and found myself with no-one watching.  By the time they were, I was ready to make my debut on the Stage of Love and Some Money.

Not much money… certainly not as much as Bob and Steve!  But enough).

You can do the same.