Making a Living as Writer, or Artist

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artist, Children's books, drawing, Novels, Writing

http://stephanieolivieri.blogspot.com/2015/02/luck-no-its-hard-work.html

Luck? No It’s Hard Work

Yes it is possible to make 100% of your living as a creative-artist, writer, musician, actor, etc. You can do it. 

Hey everyone so this is a carryover from a discussion on FB about working as a writer and artist or one or the other.

I write this blog today because it seems that people are misunderstanding some things that were said at the SCBWI winter conference in New York earlier this month. One of the editors made a comment that it always scares him when his first time authors say the words, “I quit my day job.” Now everyone is on social media freaking out saying that it was said at the conference NOT to quit your day job because you can’t survive as an artist or a writer. Funny, I was there and didn’t hear that at all.

What I heard was an editor being truthful about his part in the publication process and how much stress that puts on him when someone does that. The truth is, that editors work too, and if a book is successful or isn’t, it affects them as well. Telling your editor, especially on your first book, that you are now depending on your book to hit, and stay, on the New York Times Bestseller list, is a lot of pressure.

To be realistic. Authors don’t make a lot of money. That is the truth and it’s been the truth as long as writing books has been around. It surprises me that new writers are shocked to hear that they aren’t going to be rich when they get an agent and sell their book-the great American novel. Yes there are some that do. We can all name them off the top of our heads-even the people who don’t read that much know them. SOME AUTHORS ARE: Stephen King, John Grisham, Michael Crichton, Tom Clancy, George R.R. Martin, Jennifer Weiner, Helen Fielding, and in children’s books- J.K. Rowling, Judy Blume, Philip Pullman, Stephenie Meyers, and recently, John Green, Jay Asher, James Dashner. To name a FEW. But these are the exceptions, not the rule.

Wouldn’t it be great if we all made money on our novels? And don’t forget Dan Brown and E.L. James. Not the best written books of all times, but they are laughing all the way to the bank.

It can be done, but it’s not the normal. I have plenty of author friends on the bestseller lists who work day jobs on the side. Most of them are well known in the writing community.

This doesn’t discourage me at all. Why? Because I know the truth about it and I don’t do it for the money. I have been published in the adult (just meaning non-children’s books) world. I jumped at the opportunity to get published with smaller publishers and was wildly unsuccessful because I knew NOTHING about editing, the process, or marketing. I am a published author and yet I still work, have a day job.

I also have been hired, work for hire as a picture book writer. People alway say, “but you wrote like 16 books for FarFaria, can’t you live on that?” hahaha, yeah, no. That was for a flat rate on each book, so I could gain experience in PBs etc.

I am now concentrating on my YA (teen fiction) books because I LOVE writing for teens, not to get rich. I wouldn’t mind it. I daydream about my book(s) as films, but I don’t do it for that reason.

Most of you know that my day job is as an artist-specifically a children’s book illustrator. Yes I am one of the ones who makes her living drawing. I have for the last 20 years. I started in animation and then I went to children’s books. But guess what? I also do TONS of other illustration and graphic design jobs from painting doggie portraits, to licensing my work, to logos, greeting cards, educational books, magazine illustrations, consumer products, storyboarding, character design, background design, being in art shows etc. See? I work all the time because I do a lot of different things.

One person said to me that I was lucky when I started. That may be true to a point in that I got my foot in the door by luck. The luck was that I was doodling at an audition for Disney when they saw my quick sketches and offered me a job in their animation internship. I turned it down, then a couple years later, sick of my mother telling me how I was going to be a waitress forever, I decided to call up Disney and work as an artist. That’s the short version. What people forget when telling that story is that I worked my arse off for almost two years in classes at the animation guild while working full time at the Cheesecake Factory to make that happen.

I drew 8-12 hours a day. I slept about 2-4 hours a night. I took classes 5 days a week, all day long ones on anatomy, life drawing, quick sketch, animals and animation. I busted my hump to make that happen. It wasn’t luck it was hard work. Then when I got into animation I worked on 7 films, back to back, to back.. etc.. for 3 years, 6-7 days a week, with an average work week being 70+ hours. I also continued to take art classes and animation classes on the side. Again sleep didn’t happen much.

I still take art classes. I still take writing classes. When I got my first novel published in 2003, I had been out of work, when animation crashed in 2001, for two years. I had only worked briefly on a couple films and commercials, but for the most part I wasn’t working, so I dove into writing. I took tons and tons of classes with Gotham’s online courses and the Children’s Institute of Literature. Then in 2007 I was offered a job on a TV show for ABC, it got cancelled the day I started-I know, what rotten luck. Well I dove into TV and film writing courses, workshops etc. I continued to take novel writing courses. Etc. Get it? I worked my butt off and I still do.

To work and make a living as a writer, you have to do more than just get an agent and sell your book. You have to do other things like; being a reader for the studios and publishing houses, be an editor, write copy, write shorts, write for magazines, work in tv and film, etc. Just like art, you have to do more.

So while there may be some element of luck to how I got into art in the first place. I continue to work because I work at it. I network all the time. I continue to take classes. I improve my skills. I used to split my income between writing and illustrating, but these days, I am focusing on my YA novels and so my art is my day job for the most part. I still read scripts, TV shows, specs, etc.. I still do consulting, but for the most part, my day job is illustration. I work on greeting cards and children’s books mostly right now, but also do other side jobs when they come in.

I think there is a huge misconception of the creative industries that we don’t work-I think that we work harder than most industries. That has been my experience. It’s the same for actors and musicians. The friends of mine who are making a living at it, work all the time. The aren’t relying on one thing to make them famous, they are working.

So my advice to anyone who is new, don’t give up, but know that you have to work at it, all the time. If you end up as the next J.K. Rowling, than great! (don’t forget me! Hehe)

Also to be a professional creative-you have to LOVE what you do. I always say that I don’t have a choice in the matter, this is why I was born.

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Fifty Shades of Judgement

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character, Christian Grey, Dakota Johnson, Fifty Shades of Grey Film, Fiftyshadesofgrey, Jamie Dornan, Randolph the zebra

I posted this photo on FB yesterday just to be silly and promptly got deleted by a few people. Some even thought it was their right to tell me how to live my life and or let me know that I am going straight to hell without passing go, or collecting $200. All because I posted a photo? Of a movie poster?

That said, we saw the film last night. The bottom line, it wasn’t as racy as many other films despite the plot and storyline. It wasn’t great, but it wasn’t bad. What I did with those who scolded me with their good Christian lectures on how to be a better person? I took the high road from Elsa and let it go, but honestly people need to get over it.

No one is forced to see this film, or read the book. The story is what it is, a story about a man who had a “rough start in life” and can’t handle the intimacy of a real relationship, how he deals with it, is what happens in the story, but the story isn’t about that, or abuse, or control or anything, it’s actually quite sad if you think about Christian Grey.

As you know, I like my male leads and while technically this story is told from Anastasia Steele, I think it’s more about Christian. He is more interesting. He is sad, haunted, tortured, and ALONE, very, very, alone. He can’t have a normal relationship, it’s not in him because of abuse he suffered as a small child and then a teenager. It’s sad.

Badly written or not, it sold 100 (yes one hundred) MILLION copies, so I wouldn’t mind that happening, and she got a film deal out of it. LOL

In my humble opinion, had this not been “fan fiction” (Twilight) and she had worked with a STRONG editor, it would have been much better. It read like a first draft to me and maybe it was, I don’t know. I am not in the business of cutting others’ work down and or assuming to know how it happened. I got the book because everyone was reading and talking about it. I kinda wished that Christian was a vampire, but the story is set in reality and the reality is that Mr. Grey is truly messed up.

If people want to judge me, or others who see this film, that is on them. Like I said above, it was quite tame. Of course there were sex scenes in the film, but it wasn’t too much and it was done as tastefully as it could have been.

I don’t regret seeing it. I like Jamie Dornan since his days on Once Upon A Time and Dakota Johnson was fine too. It was just entertainment.

I hope that all those people getting all riled up, will just calm down and focus on something important like helping others, or anything but what they are doing.

If you saw it, or read it, I’d love to hear your take on the story, not the writing, the story. What do you think of Christian? Or Ana?

I have to note that I don’t know why feminists are upset at Ana, she stands up for herself in both the book and the film. She challenges Christian and I think she could be more interesting, but she certainly isn’t setting the women’s movement back 100 years like people are saying.

Switched At Birth Important Rape Storyline

Tags

abc family, Bay, date rape, Rank, switched at birth tv show, teen drama

I think this storyline on Switched At Birth is good-BUT-I think it should be focusing on how this guy has been wrongly accused and it’s going to F up his entire life. I disagree with them saying it is rape just because both of them were drunk. It feels like she feels guilty for cheating on her boyfriend and her family and older people are telling her it’s rape when clearly it wasn’t. I think this is an important topic, but I think the boy/male side is just as important as the female’s. What happens when someone is falsely accused? It’s hard to watch as I just feel sorry for Tank.

I am feeling compelled to start a new YA novel about a boy who this happens to-I think it’s important because not all guys are assholes and not all guys rape girls and when they are accused when it was just two drunk people making a mistake, it can destroy someone’s life. If I had a teenage son I would be terrified of this kind of thing happening. Yes rape happens all the time, but it also happens that girls regret things they do and then call it rape. That is just as bad.

I applaud them for even doing the storyline, but I don’t like how they are saying that just because they were drinking it was rape. THEY were drinking, not just her.

If she was drunk and he was sober, then yes that would be an issue, but where does the line get crossed? I mean if I had a teenage son I would be terrified that he would go to a party and sleep with someone and then she would turn around and call it rape.

I know that this happens a lot and date rape is real. I am not discounting that, but in this show, it was clear that it didn’t happen that way. What they have written is a girl who is guilty of cheating and then adults telling her what happened and changing the truth.

This is a really important issue for teens and young adults, VERY, but I wish that they had handled it differently, or maybe they will in upcoming episodes. For now I will say that I think I just found my next YA.

Someone has to stand up for the boys/males and show their side.

Writing With Heart is Why I Write for Boys

Tags

Boy lit, J.D Salinger, James Dashner, kidlit, Rick Riordan, S.E. Hinton, Stephen King, Teen fiction, Teen lit

Hey everyone so I was at the SCBWI winter conference this past weekend in New York-oh New York, I love New York-but I digress. I was at the conference and talked to so many people about my writing, goals, stories, etc.

People kept asking me why I write books about boys (teens) instead of girls-in fact I get asked this ALL the time. I am sorry if this makes me a traitor to my gender, but I am writing what I LOVE to read, and I LOVE, what I am now (coining the phrase) calling, “boy lit” because I LOVE stories with boy/male leads the most. I always have. This is probably why my chick lit novels weren’t a huge success, my heart wasn’t there in the same way and I was writing to trend. Writing is just like anything else, when it comes from the heart it is always going to be better.

Here is a quote from one of my all time favorite Cameron Crowe films-Jerry Maguire_ “All right, I’ll tell you why you don’t have your ten million dollars. Right now, you are a paycheck player. You play with your head, not your heart. In your personal life, heart. But when you get on the field it’s all about what you didn’t get. Who’s to blame. Who won through the pass. Who’s got the contract you don’t. Who’s not giving you your love. You know what, that is not what inspires people. That is not what inspires people! Shut up! Play the game, play it from your heart. And you know what, I’ll show you the kwan. And that’s the truth, man! That’s the truth.”

My favorite writers are: (in no particular order)

S.E. Hinton, J.D. Salinger, Paul Auster, Nick Hornby, Stephen King, Robert Ludlum, James Dashner, Rick Riordan, Charles Dickens, Mark Twain… and the list could go on forever. Of course I think that Harry Potter is one of the most brilliant works of fiction in the history of writing-Boy lead-even in the 3rd person, still boy lead. That is why I picked it up. (Written by a woman, yay J.K. Rowling)

My screenplays and tv pilots have also all had male leads, except one.

It pisses my girlfriends off and I have gotten pushback from the female community, but I can’t entirely help what pops into my head.

I draw a lot of little girls and dogs and most of the picture books I have been hired to draw have little girl leads-but for writing I am all about a strong male lead, strong voice and point of view in a strong story. I love comics, action, superheroes, sci-fi and spies, but I also like a great contemporary story with a male lead. My dream and goal is to have my teen fiction published and have both boys and girls reading them and loving them. While I don’t see teenage boys putting down one of my novels and crying over a pint of ice cream, I like to imagine they would be like, “fuck that was intense” or whatever they say. I am not trying to reinvent the wheel here, but rather I am writing what my heart is demanding I write.

I hope that if you are a writer, you are writing what YOU love and what inspires you, not what you think that you are supposed to be writing.