One of the joys, and pains, of being an artist and a writer is getting people, an audience, to see your work. No matters if they like it or not. More importantly should be that you have a personal passion for your craft and the audacity to share it with the world. It takes great courage to share one thoughts with the world.
As a fellow writer and artist, I wish to share with you a few helpful resources to remain active in your art career and lifestyle:
1. Publish your own work. Create a handmade chapbook or artzine. Keep plenty on hand to give to other artists you respect, people you wish to share your art with.
2. Submit work to zines, e-publications, journals, newspapers. Enter local writing contests. Websites like duotrope.com are good jumping off places to see which publications are accepting submissions.
3. Work on your craft. You can't submit 5 poems for a submission if you aren't writing everyday. Many writing publications only accept new and unpublished work, meaning that you have to write all the time. It pushes me to keep writing, keep pushing myself to edit old work, keep propelling forward with new ideas.
4. Gather a creative support group, whether its a few people that meets over coffee to discuss ideas and goals, someone you can paint alongside, or hosting art + wine nights at your place once a month. Its important to nurture community amongst artists, as it can be a brutal and harsh world of critique and criticism. Online writing workshops can be a place to find writer support, like theundeniables.org, a Wordpress-based workshop that urges writers to write daily.
5. Participate in community events. Local spaces like Tuesday Night Cafe and Common Ground have open mic slots and places to display your artwork.
6. Breathe once in a while. Everything will be okay. Keep creating. I believe the world needs to hear your story.
7. Take your art seriously. Because if you don't, don't expect anyone else to.
