“Falling in love again with your craft is inevitable. Creativity is disinterested in the hive of productivity; it rejects the notion of optimisation and demands rest when it is needed. So rest.

And anyway, there’s always tomorrow.” - Me

We’ve got to that point in the RoundUp where I’m quoting my own past articles. Not sure yet if that’s a good sign or bad, but it does deepen the RoundUp cinematic universe I guess.

Hello, new reader who has no idea what’s going on and the other three regulars, - Welcome to the RoundUp! A series where I scour the internet for answers to common questions that tend to plague creatives and present my findings here.

Today’s question continues on from last article’s question - how do you fall back in love with your craft?

Falling in love, or falling back in love is really not up to you, it’s quite easy to follow the shiny new idea that pops into your head after watching a masterpiece of a tv show. Motivation and inspiration are excellent tools to get you started, but what happens when they slowly dribble away and you’re left with a dozen scribbles that require a lot of effort to make sense of and that next new idea is vying for your attention?

So, today’s question is a much more harder one to answer:

Answer: Discipline

Sitting with discomfort

American fantasy author most known for her Six of Crows duology (surprise third book already out, teenage me is screaming. adult me is too), is none other than Leigh Bardugo (has her own substack, check it out!). Her debut novel, Shadow and Bone, was the first book in her Grisha trilogy and was nominated for the Romantic Times Book Award and South Carolina Children’s Book award; it was picked up by Netflix in 2019, cut after season two.

It also came almost fifteen years after she graduated from university - something that she outlines in her TedTalk - The art of discomfort. It’s a masterful TedTalk which details the importance of sticking with your craft, even when the honeymoon phase ends.

Bardugo says that in that 15 year gap of finishing her degree and writing that first book, she “spent those fifteen years working a crappy job, trying to write a book but failing”. Why? Because she had not honed “the ability to tolerate discomfort”. Obviously, she has trained this skill, having completed the Shadow and Bone trilogy, Six of Crows duology, King of Scars duology, Ninth House trilogy and many more.

The beginner artist has very good taste and bad skills.

When they practise their craft, they can see the looming gap between what they’ve written and what is good. They are clever enough to recognise greatness yet not skilled enough to evoke it.

Yet.

That comes with years of practice, of repetition and curiosity. You may be able to write a scene with the most stunning prose ever written, but where does that sit in a narrative? How do the characters stand on their own, what drives them to that place in the story?

And can you mimic that same ease and flow for 150,000 words?

Perfection is never attainable but mastery is, it just takes years. Perhaps a decade or two. And time is the only difference between those who write a book versus those who only have an idea.

It takes more than one person to write a book.

Keeping with the book theme, it seems only fitting to talk about an editor next.

Alyssa Matesic is a developmental book editor -( she’s on Substack too) With 7+ years of editorial and publishing experience, Matesic first realised her passion for book editing when she was the editor in chief of her high school newspaper. From that she went to New York University for English and American Literature with a Certificate in Book Publishing. She’s worked for Ballantine Books, Henry Holt and Company and the Book Group. Now she has her own developmental editing agency, where she offers book editing services, publishing and writing tips and story self-assessments.

Her youtube channel, @alyssamatesic, which she started over 6+ years ago, has now grown to over 170k followers. If you’re a writer looking to get traditionally published or even self- published, her free resources on her website (linked below) and her youtube channel is very insightful into what developmental editors are looking for in a manuscript.

A series on her youtube channels features Matestic offering critiques to her subscribers, often picking from a range of genres and levels, her genuine, helpful advice anchors between tough love and good support.

Subscribe now

How do you stay in love with your craft?

I think it’s the same basis as the question ‘how do I love myself?’ It’s self-answering, really. If you try to love yourself, then you already do - that’s where the trying comes from. The same can be said for your craft, you just keep trying, on the good days and bad days.

This has been a very writing-focused RoundUp, but the same can be said for any other creative output. Taste is curated early, you know what you like, you know what’s a good piece of drawing or writing, or piece of music. The creation of your own sloppy drafts is ego-crushing and disappointing, but just because you can’t mimic the same ease that your favourite creator has, doesn’t mean your taste is wrong, it just means you’re young in your craft.

Being a good writer takes years to achieve. People put in years simply because it’s fun. And when it’s not fun, they still keep going because they know they’re onto something, that all that’s standing in the way of them realising the book they visioned years ago is dedication to their craft.

So believe in yourself, I guess, is my ultimate message. And there’s no shame in being bad at something. Everyone was bad at something at some point. Learning compounds differently for each person, perhaps you get better bit by bit, perhaps everything clicks into place in three years. Don’t judge success on other people’s triumphs, focus on your own.

And besides, learning to fight for what you want is never a bad thing.

***

Thanks for reading! It’s nice to meet you! Let us know if you like this type of content or if there’s anything else you’d like to hear from us.

You can find the creatives that were mentioned in this article down below, if there’s any topics or people you’d like to see me cover, let me know in the comments. (And if you’d like to be featured, let us know too!).

Thanks again for reading and remember - be kind to yourself!

Catch you later,

Kaye

Make sure to check out the artists mentioned!

Leigh Bardugo

Instagram: @lbardugo
Website: https://www.leighbardugo.com/

Substack:

We are the weirdos, mister.

#1 NYT best-selling author of The Familiar, Ninth House, Shadow & Bone, Six of Crows, The Invisible Parade, and suchlike🌙

By Leigh Bardugo

Alyssa Matesic

Youtube: @AlyssaMatesic

Instagram: @alyssabookeditor
Website: https://www.alyssamatesic.com/

Substack:

Chapter Break

Writing advice and book publishing insights from industry leaders and established authors put together by your friendly neighborhood book editor!

By Alyssa Matesic

Ready for more?

Read Part 1: How Do You Fall Back in Love With Your Craft?

Front Row is your backstage pass to our essays, workshops, and online summits on navigating the future of creativity. Built by, for & with independent creatives.

We’re also publishing on: Instagram | YouTube | TikTok | LinkedIn | Threads

Futureative Favourites = On Rotation.

Welcome to episode 2, the August edition of what we at Futureative have consumed over the past month. This month: Some new media and some throwbacks.

Enjoy!

Steve

Talking With Strangers by MAXON - 5/5

Maxon is a local, Victorian-based artist and an incredibly talented songwriter. I was lucky enough to go to uni with them, actually. They have an absolutely incredible band, and this year, they released their debut album, Talking With Strangers. It is an absolute start-to-finish classic album with incredible songwriting and production.

This is the sort of album you can tell is hard-won, the kind of album where you can hear pure craft and care in every song. It’s definitely on my list to get out to a live show soon. For now, if you find yourself on a Sunday afternoon in need of a little pick-me-up, it’s the perfect album to turn up the volume on, sit back, and just appreciate something written so beautifully by some absolutely incredible musicians.

You can stream it on Spotify using the link below, or, if you’d like to support this independent artist, consider buying the album on Bandcamp.

Stream on Spotify:

Support them by buying in Bandcamp:

Behind the scenes for a day with Bears coach Ben Johnson - 4/5

Reading has always been an obstacle for me. I absolutely love it when I get into something, but if I’m busy or preoccupied, I find it incredibly hard to focus. So, I don’t have a new book that I can talk about this month; but I have been reading articles, it’s just a little left of field...

The thing that has my attention right now is this article about the head coach of the Chicago Bears. Yeah, okay, super niche, Steve. A couple of years ago I found myself getting fascinated by the NFL and here I am now interested in everything that goes on behind the scenes in building a championship caliber team. A reporter from The Athletic was able to spend one day with Ben Johnson and has written an article exploring what it’s like to see the Chicago Bears through his eyes.

Ben Johnson is trying to create a culture that can win a Super Bowl and go beyond that. A functioning organisation versus a non-functioning organisation in the NFL is a fascinating topic to me (for reference the Bears have been dysfunctional for a long time but are being turned around by Ben), and there are aspects here which flow through into any industry, including creative industries. I’ve read it twice, learned a lot about culture, discipline & goal setting and I will read it again for sure.

You should be able to access the article via this link.

Spit - 3.5.5

It is so hard to remember to consume creative work that is actually Australian. It’s just the sheer reach of American culture and distribution. So I’m definitely trying to keep a lookout at the moment for Australian works.

This movie popped up on Netflix and it’s a star-studded Australian cast of absolutely incredible actors. David Wenham is, look, no surprises, fantastic. This is just a fun movie. Is it the best movie ever made? Is it going to win awards? It’s not that type of film; this is just fun and well worthy of your time. Because David Wenham plays such a strong character, and it’s the sort of performance that you can just be entertained by. There are some really heartwarming moments. It’s funny, it keeps your interest and it’s just fun seeing a lot of classic Australian actors appear throughout. You can see that the cast had a lot of fun producing it.

So let’s keep getting behind Australian cinema whenever it’s there. In my mind, it’s worth the watch.

Kaye

The Fall - 3.5/5

On the anniversary of her husband’s rock climbing accident, Becky and her best friend climb a 2,000ft broadcasting tower and become stranded at the top.

Released in 2022, Fall is a survival thriller that keeps you on the edge of your seat (pun intended). 127 hours adjacent, the film interjects the personal growth of the characters in between the dizzying drop. Excellent pacing and great moments of hope and determination.

Perfect if you’re looking for a movie to get your anxiety up a little.

I found that I’m quite fond of horror movies where the goal is just: survive. Whalefall, Alien, any shark movie - I’m completely intrigued regardless of how out there it might be. Fall 2: Deadpoint is coming out in a couple of weeks (tagline: Are you down?) as well as Whalefall in a couple months time.

The Odyssey - 4.5/5

The story of Odysseus trying to get home after the Trojan War.

With a powerhouse cast, The Odyssey delivers on cinematography, score, set design and animatronics. Although 3 hours, the pacing and sporadic plot movements keep you seated for the whole run time. As someone whose read around the Odyssey (Ransom by (xxxx), The Penelopiad, Margaret Atwood and of course, Percy Jackson, Rick Riordan) it is my favourite Christopher Nolan film.

Half a star shaved off because I would have liked to explore Penelope and the maid’s storyline a lot more. A really good movie!

petal- 4/5

The eight studio albums by the popstar, the pop / R&B album, the album is deep, moving and sonically interesting. It’s very intriguing to see Grande move from pop towards darker, smoother vocals. My favourite album from the songwriter to date.

What have you been reading, listening to or watching? Let us know in the comments below. See you next week for a brand new article.

Ready for more?

Read the newest issue of The DeepDive: Fast Lane, Slow Lane

Front Row is your backstage pass to our essays, workshops, and online summits on navigating the future of creativity. Built by, for & with independent creatives.

We’re also publishing on: Instagram | YouTube | TikTok | LinkedIn | Threads

This idea first appeared during a coaching session with an artist client back in 2015. It became obvious in the call that there are just two types of creative projects. And in choosing two projects, one might have a chance to make both happen.

It’s a response to demands within the mind of a creative; the competing ideas for what comes next. The ever difficult tradeoff of choosing one project over 5 others.

This isn’t revolutionary, nor difficult; in fact the reason it’s become something I’ve used so often myself and with others, is because of it’s sheer simplicity.

You might even find you do something similar? If so, I’d love to hear about it in the comments. Without further ado, let’s get into Fast Lane vs Slow Lane.

In this article:

• The only two types of creative projects that really exist

• Why these two categories are key to juggling the demands of a modern creative life.

• How both lanes can co-exist and become equally important creative projects.

• A simple way to implement this in your creative life.

Fast Lane, Slow Lane

This mental model changed how I think about creative projects.

It’s one way of seeing your projects sit side-by-side each other; and, I think, once you see them this way, you’ll want to always just have these two projects on the go at all times.

No more, no less.

Even though this framework appeared in 2015, that wasn’t the start of my journey as a creative person. I’ve been a working independent creative for going on two decades now; basically my entire adult life.

With this, comes what can feel like a constant pressure to perform. You are expected (both deep down inside your soul, and by ‘the world around us’ to always be showing up, to always be producing, to be prolific, exceptional and ever present.

It’s an impossibility. And that’s why I think all working creatives need to find some way to balance the competing priorities of modern creative life.

This mental model encourages you to design for a few outcomes:

• To focus on one meaningful project that will level-up your career.

• To focus on one lightweight project that serves as both marketing and your creative practise.

• To balance your priorities between these two projects only.

• And help you identify when you are choosing work that’s outside of your core goals.

The value in this is that it’s so simple that it can be a mental model you easily live by. But don’t mistake simplicity for ease; most of the challenges I’ve had in my creative life has been an inability to stay on track with my Fast Lane & Slow Lane.

The times when I’ve achieved significant momentum, I look back and this model was in play.

Similarly, so many of the obstacles I’ve explored with my students, coaching clients & also discussions with peers, is when there’s competing projects, priorities; when there is too many things in one lane or both.

Enough rationale, let’s get into it. I call this mental model Fast Lane, Slow Lane so that it’s something you can recall at any moment. And in case you’re not familiar with a mental model, it’s basically a simple picture you hold in your head that helps you make better decisions. You see something through a particular lens and it changes how you act on it.

The idea of this came up because when we’re working as a creative, we’ve often got two competing types of projects running.

A Fast Lane project is something that is regular, consistent, designed for output over outcome. It should be easy. It should focus on exploration, inspiration, ideation. And it should be something we can ship easily for the world to see.

A Slow Lane project is the opposite; it’s something designed to be a body of work, a level-up, even a breakthrough. It’s a showcase of you producing something that tested you and your abilities. It’s not designed to be shared quickly; and when it lands it usually asks for a great deal of marketing support to get it into the right hands.

The question we ask to recall this model is: “What’s my ONE Fast Lane project & what’s my ONE Slow Lane project?”

If it’s not a fast, easy answer, you have some hard but important decisions to make.

Because if you have more than one Slow Lane project, unless you have significant team and infrastructure around you, you will struggle to finish any of them.

And with too much in the Fast Lane, it’s easy to lose focus, produce without making an impact and run out of time to produce your Slow Lane work.

What makes the Fast Lane work?

The Fast Lane is about speed, taking easy action, consistency, or perhaps experimentation. These are projects where speed matters more than perfection. You’re testing ideas, you’re putting things into the world quickly. Lightweight projects or practices that happen frequently.

This is the author’s weekly newsletter. The musicians series of cover songs. The documentary filmmakers series of mini interviews. This is the project where you document your journey; for example, a daily short-form video diary documenting your creative work over 30 days. 30-second videos, lightly edited, posted for 30 days. Perfect example of a Fast Lane project.

The main goal isn’t creating the most awe-inspiring piece of work. It’s about committing to a project that has lots of little actions or moving parts that optimises for pressing publish, warts and all.

And I think little Fast Lane projects like this are great because they solve two problems with the same action; “how do I stay creative” and “how do I promote myself” can both be answered with one well designed Fast Lane project.

You can come up with a creative concept, do it for a period of time, and it gives you something that feeds your Slow Lane work. At the same time, it’s easily shareable and allows you to publish and build routine in the market.

This way you’re not stuck just trying to promote things all the time. You’ve got a creative project that you’re actually documenting, exploring and refining as you go. It helps you improve your workflows, refine your brand, story and much more.

But the best part is the entire time you’re just asking yourself “how do I make something simple today”.

The Slow Lane

The slow lane is where your bigger projects live. This is where your body of work goes. This is the musician’s EP or album. The Filmmaker’s documentary. The authors next book.

These are larger, deeper projects that are going to take significantly more time, resources, and care. They usually have multiple parts to them. They likely require team. They will always take longer than you plan and eat up more resource than you expect; they do this because the creative work, and your determination to make something great, will supersede and previous notion of what’s possible in a certain budget or timeframe.

The slow lane is purposefully slow because of its size and gravity and the depth of the work; but also because of the potential it has for breakthrough.

Slow lane projects are the ones that are going to give you something to show up in the world with; they validate your creative existence and they give people a reason to stick around.

In a world that has increasingly optimised for Fast Lane projects, take note that work in the Slow Lane is not easily replicated, by humans or machine, and I believe will become increasingly valuable.

With that in mind, the creatives that choose to exist only in the Slow Lane, run the risk of never being seen.

Just as they always have co- existed, both types of creative projects will only become more important in the future.

This Deep Dive was first explored on our YouTube channel, you might like to go deeper there. Watch on YouTube →

The lines between creativity and marketing are blurry; and rightfully so.

It could be easy for some to mistake this as a way to have a creative project and a promotional campaign. But that’s not what this is.

I have always felt the best marketing for creative work is more creative work.

Things that are experiential, expressive, explorative and evolving.

Marketing, or work created with the objective of reaching a marketing goal, doesn’t design for those 4 things. Marketing is about formula, repetition, clarity and actions. So when creative people try to “do marketing” I think they (we) falter because we get lost in the formula and the outcomes.

Marketing is increasingly becoming creative, in all industries; but a significant amount of marketing today is simply providing a scientific formula for creativity that people can copy and replicate. So what do the masses do? They copy and replicate, until that idea isn’t creative anymore.

But creative people, with hard won creative skills, aren’t formulaic, we seek the 4 E’s I mentioned above. So when we create a great Fast Lane project that we can be proud of, we give ourselves a fighting chance at a; staying creative, but also b; creating something that can be seen by the public as marketing, but by us as creative output.

That’s a win = win in my book.

Both lanes need space to feed & breathe

I also want to highlight the value of these two lanes feeding each other. because one optimises for publishing, it helps displace the dreaded world of perfectionism.

On the other hand, our Slow Lane is vital to give us meaning and purpose and something bigger to work towards. Only producing 1x 500 word article or 1x 10 minute YouTube video per week for the next 30 years sounds like a great way to disincentivise the entire project.

The big project coming adds validity to your Fast Lane and makes it worth more. And when people get to experience both, they’ll feel the connection. And connection they have; creativity breeds creativity and I truly believe you need deep work and light work to go hand in hand to get the best of both worlds; without one, the other suffers.

The other risk is space; not having enough. If you’ve ever tried to get two or more major projects off the ground at the same time, you’ll know what I’m describing. I have found myself in this situation more times than I can count and it’s never ended well.

Recording a studio EP with a renowned producer, planning an interstate tour and major pr campaign whilst finishing a bachelor degree and starting a grassroots music festival and producing a TV show pilot all at once wasn’t a sound plan for sustainability.

Launching a community and conference series whilst managing and performing in multiple bands and getting a consulting business off the ground and developing a range of courses whilst attacking the conference speaking circuit = A recipe for burnout (and boy did burnout follow).

I used to conflate ambition with busyness. And hey, I have no regrets; my incessant determination to explore the creative industries was (and still is) insatiable. I’ve just learned that despite one’s appetite, there is only so much that can exist in either lane.

I really do think one project in each as a major focus is the only option. I’m not saying that’s easy. Most creative people I know have multiple passions and projects. As I write this, I know full well that by complete unfortunate chance I am likely to have a debut album ready for a major promotional campaign in 2027 alongside Futureative’s first 3x online conferences.

Which is why right now I’m making plans to strengthen and clarify the Fast Lane projects alongside the Slow Lane priorities so they have breathing space.

How will I go? Only time will tell, but I’m sure hoping that past failures, better delegation, clear boundaries, protecting personal and creative space and my own personal and our business goals here at Futureative will help make 2027 a sustainable & focused creative adventure.

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How to implement Fast Lane, Slow Lane

The first action is to specifically name and identify the scope of both projects. If you think of “all your big projects” and “all your marketing” you will end up with an unfocused mess.

If you have a clear project outcome, with a defined scope, in both columns, you will have something to aim for and achieve.

At Futureative as we right this our Fast Lane is our Substack. We’re committed to a weekly article and exploring new content ideas, particularly on Instagram right now and largely in thanks to ’s incredible work.

(If you want an example of the 4 E’s I mentioned earlier in action, check out some of their recent articles in The Practise & The RoundUp)

Our Slow Lane, is a series of online conferences; we had originally slated them for 2026, but time got away from us. We’ll 100% have these going live in 2027.

That’s it; our scope for both projects is evolving, but they are locked for 2026 and into 2027. We are focused on Front Row + our summits. If we can produce and evolve Front Row and keep pushing how that feeds our socials, and when we run our conferences, we’ll be in a place where our Fast Lane feeds our Slow Lane and our Slow Lane feeds our Fast Lane.

So, then what?

Well then you need to make sure your actions match your lanes. A project management app can help a lot. Ask Kaye, I’ve tried every app under the sun often many times over. Recently we’ve come back to Asana as it’s giving us a way to manage tasks, goals and a calendar, perfect for a significant event live a virtual conference. In the past, I’ve often preferred a simple pipeline in a Kanban board like Trello or Notion, moving tasks from left (inbox) to right (completion). This is great still for Fast Lane projects.

But you need to audit your workflow and audit your tasks.

How are you finding space for both lanes and are other non-priorities finding their way in? These are the questions to get relentless about.

You may have foundational work that needs to be completed in order to really make your Fast Lane & Slow Lane’s work. We have found that this year as we’ve been evolving our workflows, brand & content strategy. This is ok as long as this becomes its own Fast vs Slow project, with an end date.

I also think it’s important to know what lane you’re operating in each day. It’s highly unlikely that you will get to be in both lanes on a given day. And if you were, I would hope you can look back on your week and see you prioritised both. If one gets more focus than the other, working out why and how long that will happen for is key. In an ideal world I think it’s good to say: is this a fast lane day or a slow lane day? Is this a fast lane week or a slow lane week?

How to make sure the model is working

Now there’s one last thing to consider and that is ongoing maintenance; with a such a simple idea in theory, it’s so easy for it to fall away. So here are a few common issues that I think so many creatives find themselves in and what to do instead:

Too many slow lane projects at once. If you’ve got an album and a tour and you’re recording a mini-documentary and you’re doing it mostly alone and you’ve never produced those projects before, well you might find that the weight of it all is going to pull the whole slow lane apart. If you can’t make meaningful progress in a 30, 60, or 90-day window on one part of your project, you’ve got too many things in the pipeline. Better to put a song out and do one gig over the next 90 days, then see if next time you can do a little more.

Audit your lanes regularly and be ruthless in cutting out busy work (even if it feels important).

Stuck in the fast lane only. If you’re just posting content and your fast lane is the same all the time, you’ll get sick of it, your audience will too. I think it’s a really easy way to burn out and lose connection with the purpose of the creative project itself. In my experience it’s not always the workload that burns us out. It’s the lack of connection to our creativity and therefore our vision.

Optimise for the 4 E’s we explored earlier, and check to make sure you’re not falling into a outdated formulaic “marketing for the sake of marketing”.

They don’t have to both always be on. You don’t have to right away know exactly what’s going to go into each lane. Sometimes it’s important to just step away and say “I need to do a bunch of research and discovery to work out what my slow lane project is, or if it’s something I really want to do.” So make research and discovery your Fast Lane activity. Poorly defined slow lane projects get stuck and stifle creativity. The same can be true if you’re overly optimising for marketing goals, where you might lose sight if the purpose. If you genuinely need to hide away for a while and make some slow, real work, do it, just make sure you have an end date. And vice versa, if you have a goal of experimenting publicly to reignite your creativity, do it, with a goal to ask the universe for your next Slow Lane project. It’ll show up as soon as you allow it to find you.

If you’re stalled, choose a lane and a timeframe, let yourself off the hook and go have fun again.

What do you think of Fast Lane, Slow Lane?

That’s it, that’s my simple mental model and a whole bunch of insight behind it; remember simple doesn’t = easy. This one requires constant reflection and refinement. But I hope the idea is something you can reflect on, make your own, or even just see how you might be able to tweak how you’re already doing something similar.

As always in these Deep Dive articles, I’ll leave you with a few final questions to reflect on. I’d love to hear your insights in how you are already doing something like this or how you might incorporate some ideas here.

So with that in mind, I’ll leave you with…

A few questions to reflect on:

• Right now, do you know what ONE project is in your Fast Lane and your Slow Lane?

• If you have multiple options, can you temporarily make one project a focal point in each lane, at the expense of your other projects?

• Is your fast lane fuelling your creativity, or has it become repetitive marketing tasks that aren’t moving you forward?

• Is your slow lane moving forward each week and if not what’s one thing you could do to reignite that momentum?

Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this article, there’s much more on it’s way to our free and also paid members.

You can subscribe for free & get 1 weekly article in your inbox. Or upgrade to paid to be Front Row for all our content and events for independent creatives.

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Ready for more?

Read this next: Meaning: The one thing AI will always struggle to create.

If the idea of making work that matters sounds like something you want to explore further, this piece goes deeper into why meaning is the one thing AI will always struggle to replace.

Front Row by Futureative is for independent creatives who want to start, finish & launch their best projects yet. Come explore the future of creativity with us.

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This article is episode two of Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way.

In this issue I’ll be going over Weeks 2, 3 and 4 of the Artist Way!

A quick reminder on the structure of this series:

Episode 1 - The Artists Way: Week 1
Episode 2: The Artists Way: Week 4 Check in
Episode 3: The Artists Way: Week 9 Check in
Episode 4: The Artist’s Way: Week 12 Check in.

Without further ado, let’s jump in : )

Psst.. If you’re not already subscribed to Front Row, consider joining us so you don’t miss a thing!

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Week Two: Recovering a Sense of Identity

Tasks: Completed

Overview:

This week was all about protecting your space from people and thoughts that might get in the way of your creative desires. A lot of the tasks ask you to figure out who specifically in your life might be blocking you. Cameron calls these people “Crazymakers”.

Crazymakers could also be in memories that have stayed with you since you were a child. Somewhere along the way you’ve internalised whatever they said about you and constructed it as a prison where you place your art.

Favourite quote:

Painting:

Attempted to continue x2 paintings this week and absolutely failed, nothing went the way I wanted to. It was just one of those weeks.

A couple of months ago, I found that my local library is having a mini art competition, for a small painting on a mini canvas - I tried to paint something small this week but the artist block was completely immovable. I’m taking this to mean the process is working?

Writing: 32,000k / 100,000k

Only a thousand words this week, a bit of a slow week but I’m still taking it as a win. I think because I’ve been writing more than I’ve been painting, it comes a bit more quickly to me, or I’ve stayed consistent enough that writer’s block is just something that’s easier for me to work through.

Morning Pages:

7/7 pages done this week, a step up from last week. I am not a morning person, however this week I found myself actually writing the pages in the morning. It was still hard to fill out the third page, but yet to find it tiresome or rewarding.

Artist Date: The Nutcracker Ballet

A step up from last week - went to opening night of the Australian Ballet, as they begin their National Tour. I haven’t been to the ballet before and I think I’m a fan. Act I was a couple of contemporary dances and Act II was the second act of The Nutcracker. Though I had a limited knowledge of the Nutcracker story beforehand, the story was easy enough to follow and it was very interesting to consume content I hadn’t before.

It was also nice to dress up and go by myself. I’ve been to quite a lot of musicals and theatre shows, (Favourite: Hamilton and Phantom of the Opera) but this was my first Ballet. I do know that Dracula is coming to Melbourne later in this year so potentially another Artist Date for that!

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Week Three: Recovering a Sense of Power

Tasks: Completed

Overview:
Somehow, this book is predicting exactly what has happened the week previously. I haven’t skimmed through the book before starting this journey, and there’s been a repeating instance of a specific action or thought the week before cropping up in the text. It’s quite eerie.

Although I’m not seeing a rise in how creative I’m being per say, I do feel a sense of unwinding - like I’m tackling deep rooted issues first before I can start being creative again.

Favourite Quotes:

Painting:
Again, another painter’s block week! Though not for lack of trying I might add. The weekend mostly consisted of painting over and over a painting, including multiple re-coats that the canvas is looking a little worse for wear.. Despite much concentrated effort, the best thing I could end up with was blacking out the canvas and giving it a rest.

Writing: 40,000k / 100,000k

8k this week which I am much more happy about! In my dream productive week I do around 10k a week, but I take it as a win when I return to my manuscript consistently. I find it quite hard to continue with writing when I’ve had more than two days break.

For context, whilst I’m in the editing depths of my first manuscript, I’ve been working on the first draft of my second. My goal is to reach 100k until I move into editing and draft 2. I think draft 2 will be around 120 - 130k.

Morning Pages: 7/7

I came into my stride with my morning pages this week, started writing some random book ideas - rambling prose style and ended up filling up my three pages each day quite quickly. A huge difference from last week.

Artist Date: Aimless driving around my neighbourhood

This week was quite hectic and socially draining, so a good half an hour in my car driving around on a calm Sunday evening was just what was needed. Quite a step down from going to the Ballet from last week, but I think that the point of an Artist Date is to fuel yourself and this week, my inner child needed to just relax and cruise through familiar streets.

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Week Four: Recovering a Sense of Integrity

Tasks: Completed

Overview:

Last week I went through my wardrobe and packed a lot of boxes to donate clothes to an Op shop. I didn’t think much of it until this week’s text, which said that had probably happened by now. It is like this book is following my thoughts. It’s the spiritual creative version of House of Leaves. There have been multiple instances where something will happen, or I’ll have a string of thoughts that I’d put in my morning pages, only to read the text for the next week and have my past actions described to me in a casual accuracy.

This week also had one of the hardest tasks so far - no reading. I was quite annoyed at that, especially since I like to listen to audiobooks while painting. Put me in a terrible mood most of the week, looking forward to breaking my fast next week!

Favourite Quote:

Painting:

After a week break I finally sat down and completed my dog painting! I do think it has some final touches, but after hours re-doing the face, I’m quite happy with it. I’m also realising that it’s the biggest painting I’ve done so far, so I think for the next painting I’ll opt for an even bigger canvas. This painting is also a present - I tend to do paintings and give it to others, so a personal goal I’m setting is to make paintings to put in my house. Right now my painting space looks a little boring.

Quite happy with how it turned out!

Writing: 45,000k / 100,000k

Approaching the halfway mark! Only 5k completed this week, but a lot of plot and character development. I ended up getting rid of two chapters as well, but I think the end goal will still be 100,00k.

By quick maths, I think I can get to 100,000k by the end of Week 12. That is now an official goal of the Artist Way! We’ll see where I end up, but I’m feeling good about that goal.

Morning Pages: 7/7
Again, morning pages came quite easy this week. A lot of social things happened this week, so rambling quickly turned into a gossip session, which was quite rewarding. However, by the end of the week it was hitting me that I’ve been doing this for almost a month and I’ve still got two more to go. I am halfway through my notebook!

Artist Date: Shopping at a big outlet

Ventured out away from the usual shopping centre and went to a big outlet mall a 40ish minute commute away from home. I had a free Friday so it was quite good to stroll around a semi - empty building and explore shopping. I did have one errand, which was to buy my friend a birthday present, but I ended up buying a calendar, small pocket notebook and a boardgame for myself! I’ve been looking for a pocket notebook for a while, to doodle on train rides and in between moments rather than go on my phone, and Dymocks provided. 7mm lined.

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Final Thoughts:

If I remember correctly, I was quite skeptical during Week 1.

I am not anymore. I think this book is very well structured. Over the past couple of weeks it has accurately predicted my reactions to the tasks. I also think that I picked up the Artists Way at the right time in my life - I’m in a position to look inward and diagnose the way I am and my habits.

At first glance, it doesn’t seem like I’m making progress in my creativity, but small actions have been taken that are all adding up, I sorted out my painting supplies, and I reorganised the desk where I paint. Mornings become much easier to wake up to when I have the buffer of 3 pages of prose before I start the day. My wardrobe is cleaner, I’m making an effort to paint for myself. I think about my manuscript more often. I don’t agonise about buying new paint if I need it. Mentally I’m quite all over the place, I think I’ve made quite an improvement - and I’m not even halfway through the book.

So far, I haven’t encountered any advice that isn’t specific to a certain demographic. There are still a lot of references to religion and ‘God’ but not so much that it takes away from the tasks or advice in the book. I would say that this book starts by looking at the bigger picture, there are no instructions on dedication of craft or ‘you must write for 30 minutes every day’ it just positions you to think about your craft and your actions in the in-between moments of each day. Which I think is immeasurably helpful.

I also think that if you’re in a position where you need to heal from something mentally draining, doing the Artist Way could be a light hearted way of figuring out how that affected you. I think Morning Pages have a use outside of creativity and even if you don’t consider yourself a creative person, it could be really helpful to get all your thoughts on a page. There’s something cathartic about putting pen to paper and then never re-reading what you’ve written.

After a couple weeks of doing the Artist Way I now have a list of goals!

1. 100,000k words in my manuscript by the end of Week 12 AKA finish Draft 1

2. Making paintings with the intent of keeping them, rather than making them for someone else.

Feeling good about my progress. See you again for the next issue of The Practise ~ coming out next month, for a Week 8 update - and as always, be kind to yourself!

Catch you later,

Kaye

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Ready for more?

Read the last issue of The Practise: The Artist’s Way: Week One

Read the newest issue of The RoundUp: How do you fall back in love with your craft?

Read the newest issue of The DeepDive: The World Needs What You Make

Read the newest issue of Futureative Favourites: July 2026 Edition

Front Row by Futureative is where we explore & document the future of creativity. Built by, for & with independent creatives.

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I have no idea, but you’re here aren’t you, with all that wonderful creativity that- let’s be honest, you wouldn’t trade for the world.

Happy Sunday everyone! Welcome back to the RoundUp, A series where I scour the internet for answers to common questions that tend to plague creatives and present my findings here.

Today’s question is:

Answer: When your brain gets quiet again.

Our first creator of this article is Linda Sun, a Youtuber that I found back at the start of lockdown (which was six years ago!?). Her youtube channel @lindasunyt has amassed over 1.58 subscribers and her videos can be consistently described as feel good, introspective and wildly motivating. Although her content leans more towards fitness, food and navigating adulthood, her video editing, voiceover narration and overall approach to being grateful for life and living is infectious and a wonderful accompaniment while you’re eating dinner or doing household tasks.

A core part of Sun’s brand is her healing journey with food and fitness and how she chooses to move her body in a way that’s fun and rewarding. She’s competed in the London Marathon, the Berlin Marathon, half marathons, Hyrox and is currently training for an Ironman. Between fitness and food content, she has travelling vlogs - Seoul, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore. A long scroll down to the start of her channel and you’ll find clothing hauls and ‘what I eat in a day’.

Although perhaps creative-adjacent, Linda Sun’s story details someone who shunned away from something passionate - fitness - and returned years later to form a healthy relationship with her craft.

Sometimes we warp our self worth with the state of our creative projects - and how can we not, it’s a piece of our identity, a very deep and personal piece of our identity. But sometimes it’s good to peel yourself away from your desk and realise that it doesn’t have to be that deep, it doesn’t have to impress anyone but yourself and once you allow yourself to take a break if you need it, motivation and curiosity will return, if given the right elements to blossom.

***

Viral ice-skating star Alysa Liu captured the hearts and interest of the internet at the Olympics a few months ago. At 13 years old, she was the youngest ever US women national champion, she then went on to be a 2022 world bronze medalist and a 2025 - 2026 grand prix finalist, finally winning gold for America in 2026 at just 20 years old.

And at just 20 years old, she’s developed a perspective that can best be described as optimistic nihilism. Her ubermensch-like ability to detach herself from her art and do it for herself is something that people much older than her have struggled to do. After burning out and retiring from skating some years before, Liu returned to the skating rink for herself, to simply have fun - and by having fun, she won a gold medal.

At the ISU World Figure Skating Championships she’s stated that “I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t retire for a little bit, so I just am glad that I listened to myself and do whatever cause it just works out in the end”

And it did work out for her. She’s been in Teen Vogue, Time Magazine and Sports Illustrated. She is the new Brand Ambassador for Louis Vuitton, as starred in Laufey’s Madwoman music video and presented an award at the American Music Awards.

Perhaps all you need to fall back in love with your craft is a little rest.

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How do you fall back in love with your craft?

Burnout and artists’ block are real things, it often means that we’ve spent too much time creating our art without flexing our consuming muscle.

In the middle of re-writing a draft, it’s embarrassing to then switch to the masterpiece of a book that’s been edited fifty times over and marketed with your person in mind. Suddenly, your afternoon writing session seems amateur and basic by comparison. It’s easy to close the laptop and shun away from your art, wondering where you got the audacity to keep writing and how on earth you’re going to get it back.

But sooner or later you find yourself drawn back to your manuscript, a moth to a flame, re-reading your past work with such speed because you just couldn’t let it die. And that’s the truth of it; you fall out of love by mid morning and return after dinner, sleeves rolled up and ready to write into the night, because at the end of the day (no pun intended) this is you.

Comparison is fine if it helps you realise what you might need to change. Copying the greats, investigating why the band in the same genre as you is headlining, wondering how that sculptor is affording their studio, these are all seeds that will grow into insights as you go about your craft.

Comparing yourself to the yet-to-be-published writer next to you who’s putting in more consistent hours than you are will have you reflect on your writing habits. Comparing yourself to a published author, twice your age will rob you of the genuine fun you’re having.

Because at the end of the day, you don’t create for an audience, or a market, or a deadline, you create because you picked up a paintbrush/pen/pan/pick/ (say that three times fast) when you were bored and created something wonderful. And you’ve been chasing that feeling ever since.

And anyway, there’s always tomorrow.
***

Thanks for reading! It’s nice to meet you! It’s been a while since the last RoundUp, we’ve been testing out new articles, so it’s glad to see you back here.

You can find the creatives that were mentioned in this article down below, if there’s any topics or people you’d like to see me cover, let me know in the comments. (And if you’d like to be featured, let us know too!).

Thanks again for reading and remember - be kind to yourself!

Catch you later,

Kaye

Make sure to check out the artists mentioned!

Linda Sun:

Youtube: @lindasunyt
Instagram: @lindasunyt

Alysa Liu:

Instagram: @alysaxliu

Ready for more?

Read the newest issue of The RoundUp: How do you create consistently?

Read the newest issue of The Practise: The Artist’s Way: Week One

Read the newest issue of The DeepDive: The World Needs What You Make

Read the newest issue of Futureative Favourites: July 2026 Edition

Front Row is your backstage pass to our essays, workshops, and online summits on navigating the future of creativity. Built by, for & with independent creatives.

We’re also publishing on: Instagram | YouTube | TikTok | LinkedIn | Threads

7/12 months into the year and the official end of the financial year. Hopefully, you’ve gotten your tax returns in!

We’re introducing yet another new series to our little corner of Substack - Futureative Favourites, a list of the media that both Steve and I have consumed over the past month that we have some thoughts on. A book recommendation can tell you a lot about a person, so hopefully you get to know us a little better!

Kaye’s Favourites

Whalefall by Daniel Kraus - 4/5

The Martian meets 127 hours.

While diving to retrieve his father’s bones, a scuba diver is swallowed by a sperm whale. He has one hour to escape before his oxygen runs out. Poignant, gripping and with exceptional prose, Whalefall is a dual timeline novella that will leave you emotionally invested, incredibly claustrophobic and rooting against the impossible.

I would recommend listening to the audiobook, like I did, while being under a weighted blanket. Makes for quite a unique experience. The movie comes out in October and if you’re not too claustrophobic, I recommend watching the trailer!

The Poppy War by R.F.Kuang - 4/5

Game of Thrones meets the Priory of the Orange Tree.

After acing the Keju, orphaned nobody Rin gains admission to Sinegard Military Academy. There, she realises she has a gift for the forgotten art of shamanism.

With its lyrical language and thoroughly researched and blooming world, The Poppy War beautifully captures the toil and turmoil of war on a nation and a singular person.

As an avid fantasy reader I can’t believe I’m waiting this long to read The Poppy War, but it lives up to its hype. I’ve gotten the trilogy for my birthday so I’ll be going through the books in rapid succession.

you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love, Olivia Rodrigo - 5/5

The third album from the pop singer doesn’t disappoint. Alongside Sour and Guts, this third installment beautifully encapsulates the tragic-comedy of being in your early twenties and is a microcosm for girlhood and change.

On par with her first two albums, this third one hits all the right notes. Though, the cure might be my favourite.

The Book of Mormon - 3.5/5

Two missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints attempt to preach their faith to the people of a Ugandan village oppressed by a local warlord.

Balancing the nervous discussion around religion, faith and real world problems, Book of Mormon toes the line of comedy and heart.

As someone who went into the show without knowing anything about the show, I was very surprised and entertained. The songs are catchy, the cast was fantastic and as someone who didn’t watch South Park, I’m now intrigued by their other works.

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Steve’s Favourites

The God We Made: The Treat and Promise of Artificial Intelligence by Anna Goldsworthy - 5/5

Gosh. So, I was really trying to think of something else that I could rapidly read, because this probably points to the weirdly nerdy, analytical part of my brain, more than my creativity, but here we are. I’m actually reading the latest quarterly essay, which I find fascinating because it is written by a creative person. They’re reflecting in a very thoughtful, theoretical, and research-backed, but also practical way on the current state of AI and how it’s impacting the world. In particular, there’s a lot of discussion about how it’s likely to change and reshape the creative industries.

I’m finding it a fascinating read, just as a way to pause and reflect on the world that we are moving into. It’s definitely getting me thinking more and more about the importance of how we find ways to protect human creativity.

Deadloch, created by Kate McCartney and Kate McLennan - 4.5/5

When a local man turns up dead on the eve of the Winter Festival in Deadloch, Tasmania, two detectives and an eager junior constable are sent to investigate the crime.

This is one of the best pieces of Australian TV that I’ve seen in some time, and it is on so many accounts. If this was created by anyone else or in another country, I just don’t think I would be into it. But if you haven’t seen either of the blocks, they are brilliant because of the writers, the creators of the show, known colloquially as The Kates.

This is, start to finish, one of the best scripts I think I’ve heard recently. It has over-the-top, rapid-fire lines that place a lot of trust in the viewer to follow along and keep up with the gags, which are constant, clever, and crass.

The overall season two of Deadloch does not disappoint. It follows the story and narrative of another kind of detective series, which usually isn’t the sort of thing that I’m into. But with the way it’s been written and cast, it’s an exceptional show and well worth the time.

The WOW! Signal, Muse - 4/5

I’ve been a Muse fan since the beginning. Absolution was one of the albums of my adolescence that inspired me to keep wanting to get better at guitar. They were for many years one of my favourite bands. And here we are, with their latest album, The WOW! Signal.

It can be a rocky road, I think, following a band like this for such a long period of time. It can be your favourite band for a number of years, and then their genre and style changes and evolves, as do your tastes. I’ve even had moments where I’m unsure if Muse is for me still, but I put on this latest album, and it took me one full listen through to work out “Is this an album I’m going to like or not like?”

After the second listen, I was just absolutely hooked. It’s like some type of snapshot of all the different eras that Muse has been through. It has aspects of their newer, more pop side, but also aspects of their earlier rock side. There’s even some of their older-style guitar solos starting to shine through.

It’s an epic album, and I can’t turn it off right now. It’s definitely bringing the vibes; even if those vibes are somewhat dystopian. Funnily enough, it would also be an outstanding soundtrack whilst reading the latest issue of The Quarterly Essay. Maybe it’s the perfect album for the times.

What have you been reading, listening to or watching? Let us know in the comments below. See you next week for a brand new article.

Ready for more?

Read the newest issue of The RoundUp: How do you create consistently?

Read the newest issue of The Practise: The Artist's Way: Week One

Read the newest issue of The DeepDive: The World Needs What You Make

Front Row is your backstage pass to our essays, workshops, and online summits on navigating the future of creativity. Built by, for & with independent creatives.

We’re also publishing on: Instagram | YouTube | TikTok | LinkedIn | Threads

For those of you that have been reading the RoundUp - first off, thank you! Secondly, don’t worry, I haven’t pivoted genres suddenly, there will still be a semi-regular RoundUp article from me in the near future, I haven’t run out of creatives to cover.

We’re looking to expand our articles here in our little corner of Substack, so hello and welcome to The Practise, a series where I work through different programs designed to improve creativity, and on our debut episode, we are starting strong with Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way.

The Artist’s Way

Taking the creative side of the internet by storm, Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way seems to be the way to connect with your inner creator and overcome artists’ block once and for all. I first learnt about the book by watching Doechii’s (singer, rapper, grammy-award winning, you know the one) old youtube videos, where she credits The Artist’s Way as being one of the reasons she went out to garner such success.

Quite a good selling point for the book. So, here I am trying it.

For context, no, I don’t want a grammy, but I am a habitual creative, both a writer and a painter, who has struggled with creative block for a while. I’m in that weird liminal space that is your mid-twenties, where childhood dreams require both raging audacity and dedication to stay alive, especially when it’s so much easier - and harder- to sell your soul to a regular 9-5.

As someone who is a perfectionist, I’m approaching this with a ‘better done than perfect’ attitude. I don’t really have any hard and fast goals for the state of my creativity at the end of this book, but I would like to gently lift the claws of perfectionism that have cleaved itself into my soul every time I pick up a paintbrush or read over my work. : )

The Structure

A 12-week course, with about an hour of tasks per week, as well as:

1. The Morning Pages - 3 pages of prose every day, for the duration of the 12 weeks.

2. The Artists Dates - an allotted amount of time per week to take yourself out on a date. (walk in the park, visit a bookstore, see a movie. Anything really, but you have to do it alone )

I’ll be giving updates for Week One, Week Four, Week Eight and Week Twelve, so stick around if you’re interested, or wait until the very end. Either way, hopefully you figure out if this is something you want to try out too!

Week One : Completed.

Tasks: Completed
Artist Date: Apple juice and window-shopping
Morning Pages: 5/7 days

Notable Changes:

Painting: I picked up a paintbrush for the first time in so long! Dog-sat for a couple of days this week and got inspired by an adorable poodle, won’t be finished with the painting until next week, but here’s a past one I did:

Writing: A couple weeks ago I started looking into editors for a finished manuscript and I signed a contract this week! I don’t think this really has much to do with me doing the Artist’s Way, but the book is quite adamant that there are no coincidences. While I wait for work to continue on my first manuscript, I’m working on draft one of a second manuscript, and am currently at 31,000 words- though I will admit, not much writing got done this week.

Morning Pages: As someone who has the ability to ramble, I didn’t find the idea of the Morning Pages that daunting, but by day three/four they got a bit tiresome. Some days got away from me, but I’m saying it’s a good start.

Artist Date: Went to a local shopping centre on the weekend, bought an apple juice and perused some books. Wasn’t exceptionally profound but surprisingly this is a task that I’m having trouble with - something that I didn’t foresee.

I’m quite an introvert and I am more than happy to go and explore a place by myself, but that’s usually at the last minute, in a ‘oh-that-place is interesting’ way and less a dedicated time in my calendar to pursue. I also work from home, so for the past couple years I’ve made a note to go to new places with other people for the ~ human interaction ~ so planning for myself seems a little counterintuitive, but regardless, an artist date was planned and executed. (Apple juice rating: 8/10)

Tasks: The theme for this week was ‘Recovering a Sense of Safety’ and combatting some of the negative stereotypes about being or becoming an artist - and to square up against these allegations, we use affirmations. I’m still at the part where affirmations seem very silly, but in the moments I start slowing down in my morning pages, I just write down the affirmations.

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Final Thoughts:

Doing some more research into The Artist’s Way and Julia Cameron, I don’t think this book has my specific demographic in mind, but not many mainstream media do. However - the act of looking inward and allowing yourself to pursue your dreams and dissect how you see yourself is universally a good practice; if done with self-love.

So far, this book seems very well structured, it does make several references to ‘God’ and ‘Him’ which could deter some readers, I have just been reading it as ‘The Universe’ instead. There is a section in the book that accounts for this and says to just interchange the word to what you want. Though the book leans slightly religious in some instances, I wouldn’t say it’s a hinderance.

Motivational quotes and instructions can get you so far, the real work is the time you put in on the self-reflective prompts and the morning pages, so you can structure them however you like.

This is my first time doing some type of self-guided creative challenge and I’d say it’s a good bite-size amount. Reading through each chapter takes maybe 10 minutes. Morning pages take me 20 and the tasks just open tabs in your brain that you can flit through when doubts come bounding back - they take around 30 minutes.

As with anything in life, do what you can. An artist date is quite hard if you have to look after kids, or lack a mode of transport, have a chronic illness - the list goes on. Sometimes life happens, weeks vary and plans are sidelined in an instant. Things happen.

Seasons change.

I’ll be back with the second rendition of The Practise at Week 4, hopefully with a much bigger word count and a few more paintings to share. Until then, as always, be kind to yourself and happy creating.

Catch you later,

Kaye

Ready for more?

Read the newest issue of The RoundUp: How do you create consistently?

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Ah yes, Sanderson. While the rest of us writers are being hounded by our beta readers for the next chapter, the man’s written his next bestseller. So of course, (spoiler alert) he’s going to be one of the creatives I cover in this week’s RoundUp.

On that note, good afternoon and welcome to the RoundUp! A series where I scour the internet for answers to common questions that tend to plague creatives and present my findings here.

There comes a certain point that the words optimisation, monetisation and productivity becomes the siren call that enchants the finance bros from their mutli-level marketing meetings.

Yes, consistency and dedication are very good skills to have, but not at the expense of curiosity, boredom and discomfort. And creativity lives in the middle of that trifecta. Just because you do not have a grind mindset, does not mean you are any less creative than the person next to you.

Case and point, when was the last time Rihanna put out an album? And would you slander Rihanna?

No. Exactly.

Before, this introduction gets away from me, today’s question is:

Answer: Just keep going

Best known for his fantasy series Mistborn and The Stormlight Archive, Sanderson has dominated the writing industry since he first made his debut with Elantris back in 2001. He has become synonymous with the ability to write consistently, working on multiple projects simultaneously and still outwriting others around him by treating his writing as a 8 hour work shift, clocking in and out each day.

The Final Empire, Mistborn Book 1 - Brandon Sanderson

Recently, the Cosmere universe - the world where most of his novels reside in, has been picked up by Apple TV and he retains a huge amount of creative rights.

A progress bar can be seen on his website, outlining his current projects, including the Mistborn screenplay as well as Ghostbloods Book 1, Songrise 3.0 and Riftwake Book 3.

In addition to his fantasy novels, he’s written young adult novels - The Reckoners and Skyward, has two graphic novels (White Sand and Dark One) and has finished Robert Jordan’s series The Wheel of Time.

His podcast, Intentionally Blank, co-hosted by Don Wells, and his youtube channel @BrandonSanderson (871k subscribers) has incredible advice to young creatives and interesting reviews about all things music, movies and storytelling.

In a video entitled “How to write 100k words a year” and ‘How do I Motivate Myself to Write’ Sanderson states that his first book took him 3-4 years to write. Since then he’s honed his practice to 100K a year - that’s a draft per year. He articulates that it’s important to know what type of writer and/or worker you are. Is it easier for you to block out a few hours on the weekend to get to your word count? Or is multiple 30 minute sprints throughout the week more your style? Both are the right answers, “Learning how to make yourself do the things you want to have done” is how you get words on the page. It’s also how you go through adult life as well, funnily enough. For Sanderson, a progress bar and the steady upping of percentages each day is what motivates him, for others it could be something else, like writing groups, a writing partner, external motivation or some form of the carrot and the stick.

Writing is hard. Even before you take the leap and try to publish, there’s a thousand re-writes before you get critiques. The trick is to just keep going, to keep writing and more often than not, if you like writing, it won’t take that much to get back to your desk. Your love for writing was never in question, your talent has no choice but to compound over time. Consistency is a muscle that you can train and the worst thing you could do is write a bad book. And that’s not the end of the world.

***
Sam Yang, aka SamDoesArts, is another creator that’s developed his art through arts of consistency. Having an aptitude for drawing and painting growing up, Sam started to take his art more seriously than a hobby around 2020 and has since then created a youtube channel with 2.04m subscribers (@samdoesarts), as well as a patron, instagram and online shop. He is also featured in 3dtotalshop with his art book entitled The Art of Same Yang, featuring his anime/manga style digital illustrations. With his friendly and funny narration, his youtube videos debunk drawing myths, offers tutorials on art techniques and reviews his subscribers’ art. In his video entitled “You’re a better artist than you think (here’s why)”, he drops multiple insights on the realities of pursuing art.

“You see your own worst work while you see everyone else’s best”

Comparison is the thief of joy, that’s well documented, but this supposedly inevitable rabbit hole can be avoided by realising that you’ve been trying your best for years; which is why you’re blind to how much you’ve improved.

The Art of Sam Yang - Sam Yang

And imposter syndrome stems from insecurity, yes, but also humility. You understand that you are not the best artist in the world and you have the ambition to realise that there are things you still need to learn. That positions you to become a better artist, a better writer, a better dancer. The ability to accurately establish where you are and what you have to do to get better is a useful mechanism to keep going.

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One of the most common excuses for a late draft, or an unpolished script is that ‘life got in the way’ and I always thought that was such a strange phrase. I understand the need to show up consistently to be creative if that’s your job, if you’re relying on that income but, for the creatives out there that do not rely on their creativity for income, or are just looking to start monetising their craft and are stressing about being unable to focus completely - there’s no need to put pressure on yourself.

You didn’t write because you were tired from work. You didn’t paint because you were out dancing with your friends. You didn’t go through that song because you started chatting with the drummer.

…okay? That’s good!

Before you take that step into diversifying your income stream (that sentence was painful to write), just relax and let the ideas flow, for not every moment sitting at your desk needs to be productive (brought it back, phew).

And anyways, comparing yourself to others never has the desired outcome.

***

Thanks for reading! It’s nice to meet you! Let us know if you like this type of content or if there’s anything else you’d like to hear from us.

You can find the creatives that were mentioned in this article down below, if there’s any topics or people you’d like to see me cover, let me know in the comments. (And if you’d like to be featured, let us know too!).

Thanks again for reading and remember - be kind to yourself!

Catch you later,

Kaye

Make sure to check out the artists mentioned!

Brandon Sanderson

Website:

https://www.brandonsanderson.com/

YouTube:

Spotify: Intentionally Blank, Brandon Sanderson and Dan Wells

Instagram: @brandonsanderson

SamDoesArts

Instagram: @samdoesarts

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cw/samdoesarts

Website: https://samdoesarts.com/password

Book: https://store.3dtotal.com/products/the-art-of-sam-yang

YouTube: @SamDoesArts

Ready for more?

Read Next: How do you find your artistic style?

Front Row is your backstage pass to our essays, workshops, and online summits on navigating the future of creativity. Built by, for & with independent creatives.

We’re also publishing on: Instagram | YouTube | TikTok | LinkedIn | Threads

Thanks for reading Front Row by Futureative! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

If you’re new here, hello and welcome to the RoundUp! A series where I scour the internet for answers to common questions that tend to plague creatives and present my findings here.

Today’s question is more of a quiet contemplation and I invite all of you in the comments to let us know what has worked for you as with all aspects of the creative process, unlike maths, there are no wrong answers! (No, it was not my favourite subject in high school, how’d you know?)

Anyways! Today’s question:

Answer:
Throw everything at the wall and see what sticks.

Process > results

Melbourne born contemporary visual artist Tahlia Stanton, best known for her Borrowed Wing collection, has been dominating the arts industry long before she first opened her print house in 2020. As an abstract-expressionist mixed media painter, Stanton began as a self-made artist when she decided that art school was not for her. She won Young Australian Artist of the Year from 2015 - 2017 and has amassed hundreds in her collection including fine art prints, woven tapestries, commission and The Pioneering Artist - a painting workshop.

With over 15m on TikTok and 327k subscribers on youtube, Stanton has a range of videos from vlogs to commentary. In her short entitled “Make work you’re not proud of” she states:

“who cares. It’s just a painting, have fun express yourself, it’s not that serious…we need to make work that we’re not proud of, we need to make work that is experimental and fun and weird and just an absolute explosion of expression because without that, we’re just chasing perfection and what is perfection, it doesn’t even exist”

Finding your art style requires the continuous repetition of finding the fun of the process. Every time you put brush to canvas, you find out what you’re drawn to, what would make sense to your eye. But this must come from a place of playfulness, of fun.

“Strong Heart” Oil on Canvas, Tahlia Stanton

Follow what piques your interest

Being a good painter requires painting (wow, can you imagine). As is writing, public speaking, cooking etc.

It also requires research and study. Not in the stressed, hunched over a laptop, late into the night in a coffee and Redbull induced haze, but in the follow-what-makes-you-curious way.

The book that catches your eye in the local library or the youtube video you see on writing during your lunch break whilst working in a cafe. There are a lot of free resources for you to use to improve your art. (Support your local libraries!)

As a writer, I stumbled across The Closer Look some years ago on Youtube and I insist that any writer or anyone interested in storytelling should watch his stuff.

*A small side note here to say that as always, all links to the creators mentioned are at the bottom of the article :)

Created in September 2016, The Closer Look’s youtube channel has steadily grown to 1.15m subscribers. The creator, Henry Boseley, offers free video essays “where (he) helps aspiring writers hone their craft”. He’s covered a range of topics from ‘How to introduce a character’, focusing on Death from Puss in Boots 2 (a very good movie), “How to write a terrifying villain” - Homelander from The Boys and ‘How to do a plot twist’ - Knives out.

His works mostly focus on screenwriting, though sometimes he veers into gameplay (How to Fail At adaptation - The Witcher) or writing prose.

Finding other creators that can explain how they work their creative process is just as fulfilling as creating yourself.

Finding a space to share mutual appreciation and interest in a creative work infuses your own practice.

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***

An important thing to note when you’re finding out your artistic style is that heyo- nothing is original anymore.

Billie Ellish’s early work sounded a lot like Birdie with a hint of Lorde and Lana Del Ray.
Art Deco looked at Cubism and said, ‘mmm, a little to the left’.
Brandon Sanderson, George R.R. Martin and Robert Jordan could all sit at a table and point accusatory fingers at each other.

Artistic style is curated by consuming a range of media that piques your interest. Creativity is like wit, it sharpens when put in different conversations. Consume like a madman and start making whatever makes you curious. Place quantity over quality to overpower the nagging voice of perfectionism and slowly but naturally you will stumble upon a genre or niche that delights you every time you pick up a paintbrush or scroll through Letterboxed.

Eventually, eventually. You will come across something.

Rare? Maybe. But undeniably unique. And that’s your style - built on the frequented Pinterest boards and dog-eared novels that kept you entertained for years.

Ultimately;

Because at the end of the day, it is fun. Creating is fun. Fun infuses progress, progress rewards dedication, dedication is born from curiosity.

And anyways, the best doodles are made in the margins of graph paper during maths class.

***

Thanks for reading! It’s nice to meet you! Let us know if you like this type of content or if there’s anything else you’d like to hear from us.

You can find the creatives that were mentioned in this article down below, if there’s any topics or people you’d like to see me cover, let me know in the comments. (And if you’d like to be featured, let us know too!).

Thanks again for reading and remember - be kind to yourself!

Catch you later,

Kaye

Make sure to check out the artists mentioned!

Tahlia Stanton

Website:

https://tahliastanton.com

Youtube: @tahliastantonart

Instagram: @tahliastanton

Henry Boseley / The Closer Look

Youtube: @TheCloserLook

Pateron:

https://www.patreon.com/henryboseley

Ready for more?

Read Next: Should You Monetise Your Art?

Front Row is your backstage pass to our essays, workshops, and online summits on navigating the future of creativity. Built by, for & with independent creatives.

We’re also publishing on: Instagram | YouTube | TikTok | LinkedIn | Threads

After every art block, it will come back.

And this self-regenerative ability is very attractive to capitalism. Capitalism thrives on the next new thing but there comes a time when an iphone cannot be improved annually, a company cannot squeeze out more money from their usership without cutting corners, or putting in add-ons to simply jack up the price (looking at you Netflix).

But creativity? Creativity is liminal and self-planting. Unfortunately for the finance bros, it takes a long time to curate - hence, their clear besotment with A.I.

Before this becomes a diatribe on artificial intelligence, I’ve brought this up to articulate that we live in a hustle culture and it’s not uncommon that the question posed has not entered our minds, even for a brief period of time - and this is the Round Up after all, a series where I scour the internet for the answers to common questions that tend to plague creatives and present my findings here.

Am I getting better at segways? That’s not today’s question - today’s question is:

Answer: Sure.

Do it the right way

To aid in the defence of monetisation, let me introduce Kelsey Rodriguez, a visual artist and content creator. As well as selling her own oil paintings- picturesque scenery that blends earthy tones with soft sunlight, Kelsey is an avid Youtuber, whose channel @KelseyRodriguez has over 298k subscribers. She offers free advice for up and coming creatives looking to start a brand on their own terms. Her videos range from business breakthroughs to specific art advice. Her approach is to “(guide) creatives toward financial stability without sacrificing their integrity”.

“California Coast” 18x18 by Kelsey Rodriguez (all links at bottom of article)

Rodriguez’ approach to monetising your business comes from a genuine place of love for art and I highly recommend following her, or other creatives that understand how to become a successful creative without compromising why you started.

Another artist that offers free advice and teachings is Mark Carder, also known as @DrawMixPaint on youtube. Creating his channel in 2012, Carder has a range of videos on the specifics of oil painting for realism, from paint mixing, brushstrokes, painting supplies and studio setups. In his own words “My goal is to eventually cover all essential instruction for painting realism in oil so that anyone can learn to paint for free”

His videos are easy to follow, I highly recommend his ‘how to mix paint videos’ which have cut down my prep time for paintings by about half. In his video ‘paint what you personally love - something new - do not listen to anyone else” he states. “You have to trust your own taste, it’s the only thing you have”.

As an artist who started professionally painting in 1986, he’s most well known for his commissioned painting of George W. Bush and has sold paintings for up to $75,000. It’s invigorating to know that a person of his mastery and experience still stands by the fact that as an artist, we know what’s best for ourselves and we know when our art needs changing or when we’ve gotten it right.

“Portrait of a Little Girl” - Mark Carder

I think it’s important to follow through with this advice when we’re asking if we should monetise our art. There is no universal answer, but take comfort in the fact that thousands of creatives before you have tossed up the same decision.

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My own answer:

Annoyingly, I think that only you will know that answer, I also think that answer can and should change depending on where you are in your creative journey.

In all honesty, it’s not as big of a question as it seems to be. Both answers are perfectly okay, but come with some headaches that we may toss and turn over that in the end, for example:

I want to monetise my art but what if people don’t buy it?

Say you put out a song and no one listens to it. You’re in the exact same position you were in five minutes ago. If no one listened to your music when it was in your private folder and no one listened to your music when you promoted it on socials, then you have experienced no loss. It’s still 0-0.

I want to monetise my art but what if it’s really bad?

Say you wrote a script and my god, it’s terrible. It’s so ludicrously inane and that it makes Riverdale look like a Shakespearean drama. That’s fine. Perhaps pivot to comedy?

Just kidding, what I mean to say is that consumable art to a third party is either forgettable or good.

Both are fine. Both do exactly what they’re supposed to do. Perhaps you need to write several chewing-gum novels before you discover your magnum opus.

It takes a lot of directed, focused effort to make harmful art. Anything other than that is good, and where all genuine creatives operate. There’s no such thing as bad art, only forgettable art, and that’s brilliant because when you do make that good piece of creative work - which you will, all that hard work and training compounds - that will be what you’re remembered for.

I want to monetise my art but I don’t want to be an influencer

So don’t. You can’t keep up forever anyway. Post what you like, follow who inspires you and document what you would love to look back on.

And now let’s look at the adverse:

I want to keep my art as a hobby but people keep telling me to monetise.

Non-creatives often have this bright idea and it’s usually coming from a very eager, genuine place, but only you know if monetising will lead to burning out. If painting is something you only do a couple times a month to unwind, then turning it into a profitable business where you churn out a print each week is not going to be sustainable and will lead to you not picking up a paintbrush in years.

If you want to monetise now, go for it, if you want to do it in a year, do it, but don’t take advice from someone who isn’t on the same wavelength as you.

Perhaps you monetise your writing. Perhaps your painting is just for your loved ones. It’s all good.

And anyways, it’s never too late to change your mind : )

***

Thanks for reading! It’s nice to meet you! Let us know if you like this type of content or if there’s anything else you’d like to hear from us.

You can find the creatives that were mentioned in this article down below, if there’s any topics or people you’d like to see me cover, let me know in the comments. (And if you’d like to be featured, let us know too!).

Thanks again for reading and remember - be kind to yourself!

Catch you later,

Kaye

Make sure to check out the artists mentioned!

Kelsey Rodrigeuz

Website: https://www.kelseyrodriguez.com/

Youtube: @KelseyRodriguez

Instagram: @kelseyrodriquezart.

Mark Carder / Draw Mix Paint

Instagram: @drawmixpaint.

Website: https://www.drawmixpaint.com/

Youtube:

Ready for more?

Read Next: How do you know if your idea is good enough?

Front Row is your backstage pass to our essays, workshops, and online summits on navigating the future of creativity. Built by, for & with independent creatives.

We’re also publishing on: Instagram | YouTube | TikTok | LinkedIn | Threads

…Or are you delusional?

Does it really matter?

Genuinely, does it really matter? Before creativity got warped by the idea of monetisation, we all went to our sketchbooks and journals with the thought of putting an idea into the world simply for the sake of its existence. And some of those ideas sucked.

Most of them were unpolished, unfiltered, unrefined.

Some were masterpieces in the middle of the night and a jumble of chicken scratches impossible to decipher over coffee the next morning. So what did we all do? (after a moment of insecurity and deflation that lasted between 5 minutes to 3-5 business days),

We tried again. For the fun of it all. For the rush of getting it right.

And on that note, hello again! Welcome back to the RoundUp! A series where I scour the internet for the answers to common questions that tend to plague creatives and present my findings here.

Today’s question:

1. Rejection

2. Perseverance

3. A gut feeling

Answer: All of the above.

“If you have an idea, that you genuinely think is good, don’t let some idiot talk you out of it”

- Stan Lee

The quote from Stan Lee comes from a Keynote presentation at the UCLA 2017 Graduation Ceremony. The late great comic writer explains the initial stages of pitching the superhero ‘Spiderman’ to publishers, only to be told it would never happen. Cut to now, Spiderman is one of the most popular superhero comics, with three separate live action eras, the newest addition being second highest-grossing film franchise of all time, grossing over $11 billion worldwide, a groundbreaking animated movie series (Into the Spiderverse), and several spin offs like Vemon, Morbius and Madame Web.

Needless to say, he was onto something.

Spiderman is a very well written character, obviously. But some reasons stick out.

1. A teenage superhero - not a sidekick. Spiderman is a nerdy, nervous, scared to talk to girls school student, something that teenagers - the primary demographic of comic books, especially in the 1960s, could relate to.

2. Spiderman is the story of the little guy, the “friendly neighbourhood spider”, he’s not a super strong alien (unrelatable) or a billionaire orphan (somehow less relatable). Spiderman’s story lends itself to social commentary on wealth, privilege and doing what’s right by the means you have.

3. Spiderman could be anyone - an accidental custom design, but something that allowed readership, regardless of background to imagine themselves as the character

In hindsight, these notes seem like a home run for publishers, but if Stan Lee had not backed himself, we wouldn’t have gotten the beloved character we have today.

Believe in Your Art

Speaking of backing yourself, we’re pivoting from comic books to live wedding painting! With that smooth segway, let’s talk about Rebekka Lord-Johnson, or as she’s known online, The Wedding Painter.

Live wedding painting is exactly what you think it is. A live wedding painter has the time during the ceremony and reception to create a portrait of the happy couple. Touchups and small edits can be made in post production, but speed, accuracy and skill are required to have something beautiful within 4-5 hours.

Starting her current business in 2021, Rebekka has captured over 275 moments on canvas and has over 722k followers on instagram, with her most viral posts frequently hitting the million mark. The South- East Melbourne painter has won numerous awards for her work and is brilliant at her craft. Her portraits so easily capture the small facial expressions and beauty of the moment with a level of precision that reflects decades of practice.

And although she’s painted since a child, a business this successful suddenly looks all the more amazing when you realise that she started it in 2021.

A quick check onto her instagram account will tell you:

2026 = Fully Booked

2027 = Fully Booked

2028 = Currently open

5 years ago she had an idea.

Now she has a legacy.

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My own answer:

It’s a curse that siphons a lot of joy from creativity. That’s a whole other article in itself, but there is some intersectionality between the pursuit of perfection and the desire to do better.

Understanding that your work is unpolished, but could be something great, keeping it to your chest until it’s ready for an audience is a nuanced, practical decision that might be doubted by others but is ultimately right because you’ve decided it so.

Scrapping draft after draft because you hate the ‘youness’ of your voice and wishing you weren’t anything remotely recognisable as yourself is an ouroboros paradox that won’t get you anywhere.

A complete ten book series doesn’t come full fleshed out to someone one Monday morning, nor does it appear ten hours into a writing session, it’s revealed, excruciatingly slowly, bit by bit in the half-moments between our mundane tasks and only when we pool our findings together night after night do we mold it into something we can begin to write draft one, then two, then three, then eleven!

The genuine truth is, you create for the sake of creating and there’s nothing wrong with that.

And anyway, the journey is fun. :)

***

Thanks for reading! It’s nice to meet you! Let us know if you like this type of content or if there’s anything else you’d like to hear from us.

You can find the creatives that were mentioned in this article down below, if there’s any topics or people you’d like to see me cover, let me know in the comments. (And if you’d like to be featured, let us know too!).

Thanks again for reading and remember - be kind to yourself!

Catch you later,

Kaye

Make sure to check out the artists mentioned!

Rebekka / The Wedding Painter

@the.wedding.painter

https://www.theweddingpainter.com.au/about

Ready for more?

Read Next: Is the Fear of Being Seen Holding You Back?

Front Row is your backstage pass to our essays, workshops, and online summits on navigating the future of creativity. Built by, for & with independent creatives.

We’re also publishing on: Instagram | YouTube | TikTok | LinkedIn | Threads

Unfortunately, he has a point.

Welcome back to the RoundUp! A series where I scour the internet for answers to common questions that tend to plague creatives and present my findings here.

Today’s question is less of a self-reflection and more of a threat to the introverts out there (just kidding, game recognises game), but it does sit differently for half of the population out there. Speaking as a once very shy child, the idea of putting myself out there was an insane prospect and speaking as a slightly less shy adult, I have to say, they had a point.

Regardless, let’s dive into the question:

Short Answer: Yes

“Who is the judge in your head?”

This question is posed by Jen Carmiel, a watercolour artist based in Colombia, whose portfolio showcases idyllic, heart-warming frames of cats, coffee and the small joys of life. As an art school graduate and a full time artist, Jen has achieved what beginner artists have dreamed about. In her video “How I Got Over the Fear of Being Seen (An Artist Perspective)” she asks the question:

Is it a grade three bully? Is it a colleague from a past job? An unsaid but somehow very loud social presumption that takes the form of someone in your childhood town? Someone’s voice in your life has weaseled their way into the folds of your brain (yes, that’s the scientific term) set up shop and sometime between the sprouting of an idea and the execution of it, you’ve determined that their voice has more merit than your own.

Carmiel offers a solution to this, saying “what you have to come back to is why are you doing this?”

Most of the time, it isn’t because we want attention. Yes, we want our art to garner attention and maybe sales, but that’s a side effect of making something you’re proud of. Assuming that the world will have the same instinct to be negative towards your work is narrow-minded. Especially when the truth is:

Your art is not for everyone.

Kayla Carlile is an Australian artist, specialising in realism and portraiture. Her ethereal underwater paintings evoke feelings of calmness and femininity. Starting by selling her artwork at Saturday markets, Carlile has grown her platform to become a full time artist, working on murals, art classes and growing her youtube channel, already at 141K subscribers. In her video entitled Your fear of being perceived is holding you back. Carlile states that “if people don’t like (your art) then you have succeeded because you’ve actually done something of substance in the world”, she reiterates that “as a creative, art is supposed to make people feel things”.

“Things” unspecified. Walking around a gallery, people will be drawn to different art pieces. I prefer Monet over Van Gogh. A Van Gogh over a Picasso. A Gentileschi over Monet.

The point is, Carlile is right on the money when she states “if my paintings angers someone but it makes someone else feel seen then I think I did my job as an artist”

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***
My own answer:

I think one of the most difficult parts about being known is introducing ourselves. As a creative, no one wants to show up to an online space being an amateur, or sub- par to everyone else. We assume that we must work on ourselves until our work is polished and shiny and anything less than immaculate must be sent back to the drawing board instantly.

The truth is that the best writers, singers, dancers etc, all started out as people terrible at their craft (except maybe Meryl Streep, she can just do that), who toiled and thought and kept coming back to their workspace with genuine love and interest, until they got big enough to catch our attention.

Sometimes we assume that our work is too unoriginal, too similar to another work and - barring actual plagiarism, (don’t do that, obviously), therefore shouldn’t exist. But what’s better than one well written action adventure book series with great characters and a brilliant plot? TWO well written action adventure book series with great characters and a brilliant plot.

There will never be another Billie Eilish, or The Last Airbender, or Jumanji.

Scratch that last one.

The point is, no one can truly be you except you and the world should not be deprived of your creativity because of your fear of what might happen.

And anyways, it’s all for fun. : )

***

Thanks for reading! It’s nice to meet you! Let us know if you like this type of content or if there’s anything else you’d like to hear from us.

You can find the creatives that were mentioned in this article down below, if there’s any topics or people you’d like to see me cover, let me know in the comments. (And if you’d like to be featured, let us know too!).

Thanks again for reading and remember - be kind to yourself!

Catch you later,

Kaye

Make sure to check out the artists mentioned:

Jen Carmiel:

Website:

https://jencarmiel.com/?srsltid=AfmBOoqZ-03pH6qt-vH0PKOumEkyZfdNu3KvjPCKsk3Gke6P5MmV5YUy

Kayla Carlile

Website:

https://www.kaylacarlile.art/

Ready for more?

Read Next: Is Failure As Important as Success?

Front Row is your backstage pass to our essays, workshops, and online summits on navigating the future of creativity. Built by, for & with independent creatives.

We’re also publishing on: Instagram | YouTube | TikTok | LinkedIn | Threads

What’s the RoundUp?

A curated piece of content where I scour the internet for answers to common questions that tend to plague creatives and present my findings here. I’ll be sifting through established creatives, eager ingenues as well as hopping across multiple industries - music, art, filmmaking - to see what answers people have come to for the hard hitting questions.

And today’s question:

Short Answer: Yes.

Failure as Redirection

Demi Lovato’s It’s Not That Deep Tour is officially in progress and whilst Lovato’s journey is a beehive of the importance of persistence and re-direction, I want to focus on the opener for her concert.

Adela Jorgova, or known by her stage name Adela is a Slovak singer, songwriter and dancer that debuted her first solo song in 2024 and now has signed to Capital Records. She has slowly but steadily grown her artistry and fanbase to become a household name. All of this began because she was eliminated from a pop survival show.

Adela was one of thousands of girls that auditioned for the chance to debut as one of the members of global girl group KATSEYE, a K-pop inspired music group created by Hybe x Geffen. Over 120,000 auditionees were whittled down to 20, to participate in Dream Academy, later shown in the Netflix reality show Popstar Academy: KATSEYE which was released in 2024.

Despite scoring amongst the highest in vocals and dance, Adela did not gain enough public votes to stay in the competition which led to her heart-wrenching leave from the competition just before the remaining girls were set to journey to Korea.

And thus started her solo career.

Her newest single KGB hit No.11 on the Hot Dance/ Pop Songs chart, just above Madonna’s I Feel So Free. She’s set to sing at Lollapalooza 2026. Her solo career is skyrocketing in a way that can be compared to Chappell Roan, and as a solo artist, she has the creative autonomy to pursue her passions in a way that fulfils her.

Adela is not the only person out of Dream Academy to find their footing as a solo artist, Karlee Tanaka, known as Karlee Girl, launched her solo career in April 2025 and her newest single “Right Back!” has amassed over 2.3 million views on Youtube. Another three auditionees Lexie Levin, Samara Siqueira and Emily Kelavos are set to debut in girl group SAINT SATINE.

Pivoting Careers

Our next deep dive is on Eve Cornwell, a trainee solicitor turned tech product manager. - I did say we were shifting through multiple industries - I’ve been a long time fan of Eve Cornwell, her casual yet sophisticated youtube vlog-style videos date back since she was studying law at university.

With just over 345k subscribers, @evecornwellchannel has grown into a community of like-minded, studious people who became invested in the one dream that became synonymous with her brand - becoming a lawyer. Yet, in a 2022, in a youtube video entitled “I quit my dream job”, Eve explains that through the self-reflection that being in a global pandemic will have you sit with, “the one thing (she) could not compromise on was having a creative outlet” and refound her purpose as a tech product manager.

As one of her long-time fans, this news was first surprising and then uplifting. The comments under that video are littered with cheers and well-wishes, fellow creatives who enjoyed watching her videos happy that she’d found what works for her.

We tend to amplify them and think that that will be all the reaction there is, but the honest truth is, most people are happy for your success or indifferent to it. And both are blessings.

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The Sunk Cost Fallacy

The Sunk Cost Fallacy is the human tendency to continue with an action or behaviour that is proving ineffective because we’ve already invested our time, money or energy into it.

For example: Sitting for an entire movie’s runtime because you’ve paid the full ticket price even though halfway through you realise that horror films aren’t your thing.

Another example: Continuing with a career that you know you don’t have enthusiasm for, because you’ve burnt out, the industry has changed or maybe you’ve changed. We have a tendency to push down those nagging thoughts and persevere, because the alternative looks like giving up and heading home with nothing.. The realisation that if you stop now, all those long nights of work, those early mornings and monthly sacrifices were useless because you thought you were making progress instead of mistakes.

This is the wrong frame of mind, anything that you’ve learnt will be helpful to you in the future.

If you’re a carpenter turned film- maker, you know the colloquialisms of the work place, you’ve met a range of diverse people with unique voices that will inform your writing. You’ve seen homes that could inform set pieces. And then there’s the practical skills - you know bargaining, time management and working in a team. Everything informs everything. Adaptability is a skill and trusting yourself will only get easier over time.

***
My own answer:

Failure is the most consistent thing in my life. That’s not a complaint - (well sometimes it is) and I believe the same is true for all other creatives out there.

A little bit of background on myself - finishing high school, I had no idea what I wanted to do other than write, I had no idea about the publishing industry, or indeed the entertainment industry, I just knew that no one was going to pay me for writing just yet. Cue a good couple years and a few failures that incurred a mound of student debt, it was only through my seemingly endless assembly line of failed ventures did I stumble upon Futureative and land this job and now - I’m being paid to write. Isn’t that funny? It would be more funny without the student debt, I agree, but my point is, none of the paths that lead me here would have appeared if I didn’t have the courage to make mistakes, have the humility and self-reflection to keep going, even if I didn’t necessarily know where I was heading.

I think creatives are so hard on themselves, and we don’t need to be. At all. Especially since “success” means different things for different people.

Non-creatives tend to confuse success with virality and income. Oftentimes, they don’t understand that some creative people do it for the love of the game.

That sometimes they have an idea in their head that just. won’t. go.

That takes work. That takes failure. But that’s the point.

And anyways, you can always just start again : )

***

Thanks for reading! It’s nice to meet you! Let us know if you like this type of content or if there’s anything else you’d like to hear from us.

You can find the creatives that were mentioned in this article down below, if there’s any topics or people you’d like to see me cover, let me know in the comments. (And if you’d like to be featured, let us know too!).

Thanks again for reading and remember - be kind to yourself!

Catch you later,

Kaye

Make sure to check out the artists mentioned:

Adela:

KARLEEGIRL

Eve Cornwell:

Other:

https://thedecisionlab.com/biases/the-sunk-cost-fallacy Pilat, Dan, and Sekoul Krastev. “The Sunk Cost Fallacy.” The Decision Lab, 2021, thedecisionlab.com/biases/the-sunk-cost-fallacy.

Ready for more?

Read Next: Creative careers sure don’t work like they used to.

This article is the first of a 3-part Deep Dive on the future of creative careers; current obstacles and solutions we can all work together on.

Front Row is your backstage pass to our essays, workshops, and online summits on navigating the future of creativity. Built by, for & with independent creatives.

We’re also publishing on: Instagram | YouTube | TikTok | LinkedIn | Threads

As if we have reached the end of the road, no more could a new book, podcast, film or album benefit humanity.

It’s an easy reach, when you’re desperate for a click. But completely misses the point of creativity, creative work and what consumers want.

There is an oversupply of creative work, yes. And that is increasing at an exponential rate. But with that increase, comes a growing undersupply.

I’m here to make the case that high quality, human made, creative work, made by humans, is going to grow in demand, because it’s going to be harder to find.

Let’s dive in!

In this article:

• Why the “oversupply of creative work” proclamation is flat out wrong

• Why there is an undersupply of one type of creative work

• Why it’s key to think about the creative journey, more than the work itself

• Why creativity is never a race and how to stay in the game

The world doesn’t need another “_______”.

“The world doesn’t need another podcast.”

“The world doesn’t need another album.”

“The world doesn’t need another book.”

“The world doesn’t need another film, blog, photograph…” You get the point.

I hear versions of this all the time. And look, I get it. People are desperate for a click. Spouting the death of the next medium and the rise of another is a great way to do that.

And yeah look, there is a supply problem in the creative industries. There is significantly more creative work being brought into the world every day than can be consumed by humanity. The quantity, it’s growing.

But this proclamation misses the whole point of creativity.

Of the things we as consumers of creativity yearn for.

We yearn for work that means something to us.

And the only way to get more of that, is if creative people keep creating, and keep pushing the limits of their own creativity.

The world might not need everything you make…

And that’s ok. That is part of the process. Being a creative person does not mean you are guaranteed success, a career or that people will like your work.

You are not guaranteed that all your work will be good. In fact, if anything, if you are to truly pursue this as your vocation, you are guaranteed that the vast majority of your work will be average.

Because it is through the process of creating average, the hard-won determination of showing up over and over again. Iterating and experimenting and combining and moulding. That the creative process has a way of creating those hidden gems.

Making incredible creative work is as hard a goal as there is, because there’s no destination you are really seeking. You have to be able to produce and produce and produce, no-matter the quality.

And without this? You may find yourself the proud owner of ‘just another podcast’ or ‘just another album’.

This is an article not about the supply and demand economics of the creative industries, but really about grit, determination, belief and persistance.

And in a world that is making things easier and easer to produce at our fingertips. I think the thing that will become more scarce, is the thing noboidy can ever take from you.

Your persistance to create and to push the boundaries of what’s possible is always in your hands.

The world absolutely does need what you make.

Whenever it looks like something has already been done 100 times over, you need to show up anyway.

That voice that says “that’s been done better than I could do” doesn’t help you.

That voice that says “the world is too saturated, I may as well try something else” is just throwing you off course.

And some version of this voice has shown up for me across the last 20 years or so of me trying to work out how to be a creative person (which I’m still figuring out, mind you).

It shows up in the creative work itself, just as easily as the marketing work we must do to prove our relevance.

That voice that says “gosh, maybe I do kind of suck at this” is the same voice that also bothers people who proclaim we don’t need more creative work.

Because there’s a voice telling them their creative work sucks. They’ve already decided they’re not going to do it, so they’re annoyed when somebody else goes and does it anyway.

What the inner monologue is really trying to tell us

It’s not all bad; that voice has a purpose. And shutting it down I don’t think helps. Acknowledging it, does. And acknowledging and heeding it’s not-so-wise words are very different things.

Our internal quality checks, the parts of our intelect that determine taste is trying to move us forward. As artists, creators, makers, in developing our skills, craft and practice, of course we are going to be discerning. We are going to find nuance in our understanding of what is good and great work.

It’s hard when you know your work isn’t the best. It’s hard when you know it’s perhaps not getting the recognition that other people seem to be able to get.

But that voice is just egging you on; to keep challenging yourself.

To keep being the best creative you can be.

That part of ourselves that critiques our work should, in theory, help us keep striving to make better work. It should ring alarm bells when we’re cutting corners, when we’re trying to optimise for attention instead of quality. That voice becomes a useful guardrail.

But sometimes it stops us from starting. And when other people who hold some kind of positional authority say it, it can be way more dangerous.

So I’m here today, with the very limited positional authority I have to say this:

F#&% what anyone else thinks, and what the inner monologue might say. The world needs you to create anyway.

Saturation assumes that all work is the same and equal.

Back to the supply and demand of creativity for a moment.

Because yes, there is an oversupply of creative work. Factually, that’s true. There is an insane amount of content uploaded to every distribution platform, every day; more than is consumable by the people on the planet, and of course not everyone is going to be able to make a career from it.

But I’m here to make the case that there is an undersupply of high quality, human made creative work; of new work, with meaning; and that that’s unlikely in my opinion to change.

As the barrier to entry for easy, average, fast-food creativity grows. The time, skill, patience, exploration and long-road required to produce standout creative work will become less palatable for many.

The oversupply of average work is going to continue, if not increase. So more than ever, I think we need to work slower. To put creativity and the creative process first again.

Putting the effort in, the energy in, over a long period of time is actually the whole game. It’s always been the point. And yes some who take shortcuts have won and will continue to win. But overall humanity does not.

We only win when artists are brave and determined and resilient and go forth challenging and bettering themselves over the long-run.

And I think it’s unfair that this question is asked of creatives, when we don’t ask the same question when there’s an oversupply in other industries in the same way.

You rarely hear someone say “the world doesn’t need another investment banker”. But we don’t criticise them in the same way we do creative people.

We don’t stop that person and say “no, we’ve got more than enough of those, how about you don’t do it.”

But for some reason in the creative industries, we say “there are too many creative people, so please everyone stop.”

If I had to choose a future world where everybody was an investment banker or everybody was an artist, I’m choosing the creative world every time.

This was first published as a video essay; you might like to watch it on YouTube →

The people who deserve more support

I think anybody who wants to be an artist should be able to be one. And I think the people who are willing to do the really hard work that it requires, to wrestle with ideas, fight against self doubt, create in obscurity for as long as it takes, and realise that it doesn’t work out in two years and it might not work out in ten but if you keep going maybe in 30 things will pan out; those people deserve more support than they’re getting.

Because it’s really easy to look and say “oh creative people just get to write music every day.” But creative people who are genuinely building real creative skills and making really deep creative work spend an enormous amount of their time and energy and resources on this thing.

And that determination is going to become more valuable.

At the same time, creative people cannot live with expectation that they are somehow owed something by society. Not everybody will produce work that demands a career. And not everybody will build the audience that funds the career. We are not owed anything and feeling sorry for ourselves or expecting parts of our job (like marketing) to magically not be there is mythical at best.

No career on the planet comes without hard work and doing hard things. A creative person who just wants to be creative but complains about how hard the rest of it is; that’s missing the point of being a creative.

The whole point is the ongoing challenge.

Creative people who choose this path and life, knowing full-well the odds of success are stacked against them. We choose this path because we know no other and want no other.

And with that path comes a whole range of very hard things we’re going to have to do. To make our creative work the best it can be and to find the people that can help us to sustain our creativity.

How AI is actually helping every creative

The more I reflect on where the world is heading with AI, there are moments where I think things are going to get worse for creative people. And then I think, no, this might be the moment people needed to realise something important.

If you can just manufacture “art”, then suddenly there’s a massive differentiation. AI generated work is predictive and there are already studies showing it’s significant limitations that will persist even as the models get “smarter” because they homogenise ideas.

People that don’t use AI for creative work, create more ideas, not less. So let others go and AI generate their work, and skip the years, decades even of craft and practice.

But know this is your differentation; the unique combination of perspectives, experiences, trials, challenges and findings is what makes your work unique and original. Your creative practice is your fingerprint and therefore your differentation.

And people are going to want more of this, from real creative people, not less.

And that doesn’t mean you have to be a creative person for 30 years before anybody takes you seriously. I just mean that if you have this drive and desire to be creative for the longer term, for the purpose and pursuit of being creative, knowing that your creativity is more than just making a thing.

You’re actually making a thing that people can interact with and experience a story or connection with. That is a massive advantage. And that is what’s going to help you to stand out in an oversupplied world.

Intention is all we’ll have left soon

It boils down to this word: intention. A word that every creative person has a choice over.

What are you making and why?

What world are you building for others and why?

What experiences are you creating to share your work, and stories and experience with all of us and why?

I think without the right intention, it’s too easy to take shortcuts, ignore our values, and settle. Instead of listening to the voice of pride that says “take the time to make your best work” we too easily succumb to voice of fear that says “your work isn’t worth it, may as well take that shortcut, everyone else is.”

Our intention allows us to either keep building our craft and practice the right way. Or to take the easy way out and say “it was never gonna work out for me anyway.”

Your next step is this: keep exploring

If I was to think of an analogy to describe this, maybe it’s like a video game where you’re at the beginning with an unexplored map surrounding you.

Think Age of Empires esque. The world is there but you can’t see it, and the only way to figure out the objective is to walk around, start to explore, uncover sections of the map.

I think our creative journey is very much like that. You have a sense of “I’ve got to go over here” but you don’t really know how big the map is in each direction. And the only way to uncover parts of it is to chip away over time.

Each time you chip away, you find something else that informs your creativity. And over time, more and more of this revealing of the terrain helps you see the things that don’t matter to you and the things that do.

We meet people on the journey. We get feedback and data. Some of it we listen to, some we don’t. But we have to uncover all of these things ourselves.

The error I see is that too many people uncover a bit of the map, realise it’s difficult, hear a voice from someone else saying there’s already too many podcasts, and then stay in this tiny little bit of their map because it’s safe. They set out just enough but got just enough negative feedback to stop moving. I’ve been this person. And it doesn’t feel good, nor does it help you make better creative work.

The only way to really uncover the map is to make stuff on your terms. To make things that are interesting to you, combine those things, find other people to create with. Even when someone rocks up and says “we don’t need your stuff,” you’ve got to go anyway.

We have to do this because creativity is not a race. A lot of the economic and distribution systems in the creative industries are set up to make you think it is, but they’re not set up that way because it’s true.

The platforms we spend our time on, the ones we think we depend on to get our creative work out there, they are seeking advertising revenue so that their shareholders can make money. So they reward fast-food style creativity with attention. That’s why it feels like a race. Because they are in a race to extract more money from human attention before another platform does first.

So these platforms feel more competitive which in turn incentivises more fast-food creativity. “If you don’t create now, it’s game over.” When you think about it like that, everything just points back to coming back to where you are on your own map (not everybody else’s).

We cannot be afraid of missing out. Of missing that next bandwagon. Or opportunity like it’ll never come back. We cannot simply start injecting AI into our work, like its a performance enhancing drug, just because everyone else must be.

We must stay true to ourselves and our craft. I know for me, every creative project I’ve enjoyed working on the most, or loved consuming or experiencing, it’s always the projects that clearly put creativity first; in its rightful place.

And I have a hunch that this is the secret of all the artists that have these lifelong careers. They keep creating regardless of that voice and regardless of nonsense proclamations.

The world might say it doesn’t need your creativity anymore, but that’s just someone else’s story. The artists that really make a difference keep creating regardless. And we know that the best creative work only appears because people are determined to keep making better work over a long period of time.

So keep making your work.

Keep trying to uncover that map.

Share your work with the world knowing what it’s for and why it’s entering the world, knowing that the big picture is always making better work.

If you’re always doing that, you are slowly but surely contributing to the undersupply of high quality, awesome, creative, independent, made by human work that people need now and are going to need way more in the future, not less.

You may pause when that that inner voice is tempting you to take shortcuts in your creativity. But ignore the noise from outside that’s telling you to stop.

A few questions to sit with:

• When you hear “the world doesn’t need another _____” what does that voice actually sound like? Is it yours, or someone else’s?

• If you stopped measuring your creative work and against others, how would you approach your work differently?

• Where are you on your own map right now, and what’s the next section you want to uncover?

Ready for more?

Read next: Meaning: The one thing AI will always struggle to create.

The essay you just read was initially inspired from another person’s foolish proclamation on LinkedIn; but also intertwines with the last essay I wrote on meaning and how it’s the only thing that AI can never recreate.

Front Row is your backstage pass to our essays, workshops, and online summits on navigating the future of creativity. Built by, for & with independent creatives.

We’re also publishing on: Instagram | YouTube | TikTok | LinkedIn | Threads

I recorded the video below a couple of months ago, reflecting on how people were beginning to talk about “taste” as the antidote to AI.

I don’t mind that word, but I don’t think it fully captured what it means to be creative and to produce creative work.

And the difference in creative work? Is this word instead: meaning

Art = meaning and when we create art and share it with people, we have a chance to build an experience richer than what was possible without our creation and without the people.

AI cannot, in my mind, create true meaning like artists do, because there needs to be something human made and a human interaction for true meaning to exist.

If you’re curious to learn more, read on!

In this article:

• A worst-case scenario thought experiment for the future of creativity

• Why we can all, always find 100 people who care.

• The difference between manufacturing art and creating it

• Why functional creativity is more at risk than meaningful creative work

• What AI is actually good at, and why that should help you, not scare you

The worst-case scenario

Imagine the worst-case scenario for creative people, just for a moment. A dystopian future where technology has taken over. It makes incredibly high-quality creative work, autonomously. Creative people, like everyone else, have been displaced.

Pretty easy to imagine. It’s already happening. But imagine we’re five years in and things got worse, not better. Worst case scenario is good here. Unemployment is high. People have gotten used to AI creativity on mainstream distribution.

In that world, let’s imagine you kept showing up with your hard-won creative skills. You kept writing and publishing. Drawing and photographing and making handmade flip books and filming on 8mm cameras, playing your aged, beaten nylon string guitar. Real creative work. Every day, all the way through this future. You kept sharing stories, sharing art, connecting with people.

You kept showing up. Most days the algorithm didn’t help you out. People ignored you. You showed up anyway.

In this world, where mainstream creative work is generated by AI, do you think you could still get 100 humans into a room to hear you sing that new set of songs on your nylon string guitar and talk about the album you just made?

Could you get 100 people into a room where you’re showcasing your mix of photography and illustrations? Could you get 100 people to watch your 8mm short film and run a live podcast recording?

I think you could.

I think even if you had a tiny audience online and a small group of friends, you could get the word out and 100 people could realistically show up for you. Pay for a ticket. Buy some merch or even some of your work.

Art equals meaning

Why do I believe that? Because art equals meaning.

And this is why no matter what happens, no matter how good AI gets at mimicking humans, you can’t create meaning if you are a fraud (and yes, I do believe AI tools are currently being used to create knock-offs of genuine creative work).

AI is trying to manufacture art. Humans create pieces of art. Manufacturing is the mass creation and distribution of a utility. Art is something with story, depth, feeling, and connection.

AI can manufacture all it wants. While the rest of us create things that mean something to us, and therefore have the chance, if we give it the chance, to create meaning for others.

You can also find this video on our YouTube channel, where we publish all our video essays. Watch on YouTube

But people are already forming bonds with AI?

That is true. And while these might feel meaningful, they are distinctly different than the interaction between artist, their creation and the audience.

Parasocial relationships, where humans develop a connection to people they don’t know, that’s a thing. People are already forming attachments to AI avatars.

Will we see more of this? Sure.

Will there be people in the future who are comfortable consuming AI-generated art? Absolutely.

Our world does not cater for absolutes. AI will not replace human creativity, and human creativity will never eradicate AI either.

People are going to get fooled. They will listen to songs and watch shows that they don’t know are AI. Some people will follow AI-generated avatars with all their fandom, just like they might today.

Parasocial relationships will, I believe, keep growing.

But this is not a replacement of you, the artist or what you make.

I think that’s so often been the fear in a creative person: that I can just be replaced. If I don’t do all the right stuff then another creative person will get the fame and notoriety and the career. We are so used to living in scarcity that we assume something else will win out instead of us.

But that’s why it’s up to us, individually, to ignore that noise. To keep creating. Keep working on our craft. And if people aren’t paying attention, we should find some ways to help them pay attention. I say help them because it’s up to us to create ways they can experience our work.

And I’m sure of this: humans are going to want a lot more active experiences with human-made art and creators. Which means getting out of our comfort zones more often.

This is about the wonders of real human art, and people that care about art. We want to feel like we have a connection to the art. The story it brings us. The emotional spectrum it helps us reach; from elation to deep sorrow, art allows us to feel the full spectrum of human experience.

Art sees us in ways that we sometimes don’t see ourselves.

Functional versus meaningful

We’ve just come through a phase where creativity was increasingly being categorised by function. Major music distributors, for example, began to realise that people might want a set of songs for going to the gym or relaxing at night. But functional creativity I think is more likely to be passively consumed.

Real fans of art don’t want passive. They want active experiences. They want the gigs, the community, to see it and experience it.

I do wonder if functional creativity may find itself being replaced by AI a lot more. The lo-fi genre is in my mind more at risk than, say a folk artist. We’re going to want to see the human skill more. We’re going to want to see the blemishes and adjustments. We’re going to want less perfectly polished and more real.

This is all I’ve ever wanted. The overpolished lip-synced set, no matter how good a visual performance might be on display; if you can’t perform your own art then you’ve lost sight of what art is.

What this means for artists

I have hope for creativity. I think artists off all kinds are going to have to spend more time on their skills. I think more time on the experiences they come up with for fans. Because art itself is a journey to create. And the ways we share it with people are just as important, if not more important, going into the future.

Artists are going to need to be more creative than ever. And braver than ever. No more hiding behind a couple of social media accounts and the algorithm. Artists will need to stand up, stand tall, create experiences, invite people in, show up in the world, perform, work with others.

I’m honestly excited for this because this was the creative industries before the last decade, and I think we lost a lot of that along the way.

A predictive engine designed to mimic humanity cannot do that because humanity is not an equation. That’s why even though I look right now and see some possibilities that honestly scare me, and I’m not easily scared by technology or exploring futurism.

Aspects of AI do scare me. But when I find myself scared about something, I like to pause and consider a worst case scenario. In that future, where humans have been cast aside and the world predominantly consumes AI-generated work, there will always be a place for human creativity.

Because in a world devoid of meaning, which is the entire human experience, I can only imagine that a quiet revolution would brew. The thing that was once in oversupply suddenly becomes the scarcest thing on the planet.

Everybody is going to want art. Everybody is going to be craving human-made creativity.

One last thought on AI

Don’t forget about the stuff it’s actually really good at. Stuff that artists often put off. It’s great at research, crafting a document, building out a strategy to get your art into the world.

As someone who’s been playing in bands my whole life but also built a career on the business side of creativity, artists won’t get replaced. But that skill set of mine might. And I’m OK with that.

Because at the end of the day the only thing I’ve ever cared about is people getting their art into the world. And AI can actually help with the monotonous admin tasks. Just don’t let it touch the creative side. Your thoughts and ideas need to be your own.

I think in the future the job of the artist might just get more important. As more people ask “what’s next?” in every corner of the world, more people will turn to the one place that can give them a sense of being understood.

Human artists, that make human art, create meaning.

And that’s why I still believe in the future of creativity and that there is nothing more important than the human-made art you make.

A few questions to sit with:

• How might this change the way you think about using AI in your creative practice?

• What do you think it means for how you build relationships with your audience?

• If you could only get 100 people in a room for your work in the future, what would you want them to experience?

Ready for more?

Read Next: Creative careers sure don't work like they used to.

If you’d like more where this came from, why not try out Part 1 of our series on the future of creative careers.

Front Row is your backstage pass to our essays, workshops, and online summits on navigating the future of creativity. Built by, for & with independent creatives.

We’re also publishing on: Instagram | YouTube | TikTok | LinkedIn | Threads

→ Part 1: Creative careers sure don’t work like they used to.

→ Part 2: Creativity is valued. Creatives are not.

This one bares little introduction, if you’ve read Part 1 and Part 2 (thank you!) and welcome back.

In this final piece, I lay out a vision for the future. There’s one thing we can all do more of. There’s one thing we can do individually. And there’s 3 areas I think we can all do a better job of up-skilling in (for ourselves, yes, but also to help share knowledge with each other).

If you need a reminder of the power of your creative work, this is it.

And you’ll also find out more about why Futureative exists and what we’re working on to support independent creatives building careers.

In this article:

• The big (but not new) opportunity that’s more important than ever for creative people

• The 3 areas we need clearer insight on, so we can all grow lasting careers.

• A reminder that we need your creativity and how you show up in the world matters.

The #1 opportunity for creatives everywhere

I’m making a bet over the next decade. Well, Futureative is.

Our entire business model is based on this idea.

And this same idea I think is key for every single creative person out there.

For too long, we’ve chased trends and tactics. That missing piece of advice. We’ve bent to the algorithm hoping for a reward. We’ve rushed to the next platform like it’s a gold rush.

Some have won doing this. But most don’t.

Whether we admit it or not, the way creative people are encouraged to build is to go-it-alone, against each other.

And maybe you’ve been part of a program, a cohort, a course, a community that says otherwise. There’s a lot of fantastic stuff out there.

But you still walk away feel like it’s you vs the world.

Some competition is great; healthy even. Without competition we don’t keep pushing for new frontiers.

But creative people don’t win when others miss out; you don’t get a career at the expense of another.

Creative people win when an ecosystem is forming.

That might be an ecosystem of artist and fan. But it also might be bigger than that; where new companies or organisations start to help support more people.

When the market grows, there is more space for more people.

When we support each other, we all win.

The biggest opportunity right now for creative people is to organise.

To come together, learn together, share knowledge, meet, connect, create together.

It’s far from a new idea, but I don’t think we’re doing it well enough.

Industry organisations might have events to bring people together, but they’re more commonly one off.

Festivals are usually for the consumer. Conferences are dictated by major brands and have more seats at the table for people who have made it already than those that haven’t.

The internet gives us more ways than ever to connect. Here is one right now.

And for all of it’s falts, failings, connecting online and coming together is still the single most accessible format for more people to organise.

Futureative is here to make a contribution in this area, but I don’t think we’re the only one for a second.

Back in 2016 when I grew my first creative community to 10k members, we weren’t the only one and we weren’t the biggest. Now of course there are many, many more people, places and resources.

We’re on a mission to feature the best people; not to replace any one initiative but to find ways to provide a stage and a showcase for those doing work that truly helps creatives.

And I think we can do more to bring brands in, to fund things creatives make.

I think we can find more ways to collaborate and connect each other to opportunities or knowledge.

The more that creatives come together, talk about their obstacles, explore solutions, discuss what’s possible and dream together of a future that’s creative, the more we can make headway at solving the biggest problems creatives face.

Maybe this isn’t mind-blowing to you. It’s not really meant to be. The creative industries are kind of built on community, always has been. But I think we all could do with a reminder to seek out more collaborations more often. And if we do this in a more organised why, I don’t see why we can’t get more funds and resources and get them turned into initiatives and real pathways, too.

Much more than collaboration is needed

We’re leaving too much up to chance. When there are challenges or obstacles in the industry, we have for too long relied on cultural organisations or industry associations to work on those problems for us, while we’re busy just doing the work and hoping it all pans out.

This again is not a knock on the incredibly important work that many organisations and associations do. But I think we’re missing a place that can become a way for independent creatives to get their voices heard.

The problems that we’re facing don’t get solved by one company alone. Futureative and what we’re hoping to build is not the answer. But I hope it can become a key meeting place. For too long only those deep into their careers have been heard; we need a place for the independent, for those who are actively building and in the growth stage. Early and mid career creatives and people who support them.

And more than anything, aside from a meeting place and more regular connection, if we can get a strength in numbers I believe we can get more funding for early-stage creatives and creative works. More funding that’s on-demand, fit for purpose and easier to access.

There are more than enough people in Australia, let alone this world, to make a big difference if we can find more ways to work together, support each other, and find those with resources and get them to support us too.

This is why Futureative is being born; a place to bring insight, resources and brilliant minds to help each other make the next leap in their creative career.

But also to discuss and tackle the problems of tomorrow’s world.

In short, we’re here to bring independent creatives and their teams together at our online events. To learn, share, explore, connect and make change.

You can also find this video on our YouTube channel, where we publish all our video essays. Watch on YouTube

It’s been a seriously strange couple of decades.

I’ve been navigating the creative industries for two decades now. And it’s often felt like creative careers have been stuck in this land of “the old world’s gone, but the new world brings promise”.

Well the new world isn’t currently fit for purpose. And while there are opportunities, there’s also significant isolation. And what happens in isolation? Nothing happens. And that’s the problem.

If creative people come together more often, we can start to make change; it’ll take time. Maybe the next two decades, but I believe we can have an impact.

When there’s no seat at the table, we need to make our own table, so to speak.

The question is, do we continue on as we have for another couple of decades building and supporting creative business models that so often put profit ahead of creativity? Or do we come together more often to find ways to upskill together, to get organised, to collaborate, find some common ground so we can campaign for a creative industry that’s built for a new era?

When we’re around other creative people like us, we learn faster. We find direction. We might find that next mentor or grant opportunity we didn’t know about. You see what’s working for others and you have the confidence again to go have another crack. You get feedback on your ideas. You discover pathways you never would have found alone.

And because creative people are becoming more and more cross-disciplinary, our skills and experiences are increasingly valuable to each other. We don’t need more music conferences or film conferences. We need more creative conferences; where creatives from all walks of life can benefit from each other’s hard won skills & insight.

More voices, not less & an ecosystem for all

What we’re building with Futureative is not another thought leadership or education platform run by one person. We’re building a place that can house multiple voices, more curation of knowledge and provide more stages for other people (who know way more than me!) to share what they know.

We won’t be a 24/7 community; I’ve tried that, and it’s not for me. Always on isn’t a great fit for creatives I’ve found. But having some regular times and places to come together will mean we can build what I hope becomes a more intentional community.

This is the beauty of events and I think it’s something that over time we can make work well in an online format and over time see how we can bring in IRL events, too.

And there are three areas that we believe creatives need to discuss and explore.

We need to explore & up-skill in the inner world of creativity; how we create our best work.

We need to strategise and game plan our relational world; how we launch our creative projects to the world.

We need to navigate and understand the outer world; how the trends of tomorrow are shaping the creative industries.

If we can have different experiences focused on the inner, the relational and the external world then we are going to be better equipped to navigate the future individually whilst finding ways to build more initiatives together.

This starts with you

In Part 1, I pointed out how I dislike that the responsibility of building a creative career has somehow fallen on the individual. But change cannot happen if we stand still and wait, so we do need to individually show up.

And I only have one ask. And it’s not to do with Futureative, really.

It’s to do with you.

It’s to do with how you show up in the world.

My one ask is to reflect on how you show up - and what story that tells the world.

When we show up proudly with work we make, when we take our careers seriously, when we educate people on what’s not working, when we generously help our fellow creative, when we publish our work despite the fear of failure and no promise of a result, when we build real community around our work and care for them when we do these things we build something better than what was there before.

My one ask of you is to respect your craft. Respect your fellow creative. Respect your audience. And to boldly show up more often wth things you make no matter what.

Do you have a creative project you’ve been holding back? Ask yourself if it’s time to just put it out into the world. Because we need it more than ever.

The actions you take today are so important, for you and all of us. Please keep moving forward with your creative work, or the work you do to support creative people. If you’re missing some inspiration or direction, go study someone else’s work. Stuff you don’t usually look at. Doesn’t have to be in the same field as yours to bring you value. You’ll find insights you hadn’t seen before.

Start more conversations with peers, other creative people. Talk about what success looks like. Talk about the planning and the money side of it all. These conversations help you work out what’s right for your career, and it’s totally normal to have different paths.

Share your work in progress more. The more we put our work into the world, the more others can become part of a shared story. We need to let people in so we can build people around us.

The opportunity to take that next leap in your career, whether you’re mid-career and navigating the future or early on and still angling for that first breakthrough, it doesn’t matter where you are on your career trajectory.

The opportunity, I think, is for us to come together more, to find ways to collaborate, to build stronger networks, to share and learn from our hard-won knowledge, and to try to create more opportunities for each other.

Don’t wait for Futureative to start; we’ll be here with more soon. And we’d be thrilled to have you part of the community.

But creativity and community start today, they start from you and the work you do today, even if it doesn’t feel like the world cares, it doesn’t matter, every piece of progress you make is important for you but also for other creative people.

I’ve been obsessed with the question “how will creative people build careers in the future?” and I will still stubbornly explore this.

But in many ways I may have been asking the wrong question. Instead of wondering what’s next, the only thing that really matters is standing tall in the present moment and creating and sharing for today and supporting those around us on the journey.

So maybe the real question next is ““how will creative people change the culture today?” and the answer is simple; it starts with you.

A few questions to sit with:

• If you could collaborate with one creative person outside your discipline this year, who would it be and what would you make together?

• What’s one hard-won lesson from your creative career that you’ve never shared publicly?

• What would change if you treated other creatives’ success as evidence that the industry is growing, not that your share is shrinking?

Well that’s a wrap, on whatever this 3 part rant was. May I call it a triptych? I’m going to go with that… I’m so grateful for your time and care reading this.

And I’d be thrilled to hear from you whether we’ve spoken or not and whether we’ll agree or not.

If nothing else I just hope this series gives you a sense of why Futureative exists and the gap we’re here to (attempt to) bridge.

With optimism,

Steve

Join the journey

Futureative is launching a series of online events for people building creative careers and we’d love to have you join us for the ride!

Front Row is your backstage pass to everything we’re publishing on creative work, launching projects, and the trends shaping creative careers.

Built by, for and with independent creatives.

We’re also publishing on: Instagram | YouTube | TikTok | LinkedIn | Threads

→ Part 1: Creative careers sure don’t work like they used to.

→ Part 3: Our common goals, collaboration & what’s next.

If you’re reading this, I expect you’ve come from Part 1. If not, you might like to go back and read that first.

It’s hard to know how a piece like that comes across. One person might see it as a complaint. Another might see it as gospel. I suppose all our experiences are unique to us; the thing I hope came across is that I deeply care about creative people and the world that we’re building to support that.

I don’t for a second think that everybody deserves to be handed a creative career or that everybody is going to get to live that reality.

But I do think it should be easier. After all, creativity is proven to have such wide reaching benefits to society. I think too often creatives are an afterthought, considered not critical.

But I want to challenge that. Creative work is critical and the people behind it are as important to the fabric, health & wealth of society as anyone else.

Without further ado, let’s get into Part 2.

In this article:

• The unfair situation creatives everywhere have found themselves in and why we need to start changing it at a societal level.

• A few numbers on the true impact and value of creativity on society.

• The risk going forward and ideas to start making change.

The world runs on what creatives make.

Think about all the creativity that people are consuming in the world right now. A new film or TV series. A song or an album. A podcast or a book. You get the idea.

But how often does everyone think about the people behind the creative work? How often is the world thinking about you and your livelihood as a creator?

The best parts of our world are fuelled by creative people. We are learning from other creatives. We’re being entertained by creatives. We have endless access to the world’s creativity literally in our palm. And some of that is your creative work that you’ve shared with the world.

Creativity is important. I think we can agree on that.

But are creatives being fairly rewarded for their efforts?

As a society, we seem to be spending more time assuming creative people can’t earn enough and don’t spend enough time thinking about how to change that.

The world is fuelled by creativity. So why is it so hard to make a career in this area? Everybody is constantly looking for that new experience that means something to them. We only get to experience creative work because somebody, against all odds, decided to make a thing for us.

Yet here we are. Still struggling to make names for ourselves as creative people and bring in enough income to sustain what we make.

“Have you had to get a real job yet?”

How many times have you heard something like this? I know I have.

It cuts. It doesn’t matter if it’s from someone you care about or a stranger’s misguided question. It still hurts. We may guard ourselves from it. We tell ourselves “that’s just their story, not mine” but deep down you can’t deny you feel it.

All you can think is this IS a real job, in a real industry, with more value and impact and meaning and importance to society than most people realise.

One could argue, with plenty of significant and respected studies mind you, that the impact of the arts and culture is more wide-reaching than any other industry or career choice.

Yeah, I said it and I mean it.

We might not provide food or water or electricity or save lives. I value the work of everyone out there who makes society worth living and keeps us healthy. But the idea that creative work isn’t essential for society must be changed.

Creative people and those that support creatives, we provide culture and social cohesion and health and wellness outcomes and education outcomes and significant economic impact, usually way above the expectation. And that’s just the stuff we can measure.

How is a happier, healthier, more productive, and more prosperous society not of more value to the world?

Its easy to look and see direct impact from other sectors. And easier to overlook the indirect impact of the arts.

I think it’s because the systems we’ve built over the last century to reward creative people for their contribution to society are broken.

For too long we’ve suggested that creative careers are for the few and the rest of us should work hard on something else.

That is a hangover from an old word and we need to change that perspective because it’s devaluing human craft.

You can also find this video on our YouTube channel, where we publish all our video essays. Watch on YouTube

There are numbers to support this

In Australia, the creative economy provides employment to 714,632 people as of the 2021 census. Not bad! It’s actually a $122 billion industry here in Australia, and growing rapidly. We’re talking about an industry that globally contributes 3%-5% to global GDP and could grow beyond 10% in the next decade.

Again not bad for an industry that is chronically underfunded. The broader creative industries is a strategic advantage for growing and emerging economies.

And think about who it reaches. Is there a day that goes by that everybody doesn’t benefit from some type of creativity?

Without going into the rabbit hole of “everything is creative” just thinking about arts and culture. If you can make it through a day without experiencing art, cutlture and human creativity I’ll be amazed. Genuinely amazed. And that’s just passive consumption.

When we actively engage with arts and and culture, like attending events for example or participating in the arts, our happiness improves, our understanding (and social cohesion) improves, our education outcomes improve and so too does our health.

But we forget about the people behind the creation.

It is getting more expensive, not less, to be an artist.

Creative people take on significant risk. Both financial risk, but also just with their time. Imagine a doctor training all their life without the promise of paid work at the end, but they do it anyway.

It’s hard to imagine because we value the work of a doctor. I’m not here to compare apples to oranges, but I also don’t see why two people making their best contributions to society cannot be regarded as equal.

A society after all is about everybody making their best contriobution.

And this too is backed by numbers, here in Australia, artists on average earn well below minimum wage. That’s often the lucky ones.

It cannot be the fault of the artist, or the people around them; this is a broken system and it starts from the way we value creativity as a skill and creative people who commit to their craft.

This to me says that the way we view creativity, the way we protect it, the way we support it, the way we fund it and the way we teach it, needs to adapt. And rapidly, before the future overtakes us.

This feels like a fork in the road moment

We’re at the beginning of the biggest change our world has seen this century.

Yes, right at the beginning. The internet is a teenager but AI is a newborn, so to speak. We’re on the horizon of a whole range of jobs vanishing. It’s not just creativity that is under threat. Everyone’s asking themselves: what will my contribution be? I get that it’s not just creative people who are asking “well, what now?”

But after a couple of decades researching, teaching, and working across the creative industries, I really think that it’s time to find ways to double-down on creativity; on a whole of society level.

We need to ask serious questions of ourselves. We need to ask serious questions of those around us. We need to ask serious questions of the institutions and governments that supposedly support creativity.

Will we let human creativity be replaced and replicated by the algorithmic predictions of AI? Or will we rise to the challenge and create an economic system that can support innovation and art and connection and culture and health and learning and new economies and all of the things that the creative industries produce?

Will we create a world where actual humans are the champions of creativity, or will we let AI replace the stuff that is most important to us?

It’s a ridiculous thing to be asking in 2026 with all of the knowledge and the resources we have. But I genuinely feel like these questions are going unanswered.

Do we want a future where creative people can make a living and contribute creative work to society?

Do we want a future where creative work is made by humans?

Do we want a future where we have new art, culture & experiences?

Or are we willing to let creativity die out?

Some will argue that creative people will create regardless; I believe that. But over the course of history, we have understood the imperitave for an economic incentive. Copyright laws were created to incentivise people to create. Our world today benefits greatly from works that never would have been created without these laws.

Yet today, our laws remain unfit for a modern world. Not to mention the complexity of the world means we need way more than an update of copyright for creative careers to be viable.

We need creative people to enter the sector, not leave it.

We need managers and producers and people who support and believe in creatives to be able to actually work in the sector, not burn out.

This has to begin from the way we value creativity and more importantly, creative people and the significant contribution they make.

I think there’s always been this disconnect between how much society values creative work and how little it values creative workers. And now, with tech companies pilfering creatives’ hard-won skills and insights and intellectual property, not paying for it, and then feeding it back to people so they can pay for it in the form of software, we need to be really careful about where we’re heading.

To frame this simply I increasingly believe that creativity is valued, but creatives are not.

So what do we do?

I know there are incredible people, organisations, educators, even some politicians working tirelessly at this problem every day. It’s not like nobody is trying. But I still fear that too much of what is being done is either supporting the way that creativity used to exist in the world, or isn’t organised enough to create the opportunities for people to enter and grow in the industry long term.

We are chipping away at the edges of the problem. When this problem would be better addressed with a Super Bowl commercial (I’m not kidding, I have an idea for one, if you know anyone who could help me fund it).

Too much of what we’re doing are small initiatives that support some creatives in some places. But now is a time to think more boldly, to completely reimagine a future where anyone who calls themselves a creative person can choose that future if they want. We have the technology, the tools, and we’re getting closer day by day to potentially having the economic conditions.

Creative people have never really been prioritised. We’ve never been the ones who have held the most money or power or influence. And so it’s been hard to come together and push for change. But right now, it does feel like more people are realising how hard it is; as their livelihoods are in the firing line, everyone is in the same boat and realising how scary it is to stare into a future and have no idea if you can earn any money from your skill.

We need to ask these questions right now because there is a world where creativity stops here; if AI becomes a replacement for human creativity, then true creativity and innovation will end.

That is not to say that AI will not have a place as a tool in the creative process; it absolutely is already and will continue to be for many.

But this is a question of value, what we value; who we value and how we show it.

I for one am tired of the idea that creativity isn’t a real career.

It is. because creatives matter. Creative work matters. And if you call yourself a creative person or you support creative people in their work, your work is vital. To our health, happiness and economic future.

It’s time we valued that for the contribution it truly brings.

A few questions to sit with:

• Have you ever felt devalued by others who don’t get your career or career path? How did that make you feel?

• When you have felt valued by others, how has that changed things for you? What if that was all the time?

• If the creative economy continues to grow like it is, how do you think that economic impact should be reinvested?

• What conversations do you think we all need to have and who with to make societal change?

Thanks again for reading & for reflecting here with me.

I know this is a ridiculously big and maybe unsolvable problem. But it’s too important to not try and make inroads. Creativity, I think, depends on it and I’d love to hear what you think, too.

With optimism,

Steve

Front Row is your backstage pass to everything we’re publishing on creative work, launching projects, and the trends shaping creative careers.

Built by, for and with independent creatives.

We’re also publishing on: Instagram | YouTube | TikTok | LinkedIn | Threads

→ Part 2: Creativity is valued. Creatives are not.

→ Part 3: Our common goals, collaboration & what’s next.

The world runs on what creatives produce. So why is it so hard for creative people everywhere to make a real living?

I’ve been struggling to press publish. I haven’t known if it was prefectionism’s usual attacks. Or if if this article “wasn’t quite there”. Turns out, a bit of both.

Writing is one of the hardest things for me. It’s always been a strength, of sorts, and I think that’s why.

Capturing words that sound different in my head than on ‘paper’ is harder than it looks. Anyone writing here regularly will know.

The hardest part this time is the articles are already written; I’ve already recorded a dozen video essays on topics that are drafted here, ready to publish.

But they missed a little extra magic that the written word requires.

So finally, here we are. I’ve decided to extend the essays. Add a short personal note at the beginning (what you’re reading now).

I’ve decided to let my words fall onto the page here, and to hit publish before I edit too closely. There will be errors.

But to kick things off, you’re at the start of a 3-part series on a topic dear to me.

Well dear is the wrong word; that implies that I love the topic. I don’t; I just can’t get away from it.

I wish, in many respects that I didn’t feel compelled to write about this.

But I do feel compelled because of the state of creativity, and more specifically creative careers and the world we’ve built to support them.

The status quo for most creative people is in my opinion, not ok.

The fact is; it is too ridiculously difficult for most creative people to be creative; for most people to build a creative career.

I say ‘most’ knowing how vague that word is. I can’t quantify most, but it’s the best I have right now. Perhaps I mean “most people I know”.

I’ve met a lot of creative people. A lot of very talented creative people.

Plenty have built impressive careers. I have a hunch that not one of them would describe their journey as easy. I also know too many (I include myself in this) that despite giving things a fair crack have found obstacle after obstacle on the journey.

And I’m not here to ask for ease. I’m here to start planting a flag to say that the way we value creativity isn’t working. In a world that benefits so significantly from the work of creative people everywhere; why is it so hard for people like us to build a respectable career on our terms?

And I don’t think this question is going away anytime soon. It’s turning into a bigger one: “how will creative people build careers in the future?”

Well, I have some ideas, so if you’re curious, let’s begin.

In this article:

• How the world is changing but support for creative careers are not

• A few reasons why things are so difficult today for creative people

• A few ways we can start thinking about making change for creative people everywhere.

In search of the ‘right question to ask’

Over the last few years I seriously contemplated undertaking a PhD. I got as far as developing an initial proposal and reaching out to a potential supervisor. I found the process incredibly daunting; partially because of how hard it is to get a clear answer on what’s involved. But also because of the specificity you need in your topic and question.

You’re reading this because I gave up on that idea, at least for now; I decided to channel my next output into a brand. It’s called Futureative. And it exists to help independent creatives build lasting careers.

Turns out, in giving up on that idea of a PhD, I ended up finding the question that I want to research anyway:

“How will creative people build careers in the future?”

It’s the same question I’ve been asking for going on two-decades. I’ve watched the rise and fall and rise of social media platforms change the way artists and audiences connect. Industry organisations and governments change the way they fund and support creative works. Education evolve. So on and so forth; maybe best that I save unpacking the last 20 years of the creative industries for that PhD.

But this question, well it’s kind of been the central obsession that has driven my creative career to date. It’s the question that has at times brought me an overwhelming sense of optimism and excitement. When I feel like I can see the future, I know what to do next.

But when the future looks hazy, well that’s when fear and dread set in.

If you’re reading this, I’m guessing you’re a creative person too. And I’m guessing you’ve felt that excitement when things are working well and you know what to do next; you see your path, it’s working. And you know the feeling of being completely lost just as well. Or of course whatever your own version of these is!

My point really is that creative careers will always be competitive and difficult; but they don’t need to be this difficult.

I think we likely share a sort of universal aspiration, us creative folk. We just want to build a life around the things we love making, right?

Space to create. A career to sustain it.

This aspiration isn’t that different across disciplines, too. Whether you write music, make films, write books, design, educate, build brands, podcast, act, dance… Whatever combination of creative pursuits drives you, the dream is the same or at least very similar. whether you do one, two or 5 of these things.

You want to wake up and do work that matters to you and have that work sustain a viable, fulfilling life. You want to feel your creativity valued by the world.

In the world that obsesses over productivity and advanced economies that only grow with sufficient human output, one would think that people being able to use their richest talents and make their best contributions should be more highly sort after.

But we’re lost in a world that is shackled to the past, with new technology and infrastructure that hasn’t effectively replaced the old business models.

In today’s world we have more opportunity than ever for people to follow their talents and turn those talents into a career, yet we somehow have more obstacles, less clear pathways, and what feels like less industry and government support.

The goalposts for what you’re meant to do to be a creative person and build a career from it are changing every day.

The pathways and funding are moving from underneath our feet.

The strategies that have helped other artists to become respected, labels to become cultural icons, festivals to become viable, films to be made about local stories and books to be written, so on and so forth... So much of what has helped them to have that success in the past, is not there anymore.

Every minute, of every day, that the world around us changes, businesses and governments change their initiatives. Consumers of creativity and their perceptions and expectations change.

It’s been a constant battle for creatives everywhere to try to work out how to balance their creative calling whilst navigating a commercial reality.

This article originated from a video essay on our YouTube channel. You might like to check out the video version too:

The world is changing, faster than ever.

That’s obvious. What’s less obvious is how poorly the industry itself is adapting to support and nurture creativity.

I’m not here to complain; I understand, or at least I have a good sense why. There is limited incentive everywhere right now for people, organisations and government to truly value creativity and creative people.

And because of the changing world and a limited incentive, we have a hollowing out of support for creative people everywhere.

Add in that what worked for someone even three years ago is now at least partially becoming obsolete. The fundamentals of creative careers and businesses stay pretty consistent over the decades, centuries even. But the tactical approach on how to make a creative career successful today? That’s changing every few months, days even.

And what works for one person might not work for you; so the variability of options in front of all of us means of course huge amounts of talented people are going to do things that ‘don’t work’ in the end.

The world is changing so rapidly that the steps to take and pathways to follow are getting more diverse and less clear day by day.

This isn’t necessarily a bad thing; but I don’t think that our society and institutions that benefit from and have a responsibility, to an extent, to support creative people, are adapting fast enough.

Or at least, it feels like there’s more of an adaptation to “look busy” but don’t actually address the structural problems.

That creative people and those that work with creative people, need more support. Guidance. Programs. Insights. Funding. More Funding. Support. Help. Ecosystems.

This is what I mean when I say pathways.

Most industries have pathways. But the pathways in the creative sector are as varied as creativity itself. No wonder people give up.

We’ve left the old world, where companies would form around creatives; record labels, and festivals and production houses etc. would exist to find, nuture, pay for and develop creative works and therefore creative people.

The challenge of course in that world was that very few would get chosen. Many would get left out.

The new reality is a complete 180; where now anybody can create and distribute as much as the next person, as the companies that benefit from creative work can sort of cherry-pick and profit from what’s already becoming a success.

There’s some advantage in this new world; access is improved. But somewhere a long the way we’ve forgotten to question why it’s ok for creative people to so often work for free? Why do creative people need to figure everything out themselves? Why do we need to fund our own education, our own startups and our own teams completely on our own, from scratch?

All of this is not to say that lots of talented and brilliant people haven’t been doing important work on this problem over the last couple of decades. This isn’t overall a criticism of the entire industry. The fact that I can write and publish this is only possible because of the brilliant people I’ve worked with, learned from and been supported by.

This is merely pointing out the status quo is not improving fast enough and its not targeted enough.

I don’t pose these questions lightly. I’m not entering this conversation without a good reason.

I’ve been working on creative projects and businesses since finishing my undergraduate degree around 2011. Aside from one small slip-up and foolishly taking a full-time job for a month, I’ve been a working independent creative ever since.

I have been lecturing in the field of creative business for some 8 years. I have a Master’s Degree in Business, specialising in Arts & Cultural Management.

I’m not trying to grandstand, just pointing out that my ideas in this series, and my views, they are not from thin air. They are not grievances because I found it too hard.

They are observations from working on creative projects, working with creative people, studying the creative industries, teaching in this area. Consulting for 15+ years. Freelancing. Performing. Starting businesses. Having projects flop. Having some be surprisingly successful and then not be able to sustain it because… Well, burnout is a thing.

I have seen too many incredibly talented creative people give up, change course, bend their work, lower their standards, battle for attention, fight for every $.

But we have to ask, at what cost?

Too many creative people leave the sector; let their creativity be an afterthought or a hobby. And creativity as a hobby is wonderful, perhaps the best one on the planet; but when a creative person chooses it as a hobby because they have no other option, that’s not right.

A creative who wants a career and gets a hobby isn’t left with some noble pursuit, they’re left with shame.

And of course, the timing of today; we’re entering another new world before we fixed the one we’re in; enter the age of AI. A revolution where now anybody can be creative with the swipe of a keyboard or a few simple voice commands. Thanks to some egregious and blatant copyright theft, now anyone can be creative and we won’t need people to be creative anymore, right?

A societal problem, not simply a creative’s problem

This isn’t on the creative person to fix on our own, either. It too often ends up as one individuals problem to solve; every creative is out for themselves, charting their own course, sometimes for better, but often for worse.

It reminds me of the Keep America Beautiful organisation founded in the 1950’s to push the responsibility for waste management from the industry to the individual. "People Start Pollution. People Can Stop It." was the slogan in the 70’s. Does that remind you of something?

A simple way to avoid blame is to divert it elsewhere; and what better way to still profit and benefit from creativity and say “once the artist build the career, then we’ll talk”.

It shouldn’t be entirely on us to navigate this on our own, but look, that’s where we are. That’s the reality. And it will come with some benefits.

With the rate of change right now, being able to move at speed is an absolute advantage. Being able to create and release and create and release; shortening the publishing cycle is a strategic advantage in today’s world.

Where algorithms are changing regularly, new tech and distribution options are emerging constantly, of course new AI models drop and change the game every few months.

That’s a lot to navigate, and it’s hopefully something we do less alone.

I know I just spent a while talking about the stuff that you already know and feel on a daily basis. But I do think it’s important that you know that the problems you’re having with building the career you want are not unique to you. I see you. I’ve lived and felt the struggle. If I’m honest, I still do in many ways. And that’s why I’m writing this, and why Futureative now exists.

Even though I know I can’t fix this on my own, I also can’t just sit idly by and do nothing when I do think there are real tangible solutions to the problems that creatives everywhere face. I’m on a mission to find the best insights from the best creative minds in the world. Real-world creatives living a creative life. People that have real insights into the future of creativity that are relevant in today’s world. That’s at least step one and I’ll share more soon.

I know the world is not short of information and information certainly won’t fix this problem. But I do think better and deeper insight is going to be key for all of us. That, and coming together more. That, and pushing for change in the industry. I have more ideas, I don’t have all the answers, but I know that we have to find more ways to come together, wherever we are in the world and do what we can to make sure that a creative career is viable in the future.

Why this matters now more than ever

So, how will creatives build careers in the future?

I hope you want the answer to this as much as me, because right now we are living through a moment of unimaginable change; and nobody knows what’s at the end of this road.

So what do we do? I think step one is organisation and education. The more voices we have coming together to learn from each other, the more opportunity we create for change in a world that changes this fast.

You cannot rely on a textbook from five years ago, let alone an online course from a year ago, let alone a blog post from a month ago. And as more of us turn to AI for answers, we risk devaluing real-world experiences from other creatives and only learning a regurgitated form of what used to work.

More than knowledge, I think we need insight. And the more human that insight, the better. Insight doesn’t just come from a podcast episode, insight comes from shared experiences. We need more shared learning experiences.

More insights, from more sources, at once. More discussions. And my hope is that can be a starting point to find other opportunities.

Because when people come together with a shared goal, companies and organisations have a way of finally showing up.

No one person has all the answers. Myself included. As the world gets more complex day by day, I think we will need more voices more regularly, and to know who to trust. Which means we need a place to come together.

So, whether you write books, produce events, make film, release albums, or anything creatively adjacent, we will be building some sort of a curriculum for the modern creative, the future creative.

Just not the kind you are more used to; one built for tomorrow’s world that invites all creatives to have a seat at the table.

I want us to look back on what we built together, you and me, and see a tangible shift in how creative careers are supported.

Creativity has been battling a devaluation for a long time. Now with AI proliferation, it’s as close to free as it’s ever been on the supply side. On the demand side, it’s up to all of us to ensure that creativity is valued.

A few questions to sit with:

• How do you think creative careers are changing and what do you think needs to change over the next decade?

• How have you seen industry organisations adapt to our changing world and are they doing what’s best for creative people?

• What could we try to solve together if more creatives came together for shared learning experiences more regularly?

Thanks for reading & for reflecting here with me. I’d love to hear your thoughts and ideas and discuss.

Let’s see what change we can make happen, together.

With optimism,

Steve

Front Row is your backstage pass to everything we’re publishing on creative work, launching projects, and the trends shaping creative careers.

Built by, for and with independent creatives.

We’re also publishing on: Instagram | YouTube | TikTok | LinkedIn | Threads

Welcome to Front Row; the subscriber community of Futureative. I’m Steve, and I started Futureative because I’ve spent the last twenty odd years trying to find answers to this questions: “how will creative people build careers in the future?”

It’s only recently that it occurred to me that this may be a lifelong question. So we’re building a brand, community & initiatives that can help answer this, for my own stubborn curiosity, but also for my fellow creatives.

Futureative is made by, for and with independent creatives, to help find pathways fit for the next decade. We want to uncover new ways of creating work, launching projects that allow more creative people to build a creative career on their terms. Of course whilst navigating the trends of tomorrow’s ever-changing world.

How will we do this? We’re getting started by producing online events that can bring together creatives, practitioners, educators & generally just awesome human beings together, in one place, at one time, to talk about topics critical to creative careers and explore best-practice for building and growing said careers.

And then from those insights we’ll be producing things like reports and guides and articles, maybe even more live events, that we can publish here and start creating a new resources full of the best real-world insights available now.

And the name Front Row? Hopefully that speaks for itself; we want this to feel like the best seats in the house.

If you’re an independent creative person trying to work out what comes next, you’re in the right place.

So, what to read first? Why not start with this…

📚 The Future of Creative Careers (three-part series)

Our first essay-style series is a 3-parter, can we call it a Triptych? Maybe, maybe not, but it took long enough to write! If you want to get a sense of why Futureative exists and what we’re on a mission to try to change in the creative industry, this is the place to start. It’s somewhat of a call to arms for creative people to put what matters most (their creativity) first

• Part 1: Creative careers sure don’t work like they used to. — Slowly but surely creative careers have been getting harder and harder; the ecosystems that used to support creatives are disappearing. This piece explores the start of what we can do about it.

• Part 2: Creativity is valued. Creatives are not. — A $122 billion industry in Australia and a 2-3 trillion dollar economy globally. Yet it is still so incredibly difficult for creative people to be respected, valued and earn the most simple thing; a living. Here’s where our work starts.

• Part 3: Our common goals, collaboration & what’s next. — The biggest opportunity for creatives has to be independent creatives coming together more often; the final piece explores the importance of creatives learning and connecting from each other in real-time and poses a call-to-action to put your creativity first.

Help us support independent creatives everywhere

We’re on a mission to keep as much of what we produce as freely accessible as possible. To help we’re on a mission to build a funding model that combines revenue from our products and events, as well as sponsorship and grants. But a critical part of our independence is going to be from people like you. Reading this.

If you want to support us, consider jumping on board for a paid membership and help us to produce our events and create experiences that help independent creatives everywhere.

We’ll be slowly adding more value to our memberships and aim to make them a massive win for anyone that back us early. If you have the means to support us, a big thank you in advance from this indie creative team ❤️

Subscribe now

Still keen to know more about who we are? Check out our About page.

Thanks for being here and for reading. If you have any ideas on how I can make Front Row (or Futureative) even better, or if you’ve got an idea for how to contribute, reach out anytime.

With gratitude,

Steve

Front Row is your backstage pass to everything we’re publishing on creative work, launching projects, and the trends shaping creative careers.

Built by, for and with independent creatives.

We’re also publishing on: Instagram | YouTube | TikTok | LinkedIn | Threads

I’m sending this out because I now have a bunch of people subscribed to this and I wasn’t expecting that to happen so soon. Thank You! I’m quietly thrilled and blown away and so excited.

But also feel almost underprepared for the response so far! Humbled is a better word.

Substack was not originally part of our launch plan for Futureative, but I can see now it’s the perfect place for us. And I’m so thrilled to be meeting so many amazing creative people here.

I have been so blown away at the sheer variety of creative souls here. The kindness. The support. The cheering each other on. Actually checking out each others work.

This first (or technically second) article is a little hello (from Down Under), a bit about why Front Row & Futureative exist, and 1 idea that I can’t stop thinking about right now.

So without further ado, welcome to Front Row by Futureative. You’ve made the day of two independent creatives in Melbourne (Aus) who are pouring their heart, souls & creativity into a project to support independent creatives everywhere.

What you’ll find as you read along:

• The two big shifts in the world that are converging to make this “creativity’s moment”

• The economic side that creatives have been living with for too long

• Why hard won creative skills are about to become the most valuable thing

• What Front Row is and why we’re building it (alongside everything else)

So much in the world is converging

Creativity is about to finally have its moment. It sounds weird because creative people have been at this for a long time. It’s not like we just recently discovered that everybody really just wants to make things they want to make and spend more time creating. It’s such a fascinating inflection point in the world right now.

Two things are converging. One, we are at the beginning of staring down a path where it could, in the future, be possible for a lot of the things that society needs to be run by machines.

And at the same time, we have enough tools and know-how to potentially create more viable career paths for more creative people.

Over time we were slowly forgetting that the best things in the world are actually things that are just made by another person with care and love. Some of those things are products that we use on a daily basis, sure. But a lot of those things don’t have a utility. They have a different purpose. They help us connect with each other, ourselves and see the world differently.

Of course I’m talking about art, culture and creativity.

There are tons of studies that point to the health, economic, and social benefits of creativity. And in the world we have right now, we need more art and we need more creatives.

But that’s not the only reason I think creativity is going to have its moment.

Always on the front row of the firing line

A bunch of really wealthy, powerful people have decided that the best way to move society forward is to make it really easy to improve productivity by using machines to recreate everything that humans make. So of course creative work, just like it usually is, is on the front row of the firing line.

There have been moments where I’ve been genuinely scared for the future of creativity and creative people because of this moment in history.

But as every day passes, the response I’m seeing from the creative community, from independent creatives especially, is so positive. And also from people who consume & cherish creative work. I think over the last ten years we’ve actually slowly forgotten how to value creativity.

As an artist myself (I was a musician before anything else) I had assumed that as technology allowed for better digital platforms, these platforms would create more opportunities for more creatives everywhere.

And while to an extent that’s been true, most of these platforms have failed their core promise to creative people; that they could build an audience and therefore a livelihood.

I think people’s patience is wearing thin. Because the promise only seems to have made rich people richer, famous people more famous and millions of creative people are still left out in the cold.

No, not the case. The economic reality that musicians and every type of artist has experienced has been brutal. Creative people have been locked out of the industry for a good chunk of time and then the industry opened up and the chance of building something viable was still so hard.

And while it might not be viable for literally everyone to just be a creative person full-time. I don’t understand how in 2026 it’s not feasible for significantly more creative people, with hard won creative skills, can’t call themselves a full-time creative.

That’s not quite right; I do understand, and from where I’m standing, it doesn’t have to be this way.

The only irreplaceable thing

Going forward, if AI keeps getting better at manufacturing creative work (which it will), this will only mean that there is more average work in the world. But no matter how good AI gets, I believe the floor will only raise, but the ceiling will only get so far. (Yes this is a tongue in cheek nod to the lemmings on LinkedIn who love this AI phrase - if you know, you know).

All the while just about every job is in for a wild ride. So there is only one thing that is going to allow people to be irreplaceable in my mind. And that is their creativity.

It is not going to be long before everybody wants to be creative first. Maybe that day has already arrived, I’m not sure. But I think increasingly more people are realising that the most valuable thing they spend their time on is to keep progressing their creative skills.

Creativity at bare minimum can give us a sense of purpose, which is more important in challenging times. And then if we can get good enough at something it may even be a thing we can do more of, maybe even get paid in the process. Maybe it can be our livelihood.

I know that’s the dream of so many here. And count me in, on that dream.

And I want to do whatever I can to help it be less dream-like, because a lot is going to have to change in our communities, our societies, the world over.

For example, if more people are going to want to be creative, and if machines can in theory do more of our work for us, then governments around the world will have to make some serious decisions in the next decade.

Around taxation, social welfare and of course arts & culture, to name a few (small) areas.

There is no reason that in this process of upheval, creative people everywhere can’t be pushing all their chips into the table.

Progressing skills, making work, building fanbases (not just ‘audiences’, but real communities).

And there is no reason that more funding and pathways can’t be on the way. Not if people push for it.

Will this happen - that creatives could finally be valued, funded and supported? No idea.

Is it the right move to go all-in on our creative work? No idea either.

But all I know is in the future, all I want is to be a creative person. And to experience other people’s awesome creative ideas and works myself.

It’s all I’ve ever wanted. To be creative and work on interesting creative projects. And to learn more from other creatives and to experience their work; your work.

It’s why Futureative (maybe selfishly) exists. So I can spend more time creating what I want to make, and more time consuming what you make.

And if in that process we’re able to help one extra person become a full-time creative, it’ll all be worth it.

The dreams may be big, but the bar we’re setting, I hope is an easy home run.

Because creativity cannot in my mind be an afterthought, or replaced.

It’s the whole point. And I’m more excited than ever to find ways to see how we can push the creative industries into a better direction. For many more people.

It’s a bold goal and some would say unachievable. And that’s exactly why we’re going to give it a red hot crack.

Front Row is made by, for & with independent creatives. If you would like to help us help more creative people, consider being one of the first to back us.

Subscribe now

Let’s build a new Front Row

So, what next? The question creative people so often ask themselves.

Well I hope we can build something here. I want to create a stage and a platform for amazing creative people who can share skills, knowledge & reason alongside their taste, curation & perspective. I want to create moments to connect with each other and opportunities to co-create.

Creativity breeds creativity, so I don’t fully know what the future holds at Futureative. And that is on purpose. For now, I do know that we will be producing three online conferences over the next 12-18 months. All focused on the three most pressing areas the creative industries and creative people face.

I have ideas on what comes after, but as with all of the projects I’ve loved the most, the creative work itself shines a light on the path, more than the artist knowing exactly where we are heading.

But we are pretty sure on this: that creativity is about to have its moment; as something we all can aspire to be and something we can all aspire to cherish.

Because if you keep investing in your hard won creative skills, and I mean hard won because likely devote so much of your life to them, you have the opportunity to build something for yourself that makes you irreplaceable.

It’s not a given, and it’s something we could also easily lose. So more than ever, independent creatives need to come together, work together, learn from each other, but also to find solutions together.

I don’t think we can sit idly by and just assume that everything is going to pan out for creatives. I think we need to organise better. And I’m hoping that maybe we can build a little bit of a movement here to help with that.

If we build something here, maybe we can find more ways to properly fund and support creative people; because the only way forward is going to be to better fund the creative industries and grassroots creative talent.

So Front Row is hopefully like a meeting place, a watercooler of sorts, a place to come together a little more often. We are building for those most passionate about creative careers.

But it’s also a reminder to me each day that creative people are on the front row of having their work replaced.

We all have a choice. I think I know what you’ve chosen, and now you know what I’m choosing.

The only question now is how we’ll choose to get to work.

And I’m excited, at the very least, to devote my 3rd decade in the creative industries to this challenge, and to do what I can to support you.

Not unlike the last couple, really. But hopefully a lot more organised.

Let’s see what we can build, together.

At the end of my articles I plan on leaving a question, or 2, or 3, for further reflection. Usually something I’m thinking about myself. So here’s one for today:

A question to sit with:

• If creativity really is about to have its moment, what does that mean for how you’re spending your time right now?

With optimism,

Steve

Front Row is your backstage pass to our essays, workshops, and online summits on navigating the future of creativity. Built by, for & with independent creatives.

We’re also publishing on: Instagram | YouTube | TikTok | LinkedIn | Threads