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| copyright Julie Ann Duris |
The last few months I have been working on my illustration portfolio and writing story ideas for picture books.
Through out the process I've been doing research on what goes on inside the head of a successful KidLit author and or illustrator by reading blogs, watching interviews, and joining Facebook groups.
All of this research and connecting started out being very useful...I really enjoyed watching the author interviews and such but after a week I started feeling like I was in an information overload.
The KidLit Facebook groups constantly had a new post about somebody or something that pulled me into reading yet another blog post, a new book release youtube video or peruse over another illustration portfolios. Email daily notified me of new info from the handful of sites I had subscribed to.
Procrastination can be sneaky. It can take a good attribute like the desire to learn and subtly turn it into a way to avoid actually doing the work. I had allowed myself to be sucked into the social media vortex. I hadn't made time management boundaries and it was killing my productivity.
"The most important thing about art is to work. Nothing else matters except sitting down every day and trying." - Steven Pressfield, The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks & Win Your Inner Creative Battles.
The other side to this was reading about way too many other authors and illustrators. The immense talent pool displayed in the web-o-sphere was actually making me feel like I might be trying to achieve a livelihood that was out of my league.
Oh, comparison. You thief of joy.
There are a couple of blogs I want to follow. There are still interviews I have waiting to enjoy. But I realize for me to concentrate on my own work I need to quiet down the noise. Less exposure to the big ol' wide web world and more focus on what I want my own creative voice to say.
"If you ask me what I came to do in this world, I, an artist, will answer you: I am here to live out loud." -French author, Emile Zola
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