出版与作家生涯2022cdahmedeh.net
你负担不起做艺术家或作者，更别说获得尊重
You can't afford to be an artist and/or author, let alone be respected
导读
这篇文章从经济角度指出：在当下环境里，想靠纯艺术或写作谋生极其困难，甚至难以获得尊重，因为创作需要大量不被报酬覆盖的时间与精力。对写作者的价值在于：它迫使你诚实面对创作与生计的关系，别把「坚持就能靠创作养活自己」当成理所当然。
可以直接用的写作要点
- 01
把「先解决生计，再谈创作」作为默认前提来规划写作节奏，而不是把自己的生存压力浪漫化成牺牲。
- 02
别让追求认可和完美吞噬创作本身的乐趣；可以像文中画家那样，为自己保留一块没有妥协和KPI的实验空间。
- 03
持续公开发表是积累读者最可靠的方式，哪怕进度很慢；十年积累出一个受众池比一次性爆发更现实。
- 04
写作职业化往往靠副业或稳定收入支撑，主动设计一份「不动用创作脑力」的主业，反而是保护写作的长期策略。
HN 评论精选
商业成功可能侵蚀创作乐趣，保留一块只为自己而做的创作空间更重要。
作者23岁就在艺术上获得商业成功，画作被有钱有成就的人收藏，订单排到几年之后，靠的是对技艺的痴迷和巧妙的口碑营销。但在赶一个昂贵订单的截止日期后，他头痛、流鼻血，休息一个月去山里，才发现成功和对完美的追求让他丢掉了最宝贵的天赋：享受过程。他退掉预付款、道歉、转向平面设计和网页设计来谋生，因为「我不是为你们画画，我是为我自己画」——那里没有妥协、要求和期待。
nbzso查看英文原文
A little life story: I had commercial success in art at the humble age of 23. Not only were my paintings respected and collected by accomplished and wealthy individuals, they formed commissions for years to come. My success was the result of an obsession with craftsmanship and clever word-of-mouth marketing. Suddenly, one day after insisting on meeting the deadline of the expensive commission, I had a headache and my nose was bleeding. Fortunately, it turned out to be a minimal problem as a result of stress. I stopped painting for a month and went to rest in the mountains. There I discovered that, influenced by success and the pursuit of perfection, I had lost the most valuable of my talents. To enjoy the process. I then vowed to no longer let the need for material success and validation come before my need to express myself visually and feel enjoyment of the freedom to change my artistic style or experiment without direction. I returned the prepaid orders, apologized for the disappointment I was causing, and moved on. Not only that, but I realized that I would have to work another job if I wanted to keep the purity of the process for myself. I began in graphic design, moved to web design and started a web solutions company. And when my friends ask me to this day: How could you turn your back on your successful art career? I answer them: I don't paint for you. I paint for myself. It's part of my life. A place where there are no compromises, no demands, no expectations, no projections, no assessments, no tasks, no metrics, no applause and no glory. A place where I am happy.
创作竞争的门槛往往是时间和经济余裕，而非才华本身。
我在乌克兰第聂伯罗做独立民谣音乐人，二十多岁从零学音乐花了多年，但最难的是建立被动收入以获得练习、演出、写歌的时间。很多比我更有才华的同龄人在无聊的正职之间挤不出时间；伍迪·艾伦说成功的80%只是「到场」，可很多有才华的人根本负担不起到场——因为不能少上一个班次就错过开放麦，因为低薪工作耗尽心力就没法排练。我常想有多少好歌因此没被写出来。起步阶段拼的根本不是谁和弦弹得好。
vanadium1st查看英文原文
Outside of my regular job, I am an indie folk music artist, trying to rise in the local music scene here in Dnipro, Ukraine. Even though learning to be a musician from scratch in my 20s was a hard process that took years and years, by far the hardest part of it was trying to establish a passive income, so I could have enough free time for practicing, performing and writing music. A lot of my talented peers are so much better then me in all of the music and performing stuff, but can't find enough time for it between regular boring work. Woody Allen said that 80% of success is just showing up, and it seems true. But now I see how a lot of talented people simply can't afford to show up. They are missing open mics and performing opportunities because they can't skip another shift as a barista, they can't find time for rehearsal because of soul killing the low paying bank job. I keep thinking about all the beautiful songs that are left to be unwritten. I guess the life of artists was always like that - either you are struggling, or you have a source of passive income that carries you through the development years. And I do think that this moment in history is as full of opportunity as it ever was. Still, it was a surprising discovery for me. I really thought that at least at the starting level it would be mostly about who plays their chords better, and it surprisingly isn't.
被倾听是特权而非权利，别把创作者身份当作索取优待的理由。
有些「艺术家」带着优越感，自以为在表达更高的真理，就期待特殊待遇，而普通人默默无闻地辛苦工作、向公司老板出卖灵魂来付账单。并非所有艺术家都如此，据我观察越成功、越有经验的人反而越少这样想，这种态度在还没什么成绩的新手里很常见。我更敬佩在40度高温下铺水泥养家的人、埋头做枯燥表格养活自己的人、在医院加班的人。能自我表达并拥有观众是一种特权，不是别人有义务感到羞愧而给你的东西——到处都有「支持本地艺术家」的标语，却从没人鼓励你「支持本地屋顶工」。
8f2ab37a-ed6c查看英文原文
There's a lot of entitlement from "artists" who sit on a moral high horse and expect special treatment because they're "expressing a higher truth" while the rest of us normies toil in obscurity and sell our souls to corporate overlords to pay the bills. Not all artists are like that, and IME the more successful and experienced ones are the least likely to think that way, but the attitude is quite common with beginners who haven't accomplished much yet. I have more admiration for someone who's laying down cement in 100 degree weather to put a roof over their family's heads, or someone who's putting in the hours massaging mindnumbingly boring spreadsheets to be able to support themselves, or someone putting in overtime at a hospital. The expectation that people must support you and give you preferential treatment because you're expressing yourself never made sense to me. There are lots of other ways in which people make sacrifices, many more commendable. Being able to express yourself and having an audience is a privilege, not something people need to be shamed into giving you. You always see signs exhorting you to "support your local artists", yet you never see encouragement to support your local roofers.
用不同脑力的正职＋业余长期发表＋读者直接支持，是一条可走通的职业化慢路径。
希望想走艺术这条路的人不要被这种悲观论调吓退。我的经验是：成为自雇艺术家是可能的，只是不快也不容易。我的做法是找一份与艺术动用大脑不同部分的全职工作，用有限的业余时间构思、创作、发布，慢慢积累了大约十年的受众，直到足够多的人发现我的作品（他们自己也找到了更有闲钱的工作），自雇才变得可行。我超过四分之三的收入来自打赏、Patreon 这类读者直接支持，收入足以让孩子获得我父母当年给不了我的机会，同时我能自己安排时间、比父亲更多地参与她的日常。我承认买材料、花时间创作、发布、每年几次跑去见读者是一场赌博，也承认自己幸运地赌赢了，但这事没有作者说的那么近乎不可能。
joe_hills查看英文原文
I hope anyone who wants to pursue the arts doesn’t let pessimists like this discourage them from expressing themselves in the ways they love best. I can say from experience that becoming a self-employed artist is possible, but not easy or quick. My path was to find a full-time job that used different parts of my brain from my art. I used my limited free time to brainstorm, create, and publish whatever I could make time for to slowly build an audience for about a decade. Eventually enough folks discovered my work (and found themselves jobs themselves that allowed them more discretionary income) that becoming a self-employed artist became feasible for me. Over three-quarters of my revenue is direct audience support like tips or Patreon. I make enough for my kid to have opportunities my parents couldn’t afford for me—while determining my own schedule and being more available to her day-to-day than my dad could be either. I acknowledge it’s a gamble to buy supplies and spend time to make something, publish it, and travel to meet your audience a few times a year. I admit I’m lucky it paid off for me. But it isn’t as near impossible as the author makes it out to be.
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