You can give your work the same amount of time to get its legs as you would a toddler, right?

is this reluctance—or deliberate ignorance—not an opportunity for those of us who are fascinated by these artistic outliers to set out to create our own?

Here is another famous Hemingway line on writing: “The first draft of anything is shit.”

Put a link in your email signature. How many emails do you send a day? See which social networks allow you to export your followers and send them a note asking them to join. Post online once a week asking your friends/family/coworkers to join your mailing list. Ask one group you are active in to join your newsletter. Create a physical form you can

Developing the right relationships with the right people is the long game.

You must be able to explicitly say who you are building your thing for. You must know what you are aiming for—you’ll miss otherwise.

Who this is for Who this is not for Why it is special What it will do for them Why anyone should care

Hard-won reputations can be undone. Fans, once chewed up and spit out, do not come back. Conversely, the more intimate and personal the connection between creator, work, and fan, the more the relationship can endure.

From sacrifice comes meaning. From struggle comes purpose. If you’re to create something powerful and important, you must at the very least be driven by an equally powerful inner force. If there is anything to romanticize about art, it’s the struggle and the dedication required to get it right—and the motivating force that makes it all possible.