So I have finished the Steven King book, On Writing, the one so suggested by my friend and fellow artist.
Although he was talking about specifically writing and how it relates to him, I felt it could be applied to many artistic endeavors.
My takeaways:
-If you love your craft, and you loose yourself in it while doing it for long periods of time, it was meant to be and it won't feel like work. (Hopefully you'll eventually make money at it.) Yep, check!
-Practice does not make perfect, because what would be the fun in that? You'll learn by doing and continue to do so. I really appreciated this comment being a self proclaimed perfectionist and all.
-On bringing out your manuscript for the second revision: "If it looks like an alien relic bought at a junk shop or yard sale where you can hardly remember stopping, you're ready." Maybe I should use this time tested revision process I learned at my old job? Put it away for a bit and upon review, you'll realize what needs fixing.
-"Kill your darlings." A shortened version of Hemingway's famous quote. And do I know this one well. My first exposure to this was within the first month at my previous job where I was at a brainstorm with a certain lovely designer, EE. We were talking about all these ideas - probably for a laundry hamper? - and there were certain designs we could not let go. It turns out these darlings were just something we wanted; they didn't fit our design criteria and definitely were not designed for the person in mind. Oh, how hard it was to let those ideas go....
All in all, a great and quick read. Thanks to CH for the suggestion. And now onto The Alchemist, her other suggestion.