/lit/ - Literature

>>20305558
>I would say to people thinking about a career in the creative field, to be aware of that you have to be very critical of your own work. You have to be of a completely divided mind. You have to be your biggest fan and your biggest critic simultaneously because there are too many people who are their own biggest fans and can see absolutely nothing wrong with their work. It's a balancing act which you have to apply to yourself to. To distill it: If you're a creative person, think of the body of work. What do you leave behind? At what point do you change from being at that level, as far as most of your audience in concerned, and peter off or go into completely commercialized aspects of whatever you were doing, just playing off your name? It's very difficult, because you keep yourself in a prison. It's very much like a hermitage. Where does enlightenment come from? The moment you strip everything else away until there's just you, the odds are better that you're going to have it. I think creative people have to realize that is is the essence of it. The urge to companionship, which is a universal human condition, is very bad for creativity because it has to come out of you. It has to be what you feel inside, what it is that you want to say, and how you want it to come out on paper. Even communication with other artists, - although I understand the fraternity idea, the idea of bringing a number of creative people together - most of the time you're avoiding your own creativity. Most of the time you spend discussing art, your creativity, discussing what you want to do or what someone else did inadequately, is time that would be better spent in front of your typewriter
Dave Sim, 1993

I bought this book recently. It's a collection of interviews with Dave Sim, one of the most successful self-published creators of all time, and a man whose belief in creative freedom was so absolute he ultimately alienated himself from polite society.
If you're not looking to be tradpub then you could stand to learn some lessons from Dave Sim, both in what to do and what not to do.
What about you, anons? Who do you look up to? Who inspires you?