Following up on my previous post I want to write a few words on being lonely. Doing creative work, be it poetry, novels, paintings or photography, is a lonely road to follow. You can have admirers, you can have girlfriends supporting you and friends accepting that you’re a little strange, but you don’t have anyone that actually understands what the hell you’re doing.

You’re doing the work because you have to – your mind demands it. You have some vague idea about where you’re going and a diffuse image inside your head of the final product. You’re not doing it because you hope to be discovered and get rich. You would do it anyway – just to get the image out of your head and see it in the open. To be completely honest: You’ll never be discovered by anyone. You are the only one responsible for you being accepted by a public audience! And even when you are, you’ll just get more admirers, but you won’t get a single person that truly understands what motivates your work. You’ll still be lonely – but selling copies

Following your heart on the lonely road of creativity requires a great deal of stamina. Why? Because there’s no end. You’ll never reach the point, where you can sit down and say: ”Phew – I made it. Mission accomplished”. Creativity is a monster. It will carry on, eventually raising the bar, and forcing you to either give up or continue the long walk. Alone.

And then you have to trust yourself. Again!