Kern Carter's Blog, page 154
March 25, 2020
March 24, 2020
Call for submissions — what’s your self-care routine?
As creatives, regardless of what we may tell ourselves, our work is connected to our being. A part of us exists in everything we create and that requires a lot of energy which needs to be replenished
What are you doing to take care of yourself? How are you recuperating all that expended energy?
For many of us, we’re creating during the off hours of our daily routines, chaotic lives and different jobs that take up most of our day. But we keep creating because this is our calling. It’s what fulfills us and gives us life. But continuing to create without taking time out for yourself is unsustainable.
Send me your self-care stories. Particularly in these uncertain times, what are you doing to make sure you’re staying mentally healthy?
How to submitIf you’re submitting for the first time, reply to this message and let me know you want to be added as a writer for CRY. Once we add you, you’ll be able to submit.If you’re already a writer for CRY, simply submit your self-care story.Please only submit stories related to this topic. We don’t post random stories even if they may fit with our overall vision.Not all submissions will be posted. It’s still at our discretion.We’re excited to read all of your submissions. Thanks in advance for contributing to the CRY community.
Call for submissions — what’s your self-care routine? was originally published in C.R.Y on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
From Teacher To Creative Entrepreneur: Reyna Noriega Shares 4 Tips for Making a Living as an Artist
“There are many ways to make money off of art.”
Photo Credit: Stephan HannaDespite the image that we are sold about artists, passion and talent aren’t the only qualifications for becoming a professional creative.
To truly make a living takes equal parts skill and business mindset. With no clearly defined workdays or a boss telling you what to do, growth, visibility and profitability are three common challenges that artists face. When sales aren’t booming, even the most successful artists question their path.
But for those who channel the same passion they have for creating as they do to define a lucrative business model, the opportunities are endless to get paid for their art.
Reyna Noriega, a Miami-based author, educator, and visual artist, understands the power of building her brand and creating multiple streams of revenue to diversify her profits. With over 20 thousand followers on Instagram to recently hosting her own book tour, “In Bloom Dialogues,” in Atlanta, Los Angeles, New York and D.C., her face and work are becoming increasingly recognizable in the art space.
However, this was not always her reality. Graduating with a BA in psychology from Florida International University, she taught graphic design and visual arts for 4 years in a public high school before deciding to take the leap to entrepreneurship.
Here she shares 4 tips for emerging artists on what she did to give herself permission to embrace her creative path and make money doing what she loves.
Make it a slow pivot.
“The transition from being a full-time teacher to a full-time creative was definitely a slow process with a lot of different events that led up to my confidence building, my process getting stronger, my discipline, my organization and all of that.
I am very grateful for everything that transpired during that time. Before becoming an art teacher I was very nervous about my work. I was very insecure and compared my work a lot. Being a teacher allowed me to create freely without comparison. And it also taught me that I could meet deadlines. I was making t-shirts for the school flyers, managing two clubs, and so much more. It kind of showed me that I was capable of handling a lot of things at once.
So when the feeling started to arise that it was time to pivot my career at the time, I knew that I was capable of freelancing. I didn’t think I was ready to jump into it but I knew that it was something that I could eventually move towards. I was also taking more and more clients on top of teaching. Balancing that and seeing that cash flow was helping me to imagine what it could be like at a larger and consistent scale.”
Don’t focus on the money (at first).
My suggestion for making money off of art is a little unconventional. I say, don’t focus on the money. Focus on building character, building trust, building your skills, your confidence and building your worth.
“Research and pay attention to other freelancers and artists. Figure out what they charge. But, you have to pace yourself. I know we hear so many things, like ‘don’t charge $50 for a logo’ and ‘don’t work for free’ and this and that. I think that once you know your value and you understand the concept of value (value is not always a dollar amount) you can give yourself time to grow and expand.
For example, if I’ve never used Adobe Illustrator to make a vector logo, I can’t charge a client a thousand dollars for a logo and then give them something janky. That is not the value they are asking for. So, just because I have a friend who works at an agency who told me I should charge $1000 for that logo, I don’t think it works that way. So I would say don’t focus on the money, focus on the skill first.”
Photo Credit: Emmy VargasCharge what you’re worth, then add tax.
“Once you have built that skill, reputation and value, then be sure to charge what you are worth at every stage. Factor in your living expenses. Think of it as a career.
Treat yourself like a business if that is the direction you are going in — have contracts, clear consistent communication, set goals, set expectations. Do not take someone’s money and not talk to them for 6 months. Do not charge someone a high value for professional work and then disappear on them or try to put something together in between being focused on school and treating it like a little hobby. You have to be professional and know how to prioritize.
I would also say to figure out what lane you want to fit in. There are many ways to make money off of art: you can go the fine art route, go to commercial art and sell products or you can go the service route and sell your designs for companies.
Figure out what lane you want to fit in and brand yourself that way.”
Find your own swim lane.
“As a creative, my hardest challenge was thinking that my work had to be based on my pain and on experiences that were rooted in trauma. I realized that I could also touch on struggles that I went through, but it didn’t have to be the basis of what I created. There was a time when I felt that people only related to struggle — the heartbreak, the failures, the pain and things like that.
It was very liberating to create on my own terms and to celebrate things that made me happy. I had to find my way to celebrate my own triumphs, my own journey and finding myself as a woman. It was about getting comfortable with that and the joy in that and wanting to celebrate that versus only focusing on negative challenges.
I think that once I did that, and I understood that there was not one method of creativity, one subject matter that matters more than others, I was able to create from a place of authenticity.”
CRY
For more of Reyna, follow her on Instagram or visit her website.
From Teacher To Creative Entrepreneur: Reyna Noriega Shares 4 Tips for Making a Living as an Artist was originally published in C.R.Y on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
March 23, 2020
March 20, 2020
Authors are publishing exclusively through Audible
This is new information even for me. Audible offers authors publishing contracts for their books to become exclusive parts of its platform. When I say exclusive, I mean an author who publishes through Audible can not publish their book on any print platform for nine months. That means their work will be available only through Audible for that period.
This is interesting, exciting, and I’m curious to see how it plays out. The fact that authors are willing to release their work exclusively on audio may sound limiting, but it speaks to the reality that audio has become a significant part of readers' preferences (1 in 5 Americans listen to audiobooks).
I also think that the behaviour of the general public is moving towards audio. You only need to look at the popularity of podcasts to see the emergence of that trend.
But tell me what you think. Can you envision a publishing industry that is primarily audio?
CRY
MORE FROM CRYHave you read my novella Thoughts of a Fractured Soul? If you haven’t, here’s a short description:
Corey is reflecting on his life as a teenager who has just had his first child. He relives his story through a series of fragmented memories, pieces of sporadic thought capturing moments of his life as he tries to care for his family. But Corey is failing, and as he continues to struggle he realizes how easily the world can fracture his ambitions and force him to settle for a life of mediocrity. Thoughts of a Fractured Soul pushes the reader to piece together these fragments themselves, and decide on what part of Corey’s conflicting tale can be trusted.
Get a copy today.
Authors are publishing exclusively through Audible was originally published in C.R.Y on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
March 19, 2020
March 17, 2020
What Keeps You Motivated? — Writer, Tara Wine-Queen
Why this writer finally gave herself permission to write.
Tara Wine-Queen, Author of Tenderness and Troubling Times: A Collection of StoriesTara Wine-Queen is a wife, a mother and an author based in a small town in the heart of West Virginia.
CRY: Why writing? What is the driving force that drew you to expressing yourself through writing?
I think that I was brought up to be a storyteller. My dad is like this. He can’t get in front of anyone without wanting to share, build or relay something that has happened. I just witnessed that so much growing up, and it became a part of who I was.
Actually for a long time, I thought that I should put writing away because I got pregnant very young and very unexpectedly. So I decided to settle down and teach. I didn’t write for a very long time until my mom got cancer, maybe two years ago. It led me to kind of examine my life and I said “my husband is exactly who I love, I do like my job and my friends, I love my family. What haven’t I pursued?” It had always been writing.
Once I gave myself permission to do that again, it was like a faucet had turned on and I just can’t stop now. Which feels really good!
CRY: When did you start?
When I was little, we had these old box computers that had the black screens. My parents are both teachers, and the school gave my mom one that was discarded. They let me keep it in the basement and I wrote my first book on there when I was eight years old. I wrote all through high school and through college.
It was something that I wanted to do but it seemed like something that you were supposed to put away when you were an adult. You weren’t supposed to pursue that kind of thing. You need to think of your family. And I did. I needed to be practical at that point but then when practicalities fulfilled its purpose, you have to go with what fuels you and actually makes you feel alive.
CRY: Do you find writing cathartic? How does it serve you emotionally?
Sometimes it’s exploring how I’ve experienced different things or how I’ve seen other people experience it. How I want to enter into that world emotionally. Other times it seems as if I wake up with a burning idea and I just have to get it out. Those situations don’t feel cathartic necessarily, they feel intensely necessary to get that out. At least initially.
What I do find really cathartic, probably because I am an English Teacher, is going back through it. Now that I’ve got that initial mental “vomit” or whatever out, I can go through and actually examine it to see what I was trying to do. See what I want to do, if I accomplished that and how I can be better. That’s what is cathartic to me, being able to perfect it.
CRY: What is your advice to other writers on how to create through emotions or obstacles?
In a lot of ways, it’s the obstacles that fuel the best creations. I feel like the times when things are the most stressful, difficult or emotional in life, those are the things that I want to explore in my writing. Those are the richest experiences as a reader you can have.
I would say, as awful as those things seem at the time, try and make note of the particular moments that you have in those experiences where you feel like this is significant or other people would benefit from knowing that this isn’t a singular experience, but rather it’s a shared experience.
CRY: What does success look like for you as a writer?
I don’t know if I will ever be satisfied, but I think that that’s part of it.
When I started, it wasn’t this past New Year’s but the one before that, I was like I’m going to give myself permission as an adult to start to write and get published. All that I wanted in the world was for two publications to publish my work — that was more than one so it should be good. If two people would pick up my stories and say that’s good, I wanted that. That would be validation for me. That was my goal for 2019.
I got that really quickly in 2019. I submitted things on New Year’s day and I had two pieces accepted by March. So then I was like, “Okay, I’ve got to really step up my goals. What am I going to do this time now?”
I guess success will be for me to keep creating and making things that I am proud of. At least in the moment when I am not looking back at them thinking of all the things I could have done better. Just keep creating and putting things out there.
CRY
About TaraTara Wine-Queen loves people and stories that make her cry.
She is positively obsessed with her husband and children, who have yet to suffer too terribly under the force of her love. (Give it time.) She loves reading, writing, prestige television, music festivals, and carbs.
She works passionately in her rural community for the representation of all people and desires to make people feel things like gratitude, hope, and unity through shared experiences. She has been published in The Write Launch, Foliate Oak, Maudlin House, Literally Stories, and Fiction on the Web, and has more work forthcoming in Flash Fiction Magazine. She has one collection of stories and one novelette available on Amazon.
You can find her on Instagram at @tarawinequeenwrites and on her website, http://www.tarawinequeen.com.
What Keeps You Motivated? — Writer, Tara Wine-Queen was originally published in C.R.Y on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
March 16, 2020
Finding ways to stay creative during covid
I don’t know about you, but all the news, opinions, instructions and all the other noise out there is wearing on me. And as a writer, I’m finding it pretty hard to focus.
Creatives are so much more sensitive to the spirit of the world and right now that spirit is being tested. So what can we do to maintain our sanity and our creativity? I have a few suggestions that are working for me, plus some others I’ve gotten from my nutritionist friend Nsuani Baffoe.
Not binging — That means both on food and TV. With all the lockdowns and cancellations of events, it’s easy to sit and home and eat poorly while watching four straight seasons of Friends. But you need to keep your body and your mind healthy. That means smaller meal sizes and drinking lots of water as well as keeping your mind active. Play board games, have conversations with those around you or get on the phone and enjoy video calls. Going outside — I know we’re not supposed to gather in groups, but that doesn’t mean you can’t get outside for some air. Take a walk around your neighbourhood, go for a jog or just sit on your patio or balcony. Staying connected with the energy of nature is more important than ever for your creativity. Write, write, write — or create according to your artistic discipline. There’s nowhere for you to go at the moment so you should have a bit more time on your hands. Use it to write or create at a pace that wasn’t possible before the Corona virus.Physical and mental health are more connected than we like to think. Let’s all control what we can, which is our reaction to this unprecedented world event. And if you do feel yourself diving deeper into an uncomfortable state, speak to a professional.
CRY
MORE FROM CRYHave you read my novella Thoughts of a Fractured Soul? If you haven’t, here’s a short description:
Corey is reflecting on his life as a teenager who has just had his first child. He relives his story through a series of fragmented memories, pieces of sporadic thought capturing moments of his life as he tries to care for his family. But Corey is failing, and as he continues to struggle he realizes how easily the world can fracture his ambitions and force him to settle for a life of mediocrity. Thoughts of a Fractured Soul pushes the reader to piece together these fragments themselves, and decide on what part of Corey’s conflicting tale can be trusted.
Get a copy today.
Finding ways to stay creative during covid was originally published in C.R.Y on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
