THE BROTHER (writer)

Thrillers with heart. Romances with spine. NerdGuy free of charge.~PW: ""Tom Clancy fans open to a strong female lead will clamor for more."" Booklist: ""3x Top 10 Romance of the Year."" One review dubbed him as: ""Nora Roberts and Robert Ludlum's book baby.""~USA Today and Amazon #1 Bestseller. He''s piloted and jumped from planes, bicycled solo around the world, and crewed on a tall ship to Antarctica...and he quilts.

THE SISTER (artist)

A noted practitioner and teacher of tintype photography, has worked for decades leading digital archiving projects for such notable institutions as New York Public Library (NYPL) and New York University (NYU). In frequent demand as a conference speaker, it is the photographic process that motivates her to enter the darkroom and explore what is possible. Her choice of true love was an abstract painter who worked for decades behind the scenes in various NYC galleries and institutions, including MOMA. Between them, they continue to nurture many artists, especially themselves.

""

Why do we have the same initials? Our mother had a good sense of humor.""

Managing Your Inner Artist / Writer by M.L. Buchman

Writer, Painter, Photographer, Musician, Designer, Animator, Graphic Artist, Programmer, Screenwriter, Dancer, Environmental Artist, Textile Artist, Composer, Weaver, Sculptor...

For decades, this brother and sister team have studied what works and what doesn't when trying to convince their Inner Artist to cooperate. No matter what your craft, there are common themes to what works and what doesn't.

This is a guide of research and practical tips for working with your Inner Artist / Writer in the crazy everyday world of a hundred demands and a thousand more distractions.

 

REVIEWS

  • "Great book that shows how to get your business side and creative side working together!"

    – Tonya Price

  • "How on combine your practical self's goals with your inner artist's vision with some concrete tips on getting them on the same page to start, finish and celebrate your work."

    – Alexandria Blaelock

  • "Great book on separating your "artist" and "business" efforts when trying to be a creative person."

    – Greg Enslen
 

BOOK PREVIEW

There are dozens, and in some fields hundreds of books, on connecting with the inner artist, setting out on a mythic voyage together, cosmic art through deep meditation, how to apply Scrum Master computer programmer scheduling techniques to rein your inner artist down a tight trail exactly so wide and going exactly in such and such direction, and a kajillion others. If they work for you, GREAT! Between us we've read many, many of these books, occasionally giving them to each other for Christmas and birthdays (we settled on opposite sides of the U.S.A., so its hard to just trade them around). We each use some parts, discard others, often not the same parts.

In almost every book we find what might be called a common flaw, or at least a common element. That is: we need to somehow

control

the inner artist.

Matt is working on a contract book right now with a major publisher for his fifth novel in a series. The reason he is drafting this section on this day is that his inner artist had a great time doing the first two-thirds of the book and then Matt made the mistake of thinking this would get him way ahead of contract especially if the artist would just hurry up on the last third. The artist dug his heels in and here Matt is writing this chapter instead.

So many books talk about fooling "yourself" or convincing "yourself" or buckling down and doing "your work." What we find is that the inner artist is a squirrely and savvy little dude or gal that thinks in their own way.

Hence, we have a suggestion. Start with:

Who is the artist anyway?

There are actually a number of studies in psychology to support the idea below. (And no, we're not going into them here. This isn't that sort of book. If you want to study Psychology, go for it.) So, let's take a simpler approach.

Imagine a creative genius, ideas pouring forth at a mile-a-minute, who hates being told what to do. Anyone who's had a two-year old kid, you know exactly what we're talking about. That's your artist. That's the keeper of story.

And we're convinced that almost all art is story.