Excerpts from Chapter 3

Drive

Where does this nebulous, hard-to-explain, harder-to-define quality come from, and what is it that, well, drives it? I haven't a clue. Is it essential to what you do, and to your eventual success? As essential as your talent. How will you know if you have it? Because of the way it rides you, rarely letting you rest, never letting you forget your calling, or your duties to that calling—even after you've achieved everything you wanted to. Drive is merciless, ceaseless, and, in the worst cases, heedless. I ought to know: I've been guilty of my share of all that.

My own drive is never-ending. I have no choice but to write. If I don't, then I don't feel fully alive. I feel as though I'm skipping out on some obligation that is bigger than I, and that I was put here to carry out. I also begin to feel like my emotions will explode if I don't do the work that releases them. Does this mean I'm greatly talented? Hardly. Does my drive make it any easier to face the blank page each day? It hasn't yet. Does it give me confidence, even when the substance of my work fails to? Almost always.

Do you need to feel that same drive in order to pursue your work? On some level, yes—that is, if you plan to mature as an artist. It can be a mild sort of drive, it can be harsh, it can be virtually insane. But you must feel it in some measure; it's partly where your inspiration comes from. You should also be grateful for it, no matter how high the price you sometimes pay for bearing it, since without that drive, you wouldn't fully be an artist.

What if you feel no drive at all, but simply enjoy working in whatever medium calls to you? Then I've one word to say to you: congratulations. You're free of a terrific burden, which will in turn leave you free to simply take pleasure in whatever it is you do. After all, it's not required that you be a tortured maniac in order to pursue your work. But if you're trying to reach the higher levels of that discipline, being tortured, as well as something of a maniac, can be a pretty handy thing—if you know how to deal with it...

A Guide to Growing, Persevering, and Succeeding in the Art World