The Artist's Way

This is not merely inaccurate. It is cruel. Accuracy and
compassion serve us far better.
Blocked artists are not lazy. They are blocked.
Being blocked and being lazy are two different things.
The blocked artist typically expends a great deal of energy
—just not visibly. The blocked artist spends energy on self-
hatred, on regret, on grief, and on jealousy. The blocked
artist spends energy on self-doubt.
The blocked artist does not know how to begin with baby
steps. Instead, the blocked artist thinks in terms of great big
scary impossible tasks: a novel, a feature film, a one-person
show, an opera. When these large tasks are not
accomplished, or even begun, the blocked artist calls that
laziness.
Do not call the inability to start laziness. Call it fear.
Fear is the true name for what ails the blocked artist. It
may be fear of failure or fear of success. Most frequently, it
is fear of abandonment. This fear has roots in childhood
reality. Most blocked artists tried to become artists against
either their parents’ good wishes or their parents’ good
judgment. For a youngster this is quite a conflict. To go
squarely against your parents’ values means you’d better
know what you’re doing. You’d better not just be an artist.
You better be a great artist if you’re going to hurt your
parents so much....
Parents do act hurt when children rebel, and declaring
oneself an artist is usually viewed by parents as an act of
rebellion. Unfortunately, the view of an artist’s life as an