You oxymoron

The starving artist can write whatever the fuck they want to. Its true. You dont have anything to abide by. No rules, regulations, grading curves or children to watch out for. The rule of thumb is that you should just write. Whatever it may be. How ever that may be. Just write.

If the artist wants to make a living doing what they love, that all changes. Theres shit you gotta watch out for. Things you gotta be careful of. And my technique on the page is to charge full speed ahead at all the barriers and inhibitions and just knock everything over on my way to the period. Relentless and reckless the hole way there. But the second money becomes involved, the second you gotta watch out for parents and students and other peoples integrity for the sake of a meal and some gas, well- there automatically becomes a very important boundary you can't cross. You can't run at it. You can't bulldoze your way through your art anymore. You have to tie down that little rebellious beast and make sure he doesn't fuck anything up. Your art has become a responsibility.

Today, a writer makes close to 6 thousand dollars a year (thank you, hammy down facts). Thats not shit. Thats enough to live off the paper you write on and some ramen noodles. Fortunately, I have some amazing people in my life who have seen my super natural powers to teach little minds and be good at it. I'm 23. I dont have a degree. I dont have anything more than hundreds of hours of , I guess what you would call, community service mixed in with thousands of hours performing, writing, competing, and work shopping. So to have an opportunity to do what I love doing is pretty damn intense. Not many people have that chance. Its a little overwhelming. But as much as I love writing, I love eating. I love being comfortable and not having watch my bank account like a bathtub.

As paradoxical as it may seem, if you want to make a living being an artist, you have to put on a mask. I never really understood that. I always felt that masks are for pussies who can't be who they are because they're scared and they need tampons. But thats not the case. They just want to have lunch. And I could really go for some subway right now, so looks like

I'll be tightening my lips a little.