The term "professional" is often used to describe a certain career, athlete, or artist, yet every aspiring artist who has been shut down by writer's block or turned away from their passion by creative battles, like procrastination, are the kinds of people I can say are the true amateurs. More often than not, the factor of the ideals of a professional have almost the utmost support for these creative battles to take place, and the simple ideals and views from each perspective can have an unwavering effect on how the artist exists. If you suffer from artists (writers) block, procrastination or victim-hood in your art, then you know how hard it can be to shake these traits, and why they are so important to destroy in order to continue growth as an artist. But not to the professional.
Somerset Maugham once said, "I only write when inspiration strikes, and luckily it strikes every day at 9 o'clock sharp." He's a pro. He sits down and does his work for eight hours a day because he knows he is successful that way. An amateur, on the other hand, only writes when he feels like it, when he thinks his writing is his peak interest or is at its best. Now, I would like to think of myself as a pro, because I went through the resistance that phases amateurs, and I've moved past it. I sit down and write every day, even when I have just a couple minutes to do so, because I know that setting a tone for writing will inspire me, give me an interesting topic to touch on, or at least make me feel a sense of accomplishment, because procrastination and resistance could not beat me today. Sitting down to do your work sets an inevitable turn of events as accurate as any mathematical equation. When effort is present without inspiration, the inspiration will, sooner or later, take the place of some of that effort, and fluent, natural art will flow like the river Styx in the unconventional mind of creative individuals like the Greek Gods intended it to.
Another major difference is supported in the lone fact that amateurs play the game for fun, while the pro plays for keeps. In amateurs, there is a desire to perform their art because it is what they love, while the professional will play for an even stronger love, and the money it comes with. The word "amateur" actually comes from the Latin root "amare," meaning "to love," and the common interpretation is that the amateur has more love for his craft, because that's all he does it for, but I feel as if the pro loves his craft more, because he opted to take his craft to a new level, so it can mean even more to him than love.
Some are afraid of performing their art just to see in bode poor in the eyes of the public, because failure is seen as a way to downtrodden a piece and its creator, or is seen to give a bad feel of that person's craft. In reality, failure is life in itself; if the sunlight of art is to shine through the clouds of anxiousness and critique and land on the shores and mountains of success, it must also strike the ocean and seas of failure. If you expect to perform your art with great success every time you choose to reveal it to the world, then I have some news for you: You're going to fail, and it's going to destroy you. Unless, of course, you learn one of the greatest lessons a creative writing class can never teach, which is to take the good with the bad, and never stop doing something you love.
In my time writing here at Odyssey, I have experienced great failure in some of my favorite articles, and during the first month of my tenure, I became afraid of being a bad writer. But learning from my poor articles has made some of my writing rich and prosperous, and the biggest factor is that I play for keeps, I write because I have to in order to call myself a writer at all, and at this point in my life as a creative mind, I am a pro.
I would also like to give a shout out to the artist on the cover of this article, Garrid Halsey. He is a professional, aspiring artist while he attends the University of Wyoming. Give his website a look and check out some of his stuff. Thank you!
