Reddit reviews The War of Art: Winning the Inner Creative Battle

Holy shit! 70 bucks for a new hardcover copy of The War of Art? The cover does look pretty bad ass though. http://www.amazon.com/War-Art-Winning-Creative-Battle/dp/1590710037/ref=sr_1_1_title_2_har?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1324806563&sr=1-1

> Struggling with this.

Welcome to the world of being an Artist.

> I make films based upon personal experiences and insights.

That's good. Art is always personal.

> But nobody is understanding my body of work.

OK. That's pretty normal.

> I'm getting random feedback including "it's boring".

OK. Who are you asking feedback from? Are these people:

• Art critics that you respect?
  
• Other artists who do film that you respect?
  
• Art aficionados that you respect?
  
• Museum curators in film that you respect?
  
• Gallerists specializing in film that you respect?
  
  > All I want is to find a community of critics who understand somewhat what I'm doing with my films.
  
  Well, keep making art, for each iteration you grow more and more. Keep publishing on the web and post on Social Media. This is the least that you can do.
  
  > If they are unsure, engage with a dialogue to help them understand.
  
  This is tricky. Some people will agree with you that art needs to be explained, some people disagree and believe that art should speak for itself.
  
  I am not taking sides, but you can write about your art. It can be as simple as an accompanying paper, a catalogue raisonné, or you can document and expand your art by writing or explaining it with a video of you talking about it.
  
  > Just so lonely to keep putting work out there with very personal themes ...
  
  Yes it is
  
  > ... where the audience either ignores it ...
  
  Yup.
  
  > . . . or tells you how stupid it is.
  
  That says a lot about them (trolls) and nothing about your art.
  
  4 final pieces of advice for you:
  
  

1. Don't stop making Art. Ever.
   
2. Read this: https://www.amazon.com/Ignore-Everybody-Other-Keys-Creativity/dp/159184259X/
   
3. Read this: https://www.amazon.com/War-Art-Winning-Creative-Battle/dp/1590710037
   
4. Don't stop making Art. Ever.

Read this book, it will explain what happens to you and how to deal with it: https://www.amazon.com/War-Art-Winning-Creative-Battle/dp/1590710037/

I got a lot of value out of Steven Pressfield's "The War of Art": https://www.amazon.com/War-Art-Winning-Creative-Battle/dp/1590710037/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

In summary: waiting around for artistic inspiration/motivation is a mistake.

Successful and/or prolific artists don't wait to feel motivated, they work every single day no matter what.

I have found that when I'm in a rut, but I force myself to start writing, I can still eek out some decent ideas.

That leads to another good point: "From quantity comes quality".

Not everything you do has to be groundbreaking, and you don't even need to release all of it. But when you sit down every day to create, you're bound to create some good stuff.

Hope that helps.