Make good art.

Life has been a dog from hell as of late.  ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ Make good art Candid advice from Neil Gaiman on navigating life's bullshit ​ --------------------------------------------------------------- I will likely be moving to London for the summer. Which neighborhood would you recommend I call home? If you're familiar with this magical city, please write me. --------------------------------------------------------------- Life has been a dog from hell as of late. When I was a younger man––this makes me sound like I'm an older man––I'd try and fight the damned thing but these days I know better. Instead, I hole up somewhere good and safe and I let the beast run itself ragged. Once the coast is clear, I reemerge from my hide-out mostly unscathed. More times than not, my foxhole is my office. I have this squatty little space heater in there no bigger than an adolescent gopher. It kind of looks like R2D2 if R2D2 were black, wheelless and possessed a fraction of the functions. It has two settings: lukewarm and scolding. I generally set it on the latter but keep it far enough away from my shins as not to suffer first degree burns. When I need to lick my wounds, I will head to my office, pour myself a cup of coffee, blare some Lana Del Rey and start "blackening pages" as Leonard Cohen would often say. June, all the while, will ball herself into a knot on her doggy bed and, in between naps, climb into my chair and wedge herself in-between me and whatever it is I'm working on. Eventually, R2D2 will warm the room to such a swelter that I'll have to remove a layer or two to continue on with my writing. I can't write cold. I find it impossible. My foxhole and I have an understanding: as long as I'm in my office and the door is closed, nothing can hurt me. I'm like Ichabod Crane in that creepy ass church in Sleepy Hollow. During life's tumultuous stretches, I revisit this excerpt from a speech Neil Gaiman once gave to a bunch of art students... "Life is sometimes hard. Things go wrong, in life and in love and in business and in friendship and in health and in all the other ways that life can go wrong. And when things get tough, this is what you should do. Make good art. I’m serious. Husband runs off with a politician? Make good art. Leg crushed and then eaten by mutated boa constrictor? Make good art. IRS on your trail? Make good art. Cat exploded? Make good art. Somebody on the Internet thinks what you do is stupid or evil or it’s all been done before? Make good art. Probably things will work out somehow, and eventually time will take the sting away, but that doesn’t matter. Do what only you do best. Make good art. Make it on the good days too." What Gaiman is getting at is that sometimes life is a dog from hell and the only way to escape it is by writing or––in his own words––'making good art'. While I've written for all the wrong reasons throughout my career, the older I get the more I realize the only worthwhile reason to write is to get by. These days, I catch myself writing all the time. By [Cole Schafer](=)​ P.S. Validate me on [Instagram](, [Twitter](), [LinkedIn]() or [Threads](=). --------------------------------------------------------------- "It reinforced my sense of..." Steve Jobs on adding to the stream of human consciousness ​ It's believed that leading up to the fruition of Apple, Steve Jobs did LSD dozens of times. In [Walter Isaacson's biography of Steve Jobs](, he quotes the inventor-entrepreneur reflecting on his psychedelic usage and its influence on his life and work... “Taking LSD was a profound experience, one of the most important things in my life. LSD shows you that there’s another side to the coin, and you can’t remember it when it wears off, but you know it. It reinforced my sense of what was important—creating great things instead of making money, putting things back into the stream of history and of human consciousness as much as I could.” If you're interested in dabbling in the world of psychedelics,[Schedule35]() is a trusted psilocybin brand that makes micro-dosing seamless for writers, artists and entrepreneurs looking to enjoy greater control over their creativity. Today, Schedule35 is gifting The Process readers 15% off their first order with code “dreamland” at checkout. [And away we go]() --------------------------------------------------------------- This week on [Dreamland](​ Frosted Mini-Wheats with Comedian-Copywriter, Kevin Rogers ​ Kevin Rogers is a masterful storyteller, celebrated copywriter and the founder of Copy Chief, an online community that has helped thousands of business owners and copywriters generate over $100 million in sales. Over a bowls of Mini-Wheats, Kevin and I talk about Jack Kerouac, the perils of sitting on wet concrete, hijacking the intercom system at a local grocery store to practice stand-up, touring with Chris Rock, making Michael Jordan laugh, raising creative kids and the writing process he uses to write stories that open hearts and wallets. [Tune in]( Now streaming... [[youtube]​]([[spotify]​]([[apple]​]( --------------------------------------------------------------- When cakes grow wings How competency allows for creative freedom ​ I don't bake a lot of cakes. But, cakes aren't something you should "wing". When baking a cake, you find a recipe and then you follow that recipe precisely. However, if you follow enough recipes, you will eventually develop a strong understanding of the fundamentals necessary for baking a good cake. This is called competency. You will become competent in baking cakes. Friends, family and strangers will try the cakes you bake and they will say, "Damn, this is a pretty fucking good cake." It's around here where something extraordinary happens. You will suddenly be awarded the privilege to improvise, to imagine and to create as you please. Nobody awards you this privilege. You just wake up one day and feel called to create your own recipe. Competency allows for creative freedom. There's a reason aspiring artists cover other artists' songs. It's the same reason aspiring painters recreate other painters' works and aspiring novelists rewrite other novelists' books. They're developing competency. They're developing the skills, fundamentals and confidence to improvise, imagine and create original work of their own. [Follow the recipe]( --------------------------------------------------------------- Decisions, decisions The choice isn't easy but it's yours ​ The writers, artists, musicians and entrepreneurs we most admire have the courage to choose: meaning over mass appeal, conviction over reassurance, purpose over popularity, depth over reach, friends over followers and inspiration over influence. [Share this lesson](=) --------------------------------------------------------------- [[twitter]​]()[[instagram]​]([[linkedin]​]() ​ [Update your email preferences]( or unsubscribe [here](​ © 2023 The Process 113 Cherry St #92768, Seattle, WA 98104-2205