What a ride.

For those new round here, it all started several weeks ago, when the mysterious Cabin Crewmember “Codename Phantom” sent in a lengthy question that sparked a much lengthier reply.

Fear not if you’re new though, this will stand on its own (though you can follow through for more).

And fear not if you’re old, this will have plenty that’s new for you.

Disclaimer: this post contains plenty links where relevant, I haven’t gone and interrupted the flow by marking them all as affiliate links, but they are. Unless they link to my own stuff, of course.

I replicate the infamous question for one last time as we draw our threads together and wrap up:

Well, the first thing we saw, in WWN52 : Starting a creative project on the side, was that Codename Phantom

Done got most things right!

I mean, he went and got a job, which was my first piece of advice for anyone in a similar situation. The truth is that it ain’t sexy, but food on the table is the first thing.

You ain’t moving up Maslow’s hierarchy if you ain’t eating.

And especially for those of us who have families to take care of, if you don’t get the financial foundation filled in then the rest is all daydreams.

So step one is twofold.

Get a steady income that doesn’t consume your life. Honestly, for most? A standard 9-5 job is going to be the best for this. Or something that tires you out physically, but leaves your brain free to function when you collapse in your recliner and start typing in the evenings.

And then start socking aside some cash. Standard financial advice applies. Live on a max of 80% of your income and save the rest. If you’re a double-income household, live on one salary and save the other.

Get three to six months of your required spending put aside in an easy-access cash account for emergencies, then start investing and growing the rest. You can sock it into index funds with a sprinkling of bitcoin, if all you want is to stay abreast of inflation.

Personally?

I’d keep it in index funds or cash until you’ve got $10k, and then I’d set aside two hours a week to trade options using the Low Stress Trading framework.

(And when I say personally, I’m not giving you advice. I’m literally just telling you what I do with my own money except that I build a bit more in index funds because I knew no better back then. The framework there works exactly as advertised on the sales page which you can read at my referral link here. It neatly turns your savings into an additional income stream.)

Step two is bonus credit if you have kids and dependents and that is to get yourself a second income stream in case

…the first one goes up in flames!

Because if people depend on you, you need to step up. And yes, that might mean putting off your dreams a little longer than ideal. I’m not saying you don’t chip away at that novel, but I like having one solid income stream and one scalable backup in case it goes south.

That can be anything from your husband or wife’s income, trading options, writing other people’s newsletters, woodworking, creative pursuits when you’re further on etc.

Or it can be starting an email list (I like Berserkermail, but it ain’t cheap), and learning to sell. One simple way to do that is to use something like Chris Orzy’s plug and play templates. For some of your emails, not all of them. But hey, they’re only $24 from this link and they work.

Regardless of what you choose, the point is not to depend entirely on your main gig because if someone can take it away from you, you’ll never be fully free for your own stuff.

Bonus bonus points if it helps with the eventual creative pursuits by teaching you marketing and writing skills.

Once you’ve filled in that financial foundation, and you’ve done it without being one of those “I bought all Ben Settle’s books and now I teach copywriting just like he does” muppets…

…more on that in WWN53 : Creative Side Projects…

…you’re ready to move on with your creative side projects.

Now, as I clarified last week in WWN57 : Start a creative project today, that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t have been working on those the whole time you were doing all that other stuff. It just means that until you’ve filled in your financial foundation, you weren’t ready to

go all in!

Because your priority was getting set up.

But now you’ve got that sorted, you can start taking steps to grow your creative stuff on the side. And the first step is the simple and straightforward but stupidly difficult:

Write more.

Spend more time on it. Create more.

Truth is that you’ll almost never see a creative breakout until you have several of whatever it is out there.

Write a book, some people will love it. But if your next book is two years later, they probably forgot who you were and never thought about you again

Whereas if you get the next book out sooner, they might remember. And when you’ve got five or ten books out?

Well now every new reader you find (or old reader you recapture) is going to have a decent back catalogue to read through. And if I’ve read five of your books and enjoyed them all?

I’m much more likely to remember you and look out for the next one - however long it takes.

Like every business, the creative life is all about delivering good quality product at a reasonable rate, for a reasonable price.

So ramp up your production.

(I can help with that.)

It’ll make you better, and it’ll give you a better chance of breaking out. Yeah, if like me and my children’s books, you’re publishing traditionally then you’ll have to wait a bit more. But having that back catalogue written will come in handy when you do break out and they come knocking and asking for more…

And as you do, you build a list and mail it as often as you can.

You need to be top of mind at all times!

Or else you’ll be forgotten for the next hot thing.

I’ll not rehash the advice I gave in WWN54 : Two approaches to list-building for creative side projects except to remind you to build your list around the kind of stuff your creative side project’s target audience is interested in and avoid writing for writers, like we talked about in WWN55 : The Biggest Listbuilding Mistake Writers Make.

Remember: if you’re targeting the right people and you’re giving them good stuff then it’s impossible to annoy them by mailing too much, so mail often.

More in WWN56 : Annoying your Audience with Creative Side Projects.

Which really wraps up our wrap up except to say:

Keep going.

Remember, you’re planting oaks, not watercress.

It’ll take time, it always does. Your first book or poem or song is probably not going to blow the bloody doors off. It might be a damp squib.

That’s okay.

Write another.

Get better.

Keep pushing.

Success in a creative field is a mixture of three things.

Skill, luck and marketing!

Writing more will help you with the first two, and to some extent the third. After all, if you write more - you get better. If you write more - you get more chances to get lucky. And if you write more - each project markets the others.

But that’s why you also need to build an audience (I recommend joining Masterclass 24/7, at the time of writing they’re offering free 7-day trials but those end soon).

You need to build an email list (I like Berserkermail and Beehiiv, the latter is probably best for starting).

Because without at least some marketing efforts you’re not getting far.

Beyond all that, the only thing left to do is to start phasing out your other paid projects as your creative work starts to bear the brunt of your bills.

Which brings us to the end of part seven in this trilogy of posts answering Codename Phatnom’s question.

To recap the recap:

1. start your creative project for fun

2. fill your financial foundation before getting serious

3. create as prolifically as you can

4. build a list and learn to sell

5. phase out your other projects as things grow

And if you have a question dear reader, do hit reply and let me know. The more detail the better.

Meanwhile, may your pipe unleash your creativity and your prose help fund it,

James Carran, Craftsman Writer

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