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The Steve Laube Agency

Helping to Change the World…Word by Word

The Steve Laube Agency

The Steve Laube Agency

Helping to Change the World Word by Word

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Home » Art

Art

The Gerbil Wheel of the Writing Life

By Steve Laubeon June 30, 2025
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A writer spends hours, months, and even years in isolation practicing their art. But it can feel like the gerbil in the cage running on its wheel. They go forward a few steps and back a few steps. They might even get turned upside down only to fall, often without anyone to notice. While there is length to the journey, it doesn’t always seem to be going anywhere.

Eventually, their craft improves to the point that it can be taken into the marketplace. There, it can become an expression of their very soul. The artist pours everything they have into that event.

And despite the years of work, all the audience cares about is whether or not the performer sticks the dismount. (Anyone watching gymnastics knows what I’m talking about. And now I’m mixing metaphors.)

Seems a bit depressing when expressed like that. But, in some ways, that is the life of the artist … the writer, the painter, the dancer, the musician. You didn’t get into it because you knew you’d be a bazillionaire. You are an artist because it is a part of who you are. And in that, there is beauty. In that, there is meaning. In that, there is praise for our Creator. In that moment, your reader is taken to a place where they have never traveled before. Even if for just a moment. A new thought. A sudden gasp. A new set of goosebumps.

I watched my daughters perform as musicians and dancers for nearly their whole lives. I have seen the hours of practice, the sacrifice, the pain, and the frustration behind the scenes. But I also have been privileged to see the inexpressible joy well from within them as they create beauty.

Therefore, while you may toil away at your keyboard feeling like you are on the gerbil wheel of the writing life, in actuality, after today, you are one step closer to making something great.

 

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Category: Art, Career, The Writing LifeTag: Art, Craft, The Writing Life

Author Nuances

By Dan Balowon October 3, 2017
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Writer and humorist Dave Barry wrote, “The one thing that unites all human beings, regardless of age, gender, religion or ethnic background, is that we all believe we are above-average drivers.” The same applies to artists and writers. Most feel they are pretty good at their craft. But success as an author is a complicated mix of factors. If accuracy, neatness and timeliness were the secret to …

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Category: Craft, Creativity, The Publishing Life, The Writing LifeTag: Art, Nuances, The Writing Life, Writing Craft

Lyrics as Literature

By Steve Laubeon October 17, 2016
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I normally steer away from controversial topics in this blog but the announcement that Bob Dylan, the popular musician, was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature gave me pause. My first thought was “What?” To place Dylan alongside previous Nobel laureates like Solzhenitsyn, Steinbeck, Kipling, Hemingway, Camus, Faulkner, T.S. Eliot, and Churchill? I wondered that if, upon hearing the …

Read moreLyrics as Literature
Category: ArtTag: Art, Nobel Prize, Song Lyrics

There is Power in Possibility

By Steve Laubeon May 9, 2016
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The publishing industry can be a challenge for someone with artistic sensibilities. The psyche can be worn down by disappointment, bad reviews, poor sales, and rejection by agents and editors. To be resilient in the face of such disillusion is a quality to be desired. I found this quote from Søren Kierkegaard (Danish philosopher and theologian 1813-1855) in his book Either/Or: “If I were to wish …

Read moreThere is Power in Possibility
Category: Art, Craft, CreativityTag: Art, Craft, Creativity, Possibility

A Definition of a Successful Artist

By Tamela Hancock Murrayon April 30, 2015
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Recently I witnessed an artist (not a writer) put work out to the public that I believe needed some polish. Some of my close family and I agreed that it shouldn’t have been released without being improved first. However, this artist was being cheered by intimate friends and family. I’m not positive all of these people actually like the art itself. I think many of them just want to …

Read moreA Definition of a Successful Artist
Category: Art, Awards, Craft, CreativityTag: Art, Career, Success

And the Winner is: Words

By Dan Balowon December 9, 2014
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Everyone has a preference as to the type of art and media they consume. Some people like books, others prefer movies, television programs, live theater, music, online content and many simply like a combination of all of the above. Even though our modern society is captivated by “the next big thing” technologically, it is the written word, no matter how it is delivered (printed or on a screen) that …

Read moreAnd the Winner is: Words
Category: Art, CreativityTag: Art, Creativity, Written Word

Three Out of Four Dentists Leaves One

By Dan Balowon October 14, 2014
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I’ve covered this before ( “Art Wins” ), but I am going to take a little different look at the ever-present tension between the science and the art of publishing books. The great rocket scientist Wernher von Braun, one of the pioneers of the U.S. space program said this, “Research is what I’m doing when I don’t know what I’m doing.” Certainly, experienced people in publishing …

Read moreThree Out of Four Dentists Leaves One
Category: Art, Book BusinessTag: Art, Book Business, Book Sales

Orphan Trains & Wild Stallions

By Guest Bloggeron July 28, 2014
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by Allen Arnold I recently read about the unexpected publishing success of Orphan Train.  It’s a novel set in present-day Maine and Depression-era Minnesota. This fifth book from Christina Baker Kline has turned out to be a sleeper hit of the year, with more than one million copies sold. I’m intrigued by the book’s premise. But it’s the subhead of the article that caught my attention.  “Unlikely …

Read moreOrphan Trains & Wild Stallions
Category: Art, Guest Post, The Writing Life, TheologyTag: Art, Craft, The Writing Life

Real vs. Imaginary

By Dan Balowon October 29, 2013
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Simone Weil was being quite profound when she commented:
“Imaginary evil is romantic and varied; real evil is gloomy, monotonous, barren, boring.  Imaginary good is boring; real good is always new, marvelous, intoxicating.”
I can see the truth in those words in just about every book, TV program or movie. Anywhere a story is told, fictional villains or real heroes are the most interesting …

Read moreReal vs. Imaginary
Category: Art, Craft, Creativity, DanTag: Art, Craft, Creativity

Art Wins

By Dan Balowon July 30, 2013
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By Dan Balow

Over 25 years ago, one of my favorite magazines was a “geek” publication called "American Demographics." The magazine doesn't exist any longer, but the various contributors to the magazine continue to comment in other publications.

Almost every day, I think about one of the articles I read in AD from those many years ago. It was a tongue-in-cheek piece on the danger of …

Read moreArt Wins
Category: Art, Book Business, Craft, Creativity, Dan, Get Published, The Publishing Life, Writing CraftTag: Art, publishing

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