Isn't funny that societies that historically measured the level of their 'civilisation' based on their artistic appreciation and artistic creation, that in this day and age most all types of artists in the developed world have to hold down day jobs to make ends meet? Only a small fraction actually make any real money. The picture is what my second eldest child and daughter bought me as my present for my 50th birthday. I'm not sure but I may have inspired her choice of present by discussing my writing and other artistic issues at some point.

Writing is a thankless task. I spent the best part of a year penning the articles and blog posts on what was supposed to be the lead up to a new career and now my pet project previously 'Mixed in Different Shades' now 'Mixed Races' and despite PR and marketing spend, I am yet to make even a lousy £10.

The other issue you have as an artist is that there is a danger that people who know you would mistakenly think you or even they, are the subject matter of your work. For example, if one of my daughters, a photographer, started taking nudes – particularly male nudes - what kind of feedback would she, or I for that matter, expect to get from grandmothers, uncles and aunties and others, never mind her partner's relatives? Admittedly sometimes your art is inspired by your reality but it is that 'sensitiveness' of people that make it difficult. Many in this internet age find refuge in anonymity (anonomosity?).

I have been writing for as long as I can remember. Like many software developers (my day job) with tons of half finished programs, I have at least a half finished novel languishing in a cupboard somewhere in Zimbabwe, a few more elsewhere and a completed novel lost somewhere the dark recesses of my hard disk. There are countless short stories and half finished poems in drawers and in computer files on disk, story outlines and hastly scribbled film and stage scripts hide themselves in scanned digital files. I have even had a couple of poems published before and have had a lot of my poetry on the internet for all to read.

On the other hand, I may not be a very good writer and so anything I write just will not translate into anything worthwhile in the end. It is the sense that it may all amount to very little apart from personal pleasure that makes it hard to motivate a person to spend too much time on their art.