But is art enough?

THE SITUATION:
Scruffy man, 33, incredibly gentle but old people are scared of him. Has quit his job but has quite a long notice period...he has until 31st October. Has a car which is evidently on it's last legs (but plans on touring in it for a living), rents a property that is probably slightly out of his price range - even with a 'proper job' (but who wouldn't want to live in a Victorian cottage in a lovely village next to a church?), keeps forgetting to get a haircut so now it's almost a mullet (but he's pretending it's intentional), has started dating a girl who has just moved to Leeds (but she's only there for a year and they like each other very much). In a successful band and is very much in demand as a musician; can confidently hold his own for an hour onstage as a comedy performer. 7 offers for the novel (which still isn't finished) and with genuine industry interest for his playwriting skills. Has just under five weeks to turn this into a living.

PROGRESS:
It feels like I've sent hundreds and hundreds of emails over the last couple of weeks...actually I have. I feel like I've been spamming people (maybe that's why nobody ever replies) but only with honest questions and show offers that I hope they will find appealing. I'm getting a sense that the arts industry is the same as any other profession; it's purely a numbers game. Tour dates are slowly trickling in - it's harder now that I'm self-employed because I can't just give the show away like I used to (and quite enjoyed doing), I've got bills to pay and a point to prove. My tour dates so far are all for early November which is handy as it looks like I have a bunch of professional lounge shows for the middle/end of that month. There's too many TBC's for my liking, but if I can get those over the finishing line and confirm one or two more things then my first month should just about be okay. I have offers as a drummer too but that feels tricky, because I'm running out of evenings and the big key to being in demand as a musician is often flexibility and availability but we'll see. I'll worry about December as soon as November is booked up, but I have a Christmas show and a panto lined up.

We've finished the filming of our festive movie, Christmas with Emily & Michael, which sees Izzy and I reprising our roles from the little YouTube sitcom only in a format that is suitable for the big screen (and filmed on a better camera) alongside Phoebe and Stephen, both of whom were great. I'm editing it as we speak, in between writing this, because my software is a bit slow. For the other film, Fifty Ways to Leave Your Drummer, well...this one is taking a while, being sacked by 50 different bands will take time, but we've got some more amazing footage recently (including a spectacular on-stage sacking by The Hired Gunns), I still think I'll have everything I need to be in a position to edit this by Christmas. I tried out some new material the other night at CB2 and most of it didn't work, which was a shame, but that's what new material nights are for and I'm certainly not precious of anything I write when it's this new, and I have a new book coming out in November, My Car Doesn't Do Hills. Later in November I'll be trying out two new stage shows, The Unsurprising Death of Oscar Pike and Layby: Loneliness of the Long Distance Drummer - which will probably be my tour show for next year. Fred's House continue to gig everywhere and recording starts this weekend on album number two, I gigged with Claudia McKenzie the other night, I'm back with Flaming June this weekend and last week band sessions begun for the latest Dowsing Sound Collective show. I'm drumming and writing like a madman, and when I finally shake off the day job I'll also get to sleep too. Just need to send another couple hundred emails first...