There's no substitute for making art. You can kid yourself that reading, writing and thinking are all a vital part of the process but that's just procrastinating self-delusion in play. Writing and thinking is a way of avoiding progress which is a way of avoiding failure. There is no progress in art-making without failure. I once did a series of blog posts on #dailyfail (see here for an example) and well meaning people rushed to console me and assure me I was not a failure. It