ten tips for starting your passion project

Choose something you’re HONESTLY passionate about. Don’t do it because everyone else is into it. Instead, look closely at your life and experiences, and see whether this idea is something that has stuck with you, or is just a passing interest.

If your project is just for you, and you have no want to satisfy others, then congratulations! You can skip this step. But if you’re hoping to make some moula, or eventually quit your day job, you have to find a concept that has some existing demand.

Consider how much time you have to spare, and how much you will need to allocate to your passion project. You want this to be a stress-free and joyful experience, so don’t burden yourself with an unrealistic allocation of time.

What final outcomes you’re looking for? Do you want to create a single work and then move onto the next passion project, or is this a long term masterpiece? You can keep it loose, without setting it in stone, but at least consider the end game.

Look at comparative projects to solidify ideas, and importantly to discover the relative success achieved. Don’t reinvent the wheel, learn from the strategy of others, and then make it your own.

Start out supplying your product or service for free, at least for a while. You want creative freedom and removing any financial transaction will encourage this mindset. It’s also a great way to build your confidence without the pressure of customer expectation. Build up your references and reviews, in exchange for your freebie offering.

Consider which tools you already have in your belt, to enhance your project. If you love to write, consider a blog based platform. A good photographic eye may provide for a powerful Instagram grid. If you’re good at face to camera stuff, start talking about your passion project via youtube immediately! None of the above? Everyone is good at something, dig deep!

australian jazz Founded in 2015 by publisher/editor Miriam Zolin, this site is now the Passion Project of Nikolas Fotakis. It is an online publication dedicated to Australian jazz and improvised music. VISIT "When you write about something you love, it’s not work. You think that it sets you free, but at the same time, you never feel that you do justice to your subject." Nikolas grew up in Athens Greece, and became fixated with 50s musicals that played on one of only two TV channels. There the American Songbook became a major influence on Nik's career and passion.

Matt Frederick is a writer, broadcaster and DJ based in Melbourne, Australia. A life-long lover of the blues, he hosts the weekly program "The Juke Joint" on PBS 106.7fm. Matt's passion for the Blues doesn't stop at the microphone, he has written a book "A Meeting at the Crossroads" which is the story of bluesman Robert Johnson and his purported deal with The Devil at the Crossroads. The book investigates one of the foundational myths of blues and rock ‘n’ roll.VISIT

Follow creators who are working in a similar space. Seek out any suppliers you may need and make contact. Join competitors mailing lists or follow their social media, and contribute to the conversation in a meaningful way. Just like in business, networking around your passion is essential for support and growth.

It’s going to take some experimentation, and you’re not going to get it right the first time, but noting where you went wrong is paramount to avoiding further stuff-ups. Likewise, analyse what is working for you, note it, and do it again! Also consider what aspects of the project you are enjoying, and which you could do without. It will help to keep you on the passion path, instead of it becoming laborious.

If you end up in a place where your passion is bringing in some bacon, don’t get too ahead of yourself. Before quitting your day job, ensure you take the time and care to build a solid business base. Remember that creativity without the chains of monetary transactions was the reason you got into this. You may find it easier to tolerate the daily grind knowing your free time can be spent doing something you truly love.

BY JACK LYNCH

Sylvia Plath was born on October 27th, 1932 in Boston, Massachusetts where she began writing from an early age - her first poem was published at the age of eight in the Boston Herald’s children section. Even in her childhood, it was evident that Sylvia had a passion for writing: entering numerous competitions and achieving high academic results in school.

Despite all her scholarly successes, she was severely affected by the premature loss of her father at age eight, stating in one of her last prose pieces, that the years before his death had “"sealed themselves off like a ship in a bottle—beautiful, inaccessible, obsolete, a fine, white flying myth." Her father’s death and its psychological impacts on her became a theme throughout her poetry works.

Sylvia began her tertiary education at Smith College - an elite, all-girl university that she attended on a full scholarship. During her time at Smith, she won a scholarship to intern at Mademoiselle magazine in New York when she was 19 - the experience was not as glamorous as she thought it would be, and became the basis for her novel “The Bell Jar”.

Sylvia continued her studies in literature at Cambridge University in the UK, under a Fulbright scholarship. This is where she met her future husband Ted Hughes, who would also become a distinguished poet. Their relationship would be fraught with violent passion, but the pairing of their creative minds led them to fuel each other's writing careers.

After her studies, Sylvia moved to the UK to pursue her writing with her husband.

She produced two volumes of poetry, and a novel before she took her own life at the age of thirty in 1963 - her suicide being attributed to her marriage breakdown and ongoing mental health issues.

Plath was one of the first poets in the 20th century to speak openly from a female perspective about mental health struggles and societal expectations. Her first and only novel, “The Bell Jar” was published under a pseudonym in 1963, only a few weeks before she died, and was based on her experience of a suicide attempt and consequential breakdown during her college years.

Whilst the premise of the novel is dark, the narration from the heroine, Esther, is witty and wryly humorous. The Bell Jar is a modern, feminist classic and is important because it has the ability to put the reader into the mind of someone who is mentally ill with humor, insight, and blunt honesty.

Plath’s poetry, especially her last collection, “Ariel”, written only weeks before she died, fuses her personal experience together with expertly crafted prose. Plath was one of the first poets of the 20th Century to pioneer the ‘Confessional’ poetry movement - where poets turned their focus to their own internal psychological experiences. Plath’s poetry stands out against her contemporaries for her ability to use her words like weapons - cutting straight to the heart of the reader with precision and emotional intensity.

For anyone interested to learn about the fascinating life and art of Sylvia Plath, there are numerous biographies and scholarships available to read and I would recommend reading “The Bell Jar” and “Ariel” as an introduction to her work. Sylvia, in spite of all her struggles with mental illness and her untimely death, still managed to produce an astounding amount of work - whose themes are just as relevant today, as they were 50 years ago. Sylvia will continue to hold an important place in the literature world - haunting and inspiring future generations with her unique voice.