Many young artists try their hand at a variety of creative forms. Even those who know their passion early on may still dabble a bit in related domains, often fueled by the need to explore different artforms and endless curiosity. Many artists might use insights or skills learned in one domain throughout their career, even if they ultimately do not keep creating in that area. Some artists whose stories are told in this chapter kept shifting areas into college and young adulthood. Most stayed within the arts, but some found their way to the arts from other areas from sports to science. Other times, artists will work across multiple domains for their whole career.

Some artists specialize in one very narrow type of creative output while others create in a wider range of areas. In this chapter, artists talk about how they view their creative output. Some talk about how they focus their work in one area, others juggle more than one related domain, still others create in two quite divergent domains, and one artist talks about how she juggles artistic and more traditional careers.

Once a creator has decided on a particular type of art to pursue, it typically takes about ten years of practice (or ten thousand hours) to become a true expert. But this isn’t necessarily a straight path. In this chapter, artists share their often circuitous paths to their creative lives.

Returning to my lessons learned as a young writer, I talk about the journey from little-c to Pro-c and, potentially, to Big-C. Different nuances of Pro-c are explored, with a particular emphasis on creative domains. Drawing on the amusement park theory, I analyze which are the key domains or the larger areas that are most important for creativity. Exploring self-assessment measures, I reflect on how we measure creativity across domains in a way that demonstrates an art bias (and, to a degree, a bias in science) on the part of researchers. I then consider what it takes to have your creative efforts continue making an impact even after your death – a mix of your actual contributions, personal traits, level of influence, and simple luck.