Don't stop because you think you are done

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So today whilst round my grandma's house reading The Times whilst she watched the news I read an article that riled me to the very core. It did it really royally pissed me off. The article which I won't link to because I don't want to put such ridiculous opinions on display. I will summarise the article now, it pretty much says creatives should quit while they are ahead listing Woody Allen, JK Rowling and John Le Carre as reasons for this.

So according to the author Melanie Phillips these 3 are all perfect examples of people that should have called it a day after their best works came out. I will not in anyway defend Woody Allen so I have left him out of this but lets look at JK and John shall we.

JK Rowling doesn't care
credit: hypeable

JK Rowling (perfect human that she is) is a apparently a failure now after the Harry Potter series. What a bunch of absolute lies. JK at the moment has a play coming out, a new set of films and a highly successful set of detective novels as well as The Casual Vacancy which just had a BBC adaptation. Now the Galbraith novels were called a failure by Phillips however they all have very good reviews on goodreads (3.8,4.01,4.26) and they have got better.

neither does Colin Firth in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Admittedly I know less about John Le Carre but i'd say new books, nonfiction and fiction as well as executive producing and some acting and a well loved film isn't all bad eh Melanie?

credit: mic.com

Now lets look at some others that didn't quit whilst they were ahead and are still doing incredibly well shall we. Let's head for six shall we.
Julie Andrews, Quentin Tarantino, Michael Arndt, Brad Bird and Wes Anderson.
Let's explain
If Julie andrews had stopped after she won her Oscar for Mary Poppins we would never have had The sound of Music or even the Princess Diaries.
If Quentin Tarantino had stopped after Pulp Fiction we wouldn't have had Inglorious Bar-stewards, Kill Bill or Django Unchained.
If Michael Arndt had stopped after writing Little Miss Sunshine we wouldn't have had the oscar nominated script for Toy Story 3.
If Brad Bird had stopped after The Iron Giant we wouldn't have had Tomorrowland or The Incredibles.
If Wes Anderson had stopped after The Royal Tenenbaums we wouldn't have had the Life Aquatic of Steve Zissou or Moonrise Kingdom or The Grand Budapest Hotel.
And that is only 6 examples.

So basically do what you love and don't stop. No matter how good you think your last work was you can keep going. Doing well doesn't mean you have to stop EVER. Keep writing, keep acting, keep doing what you do. you'll never please some people but that will never change. Do what you guys do best!