Artist Jeffrey Beauchamp recommended an amazing book to me. He said, "read 'Art & Fear,' it has a horrible title, but it has great insights." So true. This small book ropes you in from the start, with the basic understanding that "those who continue to make are those who have learned how to not quit." Make friends with others who make art, and share your progress. They talk about the development of a piece, how the definition creates decreasing possibilities. Materials have limits and it is normal that the piece that is right in its finished state may have earlier been only inches from total collapse. Art is like being in a sentence before you know its ending. These ideas are taken from the first twenty pages, but the little book just keeps pressing ahead demanding that you focus on making things every day. Habits are all. Don't court approval; the audience is not in the position to grant it. Communication is between you and your art. Rituals are important. Making good art requires you to make lots of art.
There's an exhibit of Hokusai at the British Museum I would love to see. Hokusai lived in Japan 1760-1849, and believed that you get better as an artist the longer you live. He changed his name to reflect his outlook. His paintings were much more insightful in the last thirty years. He was struck by lightening when he was 50, he had a stroke when he was 60, he moved 93 times, he was starving but truly a genius. He just kept believing that each year he could make better work and he did.
I recommend the book, but the exhibit runs till the end of the summer and is totally sold out.