10 Ways to Share Your Creativity and Get Discovered
by Austin Kleon
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Table of Contents
- A New Way of Operating
- 1. You Don't Have to be a Genius
- 2. Think Process, Not Product
- 3. Share Something Small Every Day
- 4. Open Up Your Cabinet of Curiosities
- 5. Tell Good Stories
- 6. Teach What You Know
- 7. Don't Turn into Human Spam
- 8. Learn to Take a Punch
- 9. Sell Out
- 10. Stick Around
- Afterword
"Creativity is not a talent. It is a way of operating."
— John Cleese
- artists hate self-promotion -- focus on getting really good & let your audience find you
- but make your work discoverable while you're working on getting really good
- consistently share tiny pieces of what you're working on, your ideas, and what you're learning -- gain an audience now to use later
- this book is the alternative to self-promotion for people who hate it
- Steal Like An Artist was about stealing influence from others; this is about influencing others by letting them steal from you
- imagine spending the majority of your time, attention, and energy practicing your personal interests 💭
- the lone creative genius is a myth—more common is a group of tastemakers in a scene supporting each other: looking, copying, stealing, contributing
- you don't need smarts / talent, as much as just to be contributing to a scene: share ideas & make quality connections
- scenius: "where people go to hang out and talk about the things they care about"
- everyone can contribute something, even if you're not a master yet (side thought: is anyone ever really a master of anything?)
- amateur: enthusiast who pursues their work for love; they experiment & follow their whims
"In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert's there are few."
- the gap between mediocre ↔ good is smaller than contributing nothing ↔ something
- retain the amateur's spirit & embrace the uncertainty
- amateurs "use whatever tools they can get their hands on to try to get their ideas into the world"
- commit to learning what you want to learn in front of others
- What voids can you fill? What are people in your scenius not sharing?
- find your voice by using it—talk about the things you love
- Roger Ebert lost his ability to speak, and turned to blogging & social media to write at an aggressive pace
- "If your work isn't online, it doesn't exist.... If you want people to know about what you do and the things you care about, you have to share."
"Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything—all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure—these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked."
— Steve Jobs
- the author reads obituaries every morning to vicariously live near-death experiences—reading what people did is motivation to do something in his own life
- process vs. product
- David Bayles and Ted Orland in Art and Fear: keep the messy process personal because people care about finished work
- you can bond with your audience by sharing your work-in-progress, day-to-day process, influence, inspirations, tools
- with openness comes potential vulnerability
- put things out there consistently so your audience can connect and be a part of your creative process
- my public reading log is a start, but I need to make it more accessible
- astronaut Chris Hadfield wanted people to connect with an astronaut's day-to-day life
- he tweeted and YouTubed his normal daily activities, but in space
- there's an art to every work and if you present it "the right way", people will be interested
- you can still share process, even if your work is not easily shared, intangible, etc.
- turn the scrap & residue of your process into something for people to see
- keep a work log notebook, scrapbook; take photos, videos, etc. during your process
- documenting & recording your process makes you realize your progress (and gives you material when you're ready to show)
- building a substantial body of work takes a lifetime -- just start by focusing on days
- "The day has a rhythm."
- once a day, share a little piece of your process, for example:
- early stage - influences
- mid-process - methods
- at launch - scraps or lessons learned
- post-launch - how your real products are being used
- a resume / portfolio is cool, but a daily dispatch shows what you're working on right now
- form doesn't matter: tweet, blog post, photo, video, ... try the new platforms too
- "Don't show your lunch or your latte; show your work."
- don't worry about perfect -- see how others react
- we're all busy -- find time
- he works while the world is sleeping & shares while they work (that could work for my ideal lifestyle too)
- if balancing sharing vs. doing work is hard, set a timer
- not a diary -- you're curating every word
- don't put it online if you're not ready for the whole world to see it
- it's great to be open by sharing imperfect & unfinished work, but don't over-share
- "So what?" You're sharing to be helpful to or entertain others
- should I share it?: is it useful or interesting?
- yes - share
- no - toss
- not sure - save for later
- "Flow is the feed. It's the posts and the tweets. It's the stream of daily and sub-daily updates that remind people you exist. Stock is the durable stuff. It's the content you produce that's as interesting in two months (or two years) as it is today. It's what people discover via search. It's what spreads slowly but surely, building fans over time."
- social media sites are like public notebooks -- you have to revisit them to see the themes & trends
- once you see the patterns, you can turn bits & pieces into more substance: flow into stock
- ex. ideas in this book: tweets → blog posts → book chapters
- social networks come & go, but no one can take your own space away from you
- "a blog is the ideal machine for turning flow into stock"
- thought: possibly use Jekyll on GitHub Pages (though I wouldn't be able to post on mobile)
- his blog has been his gallery, sketchbook, storefront, and led to "everything good that has happened in [his] career"
- your website is for self-invention: become the person you want to be, fill it in with your ideas and what you care about
- let it grow & evolve with you over time -- don't abandon it for a shiny, new social network
- a well built domain becomes its own currency
- wunderkammern: "wonder chamber", a room full of remarkable objects showcasing your thirst for knowledge—by including books, jewels, art, skeletons, exotic artifacts, ... they juxtaposed history, nature, and the arts; common 16th- and 17th-century Europe
- the places we've been and experiences we've accumulated are our mental scrapbooks → form our tastes → influence our work
- collection ↔ creation is a spectrum—you're drawing people's attention to the things that you like
"All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste."
— Ira Glass
- your early work will have potential, but won't be that good yet—you can still share your taste
- Where do you get your inspiration? What do you collect? Who's done work that you admire? Who do you steal ideas from? Do you have any heroes?
- share your influences to clue people in to your own work & who you are
- 20 years ago an NYC garbageman started collecting art, paintings, photographs, toys, etc. that others discarded
- artists should dumpster dive through other's "trash" & our culture to find inspiration in the things people ignore & the places they don't / won't visit
- the depth & breadth of our influence and ways in which we mix parts of subcultures makes us unique
- share the things you enjoy open & honestly; don't edit too much
- credit your sources & influences so your people can dig deeper
- attribution is context: Who made it, when, and why? Why are you sharing it? Why should the reader care? Where can I find more?
- leave breadcrumb trails to how you found the source: via, h/t
- two seemingly identical canvases in an art gallery -- without tags which is by the master & which is forgery?
- how much people like / value something is influenced by what you tell them about it
- Significant Objects - authors bought insignificant objects and hired writers to "attribute significance" to each -- sold ~$100 of trinkets for 30x return (but does it scale lol?)
- → work does not speak for itself -- stories affect how people perceive and what they believe, what they understand, and how they value it
- personal stories make the complex tangible & give people an opportunity to connect → to effectively share yourself & your work, become a better storyteller
- Dan Harmon's Story Circle is a plot framework, kind like a trope (I guess I'd consider those plot libraries or mixins really)
- life is messy & uncertain → crop & edit it into a well structured story
- formula of creative work: (1) get a great idea, (2) execute, (3) release → win/lose/draw
- but what if we're in the middle of our story? pitch.
- a pitch is really just a story with the end chopped off; it has 3 acts:
- past - what you want, where you've been
- present - where you are now
- future - where you're going, how the person you're pitching can help you get there
- speak briefly & directly to your audience in plain language
"You got to make your case"
— Kanye West
- "So what do you do?" is an opportunity to connect by honestly & humbly explaining your work
- nonfiction, dignity, truth, self-respect
"Autobiography is only to be trusted when it reveals something disgraceful."
— George Orwell
- your bio should be short & sweet, not complex -- facts, not adjectives
- a legendary Austin BBQer shared his whole setup & process in a crowdfunded YouTube series
- barbecue technique is simple, but developing the intuition takes years (and repetition)
- teaching != competition
- from Rework, Out-teach your competition:
- What are your recipes?
- ... your cookbook?
- ... your cooking show?
- create & share tutorials
- → learn → teach →
- to be a writer, you first have to pay your dues as a reader (sometimes)
- sharing: hoarder ← contributor → spammer
- forward-thinking artists are looking for collaborators, not passive consumers -- good art is incomplete without feedback
- hangout online, answer questions, chat with fans about the stuff they love
- be an open node, a connector, a good citizen of the community
- follow & be followed by those who care about the things you care about
- worry about the quality, not quantity, of your followers
- "If you want to be interesting, you have to be interested."
- focus on getting good at what you do, then let the connections follow (not the reverse)
- make stuff you love + talk about it = attract people who love that kind of stuff
"Whatever excites you, go do it. Whatever drains you, stop doing it."
— Derek Sivers
- vampires: people who make you feel exhausted / depleted after hanging out with them -- just avoid those people
- while most pitchers hoard their secrets from opposing teams, knuckleballers are a rare breed who share their techniques with each other
- your real peers are those who share your obsessions, a similar mission, and mutual respect
- you'll only find a few so keep them close, show them work first, collaborate with them, etc.
- meet your binary friends IRL and talk about big ideas
- coffee, lunch, art museums, bookstores, ...
- art school teaches one to handle vicious critiques
- 5 strategies
- relax and breathe - fear is why we imagine the worst that can happen; a bad critique is not the end of the world
- strengthen your neck - put out a lot of work, let people critique, then put more out, realize criticism helps you get better
- roll with the punches - criticism unlocks the opportunity for new work; you control how you react to it; sometimes it's fun to have certain people hate on your work
- protect your vulnerable areas - work that's too sensitive should be kept hidden, but it becomes harder to conncet with people
- keep your balance - your work might be very personal, but you still have your identity -- keep close to those who love you
"The trick is not caring what everybody thinks of you and just caring about what the right people think of you."
— Brian Michael Bendis
- be wary of feedback from people who don't care about you and what you do
- ignore the trolls and they'll go away eventually
- no shame in deleting trolling comments & blocking people on social media
- consider not having comments on your website, so people contact you directly
- somehow we have to find a way to get money to enable us to pursue our art
- getting paid does not inherently corrupt creativity -- ex. The Godfather, Sistine Chapel
- support your friends & family
- try a "donate" or "like this? buy me a coffee" button on your site
- crowdfunding can help you create work requiring upfront capital if you've already got fans interested
- Kleon uses simply "hire me" and "buy now"
- don't be afraid to charge for your work, but make sure what you're putting out is valued by others as highly as by you
- email might be boring & utilitarian, but it's a strong, universal channel for people who want to stay informed with your work
- a model
- give away great stuff on your site
- collect emails
- send when you have something remarkable to show/sell
- try MailChimp
- set people's expectations about content & frequency of emails
"We don't make movies to make money, we make money to make movies."
— Walt Disney
- some people use sell out to express an ideological fear of change
- creativity is all about change -- taking chances and exploring new frontiers
- "Be ambitious. Keep yourself busy. Think bigger. Expand your audience. .... Try new things."
- say yes to opportunities that allow more of the kind of work you want, not those which pay more but offer less of that
- when you have success, throw opportunities to your mentors, influences, and fans
- the more success, the more you'll have to say no to people
- to remedy not answering every email, Kleon hosts monthly office hours online
- "Be as generous as you can, but selfish enough to get your work done."
- "The people who get what they're after are very often the ones who just stick around long enough."
- what's next? -- a successful / failed project doesn't guarantee the outcome of your next
- lifelong artists persevere, success or failure
- Hemingway ended his day mid-sentence to have a clear starting place for the next morning
- a singer / songwriter says the weak link in her last project inspires her next
- after a project, ask yourself: what you missed / couldn't get to / could have done better; then, start your next project so you don't lose momentum
"As soon as you stop wanting something, you get it."
— Andy Warhol
- sometimes a sabbatical can help you find the spark again after burnout
- ex. Stefan Sagmeister takes a year off every seven years which drives the design thinking of the next seven years
- reminds me of Tim Ferriss' mini retirements
- you might not be able to take a year off, but you can take regular breaks to disconnect from work completely
- 3 ideas from Gina Trapani (Founder, Lifehacker):
- commute - tune out by writing, reading, doodling, or listening to audiobooks
- exercise - using our body relaxes our mind so we have new thoughts
- nature - parks / hikes / fresh air with no electronics
- separate work from the rest of your life, so you get to leave
"Whenever Picasso learned how to do something, he abandoned it."
— Milton Glaser
- when you feel like you've learned everything about something, change course so there's always something new to learn
- after learning of his mentor's habit, Louis CK now throws out his material every year to start from scratch -- to make space for new work & deeper personal thoughts
- still, it's not really from scratch because the lessons you've learned will seep into your new work
- so, begin again -- become an amateur & learn in the open, document your progress and share it [meta: that's sort of what I've been doing with my book reading in this repo]
- post your current work with #showyourwork (twitter, instagram)
- plan a show your work event, guided by this book, for colleagues / friends
- give a copy to someone who needs it
- inspired by books from Brian Eno, Steven Johnson, David Byrne, Mike Monteiro, Kio Stark, Ian Svenonius, Sidney Lumet, and P.T. Barnum
- take only the advice that's helpful to you / no rules
- www.austinkleon.com