Here are my top 10 takeaways from reading Show Your Work! by Austin Kleon
Don’t be afraid to create your own work
In terms of media, art and content, most of us are consumers before producers. But the gap between reading / collecting / curating / watching on the one hand and creating/writing on the other is not as vast as we often assume. They feed into each other to a quite a large degree. Having stocks of inspiration and “stealing” the work of others is a great base from which to get started on your own creations.
Learn through doing
You develop your voice, ideas and style through exercising them; through the process of doing. So don’t wait around doing nothing if you think you lack these things. It’s through starting and gradually getting better that you acquire them.
Share
Don’t be a hoarder. Instead be generous in sharing your ideas, work, thoughts and discoveries. Share your sources of inspiration (books, articles, websites, movies, art, quotes, people you admire, etc), especially if you are a beginner and developing your tastes. A great way to do this is through teaching people what you know, which will generate additional interest in your work. Sharing isn’t only necessary to get yourself known, it’s an essential part of actually doing the work well. Getting feedback from and interacting with fans or peers in your niche is invaluable in terms of learning and developing.
but don’t overshare
Equally, it’s important not to spam people. There are some parts of life that should be private (goes without saying), but also things that just aren’t worth sharing. There’s enough content (of varying degrees of usefulness) out there already, so don’t contribute to the noise if you have nothing worth saying. Submit your idea to the “so what” test. Why should someone care about what you’re sharing?
Be interested in others
Don’t just focus on self-promotion. It’s important to be genuinely interested in other people and their work. Creative work is a two-way street. Your audience isn’t passive, think of them as collaborators. If you want fans, you need to be one yourself. If you want to get, you have to give. To be noticed, you have to notice.
In terms of your audience, focus on quality before quantity.
Of course, it’s nice to have a large following. But it’s more important that these people are actually interested in you, and that you too find them interesting. Otherwise what’s the point? Search out your people. Make sure you look in the right places. Draw a line in the sand (make a stand) to help them find you. This article entitled 1000 true fans discusses the value of having a modestly-sized yet highly enthusiastic audience.
You will get criticised…
But get into the habit of only reacting to and taking on board valuable criticism that comes from people you respect. The more you create and share your work, the more criticism you’ll receive. It’s inevitable. But luckily, the more you share, the easier it becomes to simply brush away unhelpful negative feedback and move on relatively unscathed.
Take a break
Stepping away from our work, whether for relatively short periods in the day or for months at a time through a sabbatical, is really valuable. Some of our best ideas are busy brewing during this down time. Plus, it’s fun!
Starting/Finishing
It’s very important not to quit prematurely. Those who succeed are often just the ones who stick around the longest and don’t give up. On the other hand, we do need to know when to move on from a project (whether or not it has been successful). The best way to do this is to think of the work process as a chain reaction. This is sure to happen naturally if you’ve been learning a lot as you work. This way, you’ll never be stuck asking yourself “what’s next?”. What you’ve just finished working on should spark new ideas that lead directly into something new. We don’t really abandon old work, we’re always building on it.
Don’t get obsessed with what might happen in the future
There’s a limit to the value of planning ahead. Ultimately, there’s only so much we can control. The only thing we can absolutely control is our ability to do our work in the present moment. So try to just focus on doing this, without worrying to much about where it might lead.
+ A couple of great quotes that were included in the book:
- “Someone who isn’t embarrassed of who they were last year probably isn’t learning enough” – Alain de Boton
- “It’s all about paying attention. Attention is vitality. It connects you with others” – Susan Sontag
And here are all of the rest of the notes I took whilst reading it – if you can decipher them!
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