Show Your Work!: 10 Ways to Share Your Creativity and Get Discovered by Austin KleonIn three words, SHOW YOUR WORK is a book that reveals to you, exciting ways to “show your work” and to put it out there into the world.
Embellished with photographs and snippets of blackout poetry, the square paperback is a crisp guide offering tips and tricks that are not only interesting but quite practical & relevant to follow through.
In this review, I am sharing nineteen clear-cut and key pointers from the book. Read on!
#1 In order to be found, you have to be findable
In simple words, be online. If you have a skill that you can share or teach, or if you have a work that you do, then put this skill or bits of your work out there for people to see.
#2 Send out a Daily Dispatch
Consistently post bits & pieces of your work. Share something small every day. Take it one day at a time, and it gradually compounds over months and years. Find the time to do this, each day, between tasks, just as you find spare change in nooks and crannies of your house
#3 You don’t have to be a Genius. Be a scenius.
Lone genius is a myth. He says, that great ideas are often birthed by a group or a community of creative people. So, to share your work you don’t have to be a genius. You can consider being part of a scene of people who do the work similar to you or take interest in the work you do.
#4 Be an Amateur
Mr. Kleon writes that raw enthusiasm is contagious. While you do your work, be an amateur. In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities. In an expert’s mind, there are a few. Every time you think you’re getting too comfortable or stale in your work, change your instrument. Try something new, something you’ve never tried before.
#5 Find Your Voice & Shout It From The Rooftops
First things first, you can’t find your voice if you don’t use it. Share what you love and the people who love the same things will find you. Secondly, as you find your voice, shout it from the rooftops and keep doing it until the people that are looking for you, find you.
#6 Ask Questions For a new Tool
While employing a new tool for your work, ask these three questions to make the most efficient use of this tool. What was it made for? – How are others using it? – What purpose does it serve for me?
#7 Read Obituaries
Mr. Kleon writes in the book that, thinking about death every morning, makes him want to live his life to the fullest. Thereupon, he suggests reading obituaries every day for inspiration and for reminding ourselves that each passing day, we’re moving closer to our death.
#8 Think Process Not Product
Take people ‘Behind the Scenes’. Don’t believe surface appearances. Process is always messy, even for the glossiest of products.
In the book, Austin Kleon writes that one should focus on art work (process) more than the artwork (product); focus on the verb painting (process) more than the noun painting (product).
Become a documentation of what you do. Start a work journal. Jot down your thoughts in a notebook or record in an audio recorder. Keep a scrapbook of your work process. Record various phases of your work process.
#9 Turn your flow into stock
Stock & flow is a concept of economy. But here, in the book, it is used as a metaphor pertaining to the work process.
If you work on something a little bit everyday, you end up with something that is massive. This is referred to as the ‘stock’ of your work’s ‘flow’.
The magic formula is to maintain your flow while working on your stock in the background. When the stock reaches a considerable size, flip back through it. Notice patterns in your work flow.
#10 Open up your cabinet of curiosities. But don’t be a hoarder or a spammer.
All of us have our own collections brimming with bits, pieces and snippets of others work. Share your collections however, at the same time be aware of the thin line between sharing and oversharing. Don’t turn into human spam. When its time to listen, listen. When its time to share, share. Use the Hoarder–Contributor-Spammer scale to measure what you should do.
#11 Discover yourself from the work of others
Mr. Kleon writes that in the first few years, our work is not that good, but the taste is still killer. Meanwhile what we can do is, we can discover our taste, our voice, through the work of others; drawing inspiration from others’ work.
Where do you draw your inspiration from? Whose work you like? What element specifically you like or take interest in, in their work. Dig deeper and discover for yourself.
#12 Work doesn’t speak for itself. Tell good stories.
“Everybody loves a good story but a good storytelling doesn’t come easy to everybody. It’s a skill that takes a lifetime to master. So study the great stories and then go find some of your own. Your stories will get better the more you tell.”
Adding to this, Mr. Kleon says that pictures can say what we want them to say. And hence, become a good storyteller. Understand what good storytelling is.
‘The cat sat on a mat’ is not a good story. ‘The cat sat on the dog’s mat’ is a story. – John le Carre
Structure is everything. Understand the structures of stories. Once you understand story structures, you can start filling in the gaps with characters, settings and circumstances for your own story.
#13 Teach what you know. Share your trade secrets.
Suggesting that one can share knowledge of their work, Mr. Kleon writes, “When you share bits of your work and knowledge with others, you receive an education in return. Think about what you can share from your work process. Where did you learn your craft? What techniques you employ in your work? What are the tools & materials you are skilled at using? What kind of knowledge comes along with your job?”
#14 Focus on hearts not eyeballs
If you want to be interesting, you have to be interested first. If you want to be noticed, you have to notice first. Don’t go by the number of your followers. Rather, seek to enhance the essence of your work.
#15 The Vampire Test
One upon a time there was a painter. He had a characteristic of draining people just the way he squashed the tubes of oil paints. Whenever people met or interacted with him, they felt drained of their energies in the aftermath. Sharing this story, Mr. Kleon offers us the idea of ‘the vampire test’. Whatever excites you, go do it. Whatever drains you, stop doing it. Be with people who excite you and not drain you. Simple!
#16 Learn to take punches
While engaged in a creative work, or any work for that matter, critiques and their criticism is inevitable a thing. Mr. Kleon says that the more criticism you take, the more you know that it can’t hurt you.
Do not take critiques and criticism too personally. The trick is not caring what everybody thinks of you and just caring what the right people think of you. He writes.
Also he suggests that, although one should protect one’s vulnerable self, but shouldn’t go into avoidance of their vulnerability. Keep the balance of what criticism to take and what to avoid.
Adding to which, he writes, “Don’t feed the trolls”. “Keep a mental firewall against these trolls. And don’t forget that the worst troll is the one that lives in our head.”
#17 Keep Jealousy & Greed Out of your Way
Don’t be jealous of other people’s successes. Don’t be greedy to make money too soon and too early either. Saying this, Mr. Kleon shares this quote from Walt Disney.
“We don’t make movies to make money. We make money to make more movies.” – Walt Disney
#18 Stick around.
Don’t quit your show. If you want a happy ending, it depends on where you end the story. Every little step in your work contributes to a chain reaction, each subject leads to the next.
#19 Keep moving forward & Take Sabbaticals.
Take daily-weekly-monthly sabbaticals in order to separate your work from the rest of your life.
Once you’re done with something, begin again. Rethink things completely. Keep old work aside to make space for new work. Move on to the next pipe dream.
For inspiration & wrapping this up, here’s a quote from the book!
Whenever Picasso learned how to do something, he abandoned it. – Milton Glaser
Thank you!
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