Austin Kleon’s Show Your Work!

I recently read Show Your Work! by Austin Kleon. And if you are any type of creator (writer, artist, photographer, blogger, category-breaker, etc.), I highly recommend it.

The book itself is small (6×6 inches) but packed with Kleon’s advice on sharing work in progress and connecting with like-minded people. Given the fact that he’s a New York Times bestselling author and successful speaker on creativity, he knows what he’s talking about. The book lays out ten principles for sharing work, interspersing its primary content with quotes, illustrations, pictures, and his blackout poetry (newspaper pages blacked out except for key words/phrases).

It’s inspiring, but more importantly, it’s actionable. Without prescribing specific courses of action, he talks about how to develop your story, stay motivated, decide what to share on social media, interact with people online, take care of yourself, and treat your creativity like a business. And after making a point or sharing an example, he moves right on to the next concept instead of belaboring it.

For example, his third principle, “Share something small every day,” has a section called “Turn your flow into stock.” This one in particular stood out to me. He talks about Robin Sloan adapting the economic concept of “stock and flow” as a metaphor for media. Flow is more ephemeral, like social media posts, while stock lasts longer and is more likely to attract an audience that will also last. Kleon goes on to explain how flow can feed into and offer direction for stock, offering this book as a perfect example of this. That point made, he jumps into the next section.

I’ve read the book four times and still feel like I get something new on each readthrough. But despite the amount of content, it never feels overwhelming. His writing style is super accessible, and the design makes it apparent that he treated it like another piece of art in his portfolio. As much as it can be read in one sustained session, the short sections comprising each chapter also lend themselves to quick bursts for readers looking for a small jolt of inspiration.

Hopefully you’re convinced by this point. No matter where you are along your creativity journey, I think Show Your Work! has something to offer.

Goodreads Updates

It’s that time of year again … when Goodreads puts together its users’ Years in Books! Of course 2017 isn’t over just yet, and I think I’ll finish a few more before 2018 rolls around, but I’d thought now would be a good time to post the link to my 2017 Year in Books.

As you can see, it’s been a pretty solid year in terms of reading. I think there’s even been a few books that I forgot to track on Goodreads. The official count currently stands at 16 books, just shy of 6,000 pages. That’s about 500 pages a month! I’m pretty proud of that (even if about a third of these are graphic novels, haha).

In other Goodreads news, I’m moving closer to the point of posting “reviews” on books more consistently. (You may remember my mentioning this a few weeks ago.) But when I do, I expect they’ll look a little different than most (popular) Goodreads reviews.

For one, they’ll be shorter (two paragraphs, max). I also don’t think I’m going to include ratings In my opinion, ratings detract from the main content of review. I’m sure this perspective has been influenced by Kotaku’s video game review system. It’s also loosely similar to Brandon Sanderson’s Goodreads policy (which, like everything else he writes, is brilliantly thought-out and written).

I already have a loose system in place on Tumblr. First, I provide the title, authors, and date finished. The actual review begins with a description (really a sentence fragment) that I feel encapsulates the idea of the book. I then devote a few sentences to describing the plot without giving away too many details, almost treating it like copy from the back cover. Next I talk about some of the more metatextual elements like characterization, voice, or other aspects that stood out to me. Finally, I end with a “Recommended for…” sentence where I suggest what kinds of readers may be particularly interested in it. They may not be very in-depth reviews, but to their credit, they don’t take much more time to absorb than glancing at a rating. Plus, it’s the format I’ve used for years on Tumblr, so I don’t feel a strong sense to change them just yet

In the meantime, I’m still not sure whether reviews will make it to this blog in some fashion or another. I guess we’ll find out in 2018!