“Steal Like An Artist” and “Show Your Work” are changing creator’s lives
Here are two book reviews you’re going to want to read if you’re in the creative adventure. I’ve known about Austin Kleon for what seems like a very long time. But, like a lot of things on the Net, his work slipped off my feeds on a technology change and I lost touch with what he was doing.
In cleaning up some other projects, I ran across his name again so I hunted down his website and RSS feed for my news reading system.
I had read one of his earlier books “Steal Like An Artist” and even had the journal for this. My search and rummaging through all my bookshelves for the book was in vain until something tickled my memory and I remembered I’d read it through the library.
I purchased the ebook version and reread it. I found myself understanding it better and I liked it again and (a few years later) it spoke even clearer to me about how we grow from those we follow and those who have gone ahead of us.
The next book ‘Show Your Work’ was written in the same short, pithy, combination of text and graphics. (Note: neither of these books is heavy, long-term reading and you’ll only spend an hour and a bit on your first read-through.)
But if you spend some time thinking about what he’s saying, you may find – as I did – that you need to reread them and then rethink some of your own work.
The Message From ‘Steal Like An Artist’
The message from Steal Like An Artist is that it’s OK to take the basic ideas from another writer because there are no really new ideas left. It’s OK to take those ideas but create them in your own style and delivery system.
To illustrate the above, if the basic idea is “it’s good to have friends and to have friends you need to be a friend,” then how you create that message has to be uniquely yours.
The underlying message is something we all understand and it’s been written/televised/cartooned/filmed before.
Now, in your turn, you’re creating that idea in your own media and your own words/images/story/medium etc.
And The Message From ‘Show Your Work’
And once done that, you’re ready to read “Show Your Work” because if the message of Steal Like An Artist is to borrow the basic idea, “Show Your Work” states you must then show “the how, the process, behind your creation.”
An example of this might be as I was writing my next book, I’d also write about the methods and processes that I used in researching, writing and promoting my book. It’s a call for transparency to readers/viewers that shows the work and humanity/struggle of the creator.
In Kleon’s framework, the audience truly wants to know the background thinking and work that goes into a creative act.
Take people behind the scenes of your thinking, planning and work is the basic message. “Think process, not product.”
My Challenge With Book Reviews Of This Kind Of Book
I confess I’m intrigued with the thought of sharing some of the process of creating. The challenge for me is to decide how much and what to share on my various projects.
I’ll have to get back to you about this. Note you can read other posts about books right here
If you have a few moments, please share whether you think this kind of sharing is interesting in the comments below
