There is absolutely no doubt about it: I am my own biggest obstacle when it comes to producing new work. I’m a massive creative over-thinker. When I come up with a project I’m really passionate about, there’s a certain instinct to just keep it inside my head, where it’s save. So I procrastinate. I’ll end up feeling down for not doing the work, and not doing the work because I feel down. Which (obviously) is a pretty frustrating and counterproductive cycle.
Sound familiar? Well don’t worry I have found us the antidote to our struggle. It consists of a lot of positive thinking, and a hint of tough love. Turns out we’re not the only creative souls that block their own path. Writer and artist Austin Kleon wrote us a fun but effective guide to counter this block called “Steal Like An Artist”. I really loved reading it, and it left me feeling relieved, reenergized and curedof my creative over-thinking.
“NOTHING IS ORIGINAL”
Kleon starts off his book by ensuring us nothing is original, and nothing comes from nowhere. Nobody is born with a style or a voice. We should see ourselves more as the sum of our influences (influences that we get to pick). According to him, every honest artist will admit they get their ideas by stealing. We learned the alphabet by copying it over and over again. So why not copy the artwork we love? He talks about copying not as plagiarism, but as reverse-engineering. He doesn’t want us to just copy the style, but to copy the thinking behind the style. At the end of the day, we don’t want to look like our heroes, we want to see like our heroes.
“A wonderful flaw about human beings is that we’re incapable of making perfect copies. Our failure to copy our heroes is where we discover where our own thing lives.” (…) “In the end, merely imitating your heroes is not flattering them. Transforming their work into something of your own is how you flatter them. Adding something to the world only you can add.”
– Austin Kleon, “Steal Like An Artist”
This whole way of looking at creativity, calmed me down a bit. I’ll admit, I’m pretty obsessed with the idea of making something original. I pressure myself to come up with things that ‘don’t exist yet’ or that, at least, I haven’t seen before. But maybe this way of thinking has been more of a burden than it has been a help to my creative process. In the end it seems more important to just work on something you’re really passionate about, regardless of what other people are doing. So, let’s try to trust ourselves and embrace influence.
“YOU’RE READY, START MAKING STUFF”
While creative people everywhere are looking to ‘get discovered’, Austin Kleon presents us with a big upside to being unknown: There is no outside pressure. You can do what you want, experiment all you like and just have fun with it. He emphasizes that when you’re unknown, there’s nothing to distract you from getting better.
“You’ll never get that freedom back again once people start paying you attention, and especially not once they start paying you money. Enjoy your obscurity while it lasts. Use it”
– Austin Kleon, “Steal Like An Artist”
Kleon writes that it’s in the act of making things and doing our work that we figure out who we are. He replaces the cliché advice “write what you know”, with “write what you want to read”. Start doing the work you would want to see done. The work you think all your favorite makers would produce if they collaborated, with you leading the crew. Kleon also urges us to accept that we’re going to suck for a while. We need to fail in order to get better.
Okay, there you have it. We’re ready. And we’re definitely not going to get more ready by not starting. The outcome might not always be what we anticipated, and that blows, but in the end everything you do is part of a process. Who knows what your experiences in that one ‘failed’ project are going to lead you to. Let’s just start already.
“BE BORING”
Don’t worry, we have gotten permission to be boring. Just because we have a creative pursuit, doesn’t mean we have to live up to the romantic image of the lone artist constantly going on adventures of (whiskey induced) self-discovery. The truth according to Kleon is this: It takes a lot of energy to be creative, so you don’t want to waste that energy on other stuff. Take care of yourself and get a decent night of sleep.
“Ask anybody doing truly creative work, and they’ll tell you the truth: They don’t know where the good stuff comes from. They just show up to do their thing. Every day.”
– Austin Kleon, “Steal Like An Artist”
As he says, building a great portfolio is a accumulation of small bits of effort over time. Keep your, or find a good day-job. It will give you a routine, a connection to the world and will free you of financial stress. Figure out what time you have, and spent it well. Do the work every day, don’t make excuses.
“Establishing and keeping a routine can be more important than having a lot of time. Inertia is the death of creativity. You have to stay in the groove.”
– Austin Kleon, “Steal Like An Artist”
“THE NOT-SO-SECRET- FORMULA”
Kleon says there’s only one formula for success that he knows: Do good work and share it with people. The first bit is hard, the second part has gotten really easy nowadays. Just get your stuff online already! He also presses that, when we open up our process and invite people in, we’ll learn a lot from them too.
“The more open you are about sharing your passions, the closer people will feel to your work. Artists aren’t magicians. There’s no penalty for revealing your secrets”
– Austin Kleon, “Steal Like An Artist”
Thanks to the magical world of the Internet, we don’t have to be anywhere other than where we are right now, to connect with the world we want to live in. Surround yourself with what you love. Stand next to the talent. Kleon states that we’re only as good as the people we surround ourselves with. In the digital space, that means following the best people online – the people who are way smarter and better than you. We need to stop seeing each other as competitors, and perhaps look at it as being travel companions. We might not all travel the same road, but we’re all trying to get to the same kind of place. So get around a campfire and let’s share what we’ve all encountered on our journeys. Chances are we we’ll learn a lot.
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We’re ready. We just need to trust ourselves, quit whining and start working on all those ideas that are floating around in our busy heads. Where those ideas come from? Who knows, and who the hell cares. In the end, nothing comes from nowhere. We are lucky enough to be surround with the amazing and inspiring work of others, let’s take advantage of it. Tonight we’re having lots of veggies for dinner and we’re going to bed at a decent time. Being creative demands a lot of our energy and we want to make the most of it. Not everything we do is going to be amazing, but we will get there.
One last bit of advice:
“Not everybody will get it. People will misinterpret you and what you do. They might even call you names. So get comfortable with being misunderstood, disparaged, or ignored – the trick is to be too busy doing your work to care.”
– Austin Kleon, “Steal Like An Artist
There, feels better don’t it? Want more?
– Get “Steal Like An Artist” and the sequel “Show Your Work“
– Read his blog
– Follow Austin on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook
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