Show Your Work Quick Review

Austin Kleon’s Show Your Work!: 10 Ways to Share Your Creativity and Get Discovered is a book filled with good points, concisely explored. It is well-worth the afternoon that it takes to read. The book’s premise centers on the value of offering a small bit of your creative output to a like-minded audience that can both gain from your offerings and provide feedback to you. Though this isn’t a revolutionary insight, the books merit is in the consolidating these bits of wisdom so readers can thoroughly ingest, consider, and, perhaps, change the way they go about their creative process.

Though the title and the slimness of the book might actually attract some readers, I can’t help but think they are a detraction to others. I don’t think I’d have given the book a second glance if I hadn’t been familiar with the author. Of course, I suppose that is a bit of a before-the-fact proof-of-concept. Fair or not, maybe people look at books on the self-help self with a lot of skepticism. Books with cutesy and promise-y titles, quirky shapes (it is also short and landscape-y), and are runway model thin have a lot of strikes against it in my biased book browsing mind.

But cosmetics aside, Show Your Work! is an excellent primer to an approach to day-to-day creative work that makes use of powerful communicating channels open to us now. Kleon seems to certainly been successful in his practice of what he preaches. I think the book has some excellent advice for artists in the new era of social media and the Internet.

Austin Kleon's Show Your Work!

I've also started reading Show Your Work! by Austin Kleon.  As with his previous offerings, this is a slim volume but has already proven very interesting.  I'm a big fan of Austin's e-mail newsletter and just started reading his blog as well.  I trust that it will make an enjoyable afternoon or weekend read, but offer insights and ideas that will take root.

I think letting more people into one's creative process is both healthy for the person and healthy for the culture.  There is a vital place for commerce in art and creativity, but too often that aspect overshadows the entire process.  We are too focused on the result's possible value, and shut ourselves off from the personal cathartic value of the process itself and, when brave enough to share, the cultural significance.  One person's stumble often moves things forward for themselves or others.  We are all collaborators in a world that increasingly seems to need our attention.