Show Your Work is a non-fiction novel written by Austin Kleon. In this novel, he discusses how to share your creativity and get discovered.
Is it possible to find everything that you are looking for in one book? Of course, the answer is no. However, to me, it feels like this book answers all of the questions that I’ve been asking myself recently.
How do I get started? Purchase a domain name, create your own website, and start posting today!
What would I even write about? Literally anything. Whatever you’re passionate about, think about it, write about it, and post it.
How do I get discovered? Write about what you love, post your work every day, and people will start noticing.
Here are some meaningful quotes from Show Your Work:
Share your trade secrets:
“Teaching people doesn’t subtract value from what you do, it actually adds to it. When you teach someone how to do your work, you are, in effect, generating more interest in your work. People feel closer to your work because you’re letting them in on what you know.”
Shut up and listen:
“If you want fans, you have to be a fan first. If you want to be accepted by a community , you have to be a good citizen of that community. If you’re only pointing to your own stuff online, you’re doing it wrong. You have to be a connector. The writer Blake Butler calls this being an open node. If you want to get, you have to give. If you want to be noticed, you have to notice. Shut up and listen once in a while. Be thoughtful. Be considerate. Don’t turn into human spam. Be an open node.”
Don’t quit your show:
The people who get what they’re after are very often the ones who just stick around long enough. It’s very important not to quit prematurely.”
Chain-smoke:
“Avoid stalling out in your career by never losing momentum. Here’s how you do it: instead of taking a break in between projects, waiting for feedback, and worrying about what’s next, use the end of one project to light up the next one.”
“Just do the work that’s in front of you, and when it’s finished, ask yourself what you missed, what you could’ve done better, or what you couldn’t get to do, and jump right into the next project.”
For the sake of Austin’s work please share your own work every day on one of the various platforms available. Do what you love, don’t quit, and one day it will pay off.
I just want to take the final words of this post to thank you again, Austin. I hope that one day you so see this. This book, and your work, mean so much. Again, you’ve found a way to make the world a better place through your writing. I’ll be sure to pick up your first novel Steal like an Artist as soon as I can.
Please go check out Austin’s work:
And go check out his website!
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Here’s my work for this review:
