Why I need to write 1st
thing in the morning:
If I don’t I am so
easily distracted by everything!!!
Having said that, I read this great book
today called “Steal like an Artist” by Austin Kleon. It is a small book with a lot of good ideas
for cultivating one’s creativity. I
found it to be delightfully inclusive, and I related to a lot of what he has to
say. One point that makes me rethink how I approach things was regarding the internet. I do not have a great presence on the internet, especially shy on facebook, as
I find it a huge sink hole of time. But I recognize one of the truths that Austin (I hope he doesn’t
mind if I call him by his first name, though we have not met) maintains; the
internet holds the key to a huge world of like-minded folks, fellowship as he
refers to it, especially if you live in a small town and are not that social,
which is in fact, my plight. I have a
busy life, mother, artist and entrepreneur and I do value my time, I actually demand
a bit of solitude, as Betty Davis would say, “I want to be alone”, in order to
be ready to create as much as I do. But I like to share ideas and learn-
another thing he felt was so important- to always be learning. Hear,
hear!!! I am all about learning new
things.
In the book he also suggested that
one keep a calendar so that you can check off the boxes daily as you commit
yourself to a project- writing a page a day and in 365 you may have a novel or
as Jerry Seinfeld used the system, whom Austin stole the idea, write a joke a
day. As you check the boxes every day,
you create a chain and you don’t want to break the chain so you do the
work. Brilliant!!! For me it gave me an
excuse to create a new notebook with graph paper so I can color in the boxes and
get in my 10 minutes of daily writing!!!!
Now this book is one that needs to
be read over a few times, and it goes along side “The War of Art” by Steven
Pressfeild and Art and Fear by David Bayles, Ted Orland, both of which I need read
again.
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