Writer, musician, wizardly guide to platform independence
Found this interview via CHRIS WONG’s newsletter UNKNOWN UNKNOWNS, from the 18:15 mark:
“I don’t know what it’s going to become, but do that because one day you’re going to wake up and you’re going to be 40 years old like me, and you might be dying of cancer, and you may have spent your entire life doing something that you never truly loved.”
Instant listen, and wow… so good. Lots of blog talk, and following your passion inspiration.
I often think of closing my Twitter account, but then something like this finds its way onto my timeline, from Anne Fine:
“I used to make a lot of emoji art through instagram stories when I was bored, but then they changed the UX of stories and it was no longer possible for me to make these.”
Anne called these “zenmojis.”
I always love seeing talented friends post their art and magic.
This is from Joce Aucoin (“Choppy waters today I guess” from Twitter), whom I met like way back in 2002 or 2003 when she was doing LUJO Records and sending me albums in padded mailers when I was doing my music blog. Here we are 20 years later, still at it.
She’s been making a lot of collage work, which I just love seeing as she keeps growing it.
From the @tittybats account on Instagram, and pretty much how I feel lately with everything.
These are so wonderful.
“If we don’t support old shops, they’ll be gone forever,” Shin says. “I tried to ‘preserve’ the old shops through this series […] I hope when people see it, it will remind them to go and support their small local businesses.”
From ‘Shin Oh “preserves” traditional Malaysian spaces and places with her 3D pixel room building,’ via Kottke.
From today’s HEAVY METAL EMAIL, “FACTS ARE EASY AND BORING AND NO ONE CARES.”
Promoting your creative work should be art. It should spark curiosity, wonder, and delight.
That doesn’t mean spend 3 hours a week “engaging” on social media, or editing videos for TikTok.
Make stuff, then tell your friends.
Keep in touch with the creative, energetic, artistic people in your life.
Stop shouting it to “all” of your social media followers, especially when 80% of them won’t even see it.
Share the things you make directly with people who will appreciate it.
Loving the artwork of Andreea Dumuta / Galactixy Illustrations – order prints here. Always a sucker for the bright colors and rough, halftone vibes.
Found this art via this post on the Dungeonlust Instagram feed, but it turns out it’s just half of the original artwork (which you see at the top of this post).
More here.
Often I’m asked about people’s ideas, and this is what I usually say:
Don’t ask, just start.
Do it often, make your mistakes, and keep learning. You need to be child-like in your zeal for the idea that you have.
Make 10 instances of your “thing,” then get some feedback. Send it to people who might enjoy it, and see if they share it. If they don’t, DON’T ASK THEM WHY. Make another thing. And then another. Make them until they’re so good your friends are finally asking, “WHEN IS THE NEXT ONE?!”
But don’t seek approval before you even start. Just start it. Make it, stay busy with it, and refine it. Solicit opinions from people you trust, but don’t spend a lot of time monitoring comments sections or writing emails or having mega long conversations. That’s time you could be spending working on your thing.
Remember, you’re just starting something. You need a thing before you can really have conversations about your project!
So get busy working on your thing.
Wait, how?
Guess what – that’s for you to decide! Do you buy a domain name, then secure the 14 social media networks with that name first? Publish weekly? Release something every month? That’s up to you!
Make 10 of your things. From there you’ll be nailing down your process. The busy work, the technical parts, the images that you’ll use, tone, maybe working with other people – there are so many moving parts! Figure all of that out behind the scenes, quietly, before you’re bumbling and stumbling around in front of 1,000 people a day. Oops.
But work on it everyday, and get something out there as often as you can. It’ll force you to trim the fat from your process, and you’ll learn that quicker by a putting out a lot of stuff, rather than sitting on something until it’s “perfect.” You don’t want your production to be so arduous that it takes you weeks or months or years. That much time between releases, at least to start, and you’ll miss out on learning valuable lessons.
At this stage in the game you need those lessons. Those lessons add up. And while this thing you’re working on now might not work out, you’ve learned a bunch, so it was never a waste of time. Just take those lessons now and apply them to your next idea. Go!
This piece originally posted on Patreon on April 3, 2016.
In 2013 I was in Nashville, TN and hanging out with a photographer friend. He was helping a friend who needed photos so I tagged along, just to see how these sorts of things worked.
Not being a photographer, and only loosely understanding megapixels and such, I was shocked to see some of his cameras. I would think it’d just be super expensive digital cameras, but then I saw cheap 35mm point-and-click cameras.
Wait, what?
Turns out that you don’t always need fancy gear to make great things.
It reminds me of a time visiting a guitar shop, and this kid was sitting there riffing quite loudly (and annoyingly), all the while talking about GEAR. The “best” pickups, and the “worst guitars.”
Sure.
There’s this progression: as a beginner you covet the new gear. If you have the new, the fancy, the shiny, and high-end, well then you’ll sound better, or make better photographs.
But after many years, with enough skill, you find you don’t need expensive gear. There’s more to making beautiful things than how much you’re able to pay for the tools to make them.
This piece originally posted on Patreon on March 28, 2016.
