In this short guide, we'll show you some examples of effective author websites before giving you a step-by-step process for building your own. By the end, you'll be ready to take on the world (wide web).
Judy Moody's authors have chosen to highlight the eponymous character of the series rather than themselvces, but whichever way you lean, there should always be a recognizable red thread that runs between your books and your website. Keep the voice and tone of your website distinctive and consistent, so people immediately recognize the relation to your work.
Show Your Work Austin Kleon Epub 12
The Lesley M. M. Blume site and the Austin Kleon site are pretty good , i often find that alot of sites go for design over typography which mostly doesnt work , your right about having blog posts front and centre , problem is most authors ive encountered never want that ( customer is always right etc ) .. which is a shame
'Steal like an artist' is a guide for anyone who wants to develop their creativity. In it, Austin Kleon assumes that, nowadays, no one else has 100% original ideas. Copying your favorite artists and getting inspired by them to start your works is cool and advantageous. The point here is to learn to combine ideas that already exist, thus creating a "new" thing! Have good influences and copy those you admire, but also learn to develop over time your own identity and originality. Could you copy some of Austin's ideas to our minds in this microbook?
Artists have a peculiar way of observing the world around them. Instead of judging what's right or wrong, they judge whether these things are valuable enough to be copied. All artists understand that no work is original. Each art is constructed of a preexisting art. The sooner you realize this, the more chances you have of improving your art and your creative process. Although this idea is depressing for some people, it can give hope to others. Get rid of the mentality that you need to have original ideas. Stop running from influences and allow yourself to be influenced by other people's ideas.
Each "new" idea is a combination of preexisting ideas. What you are today is a mixture of your interactions with life. No one will ever reinvent the wheel. There is nothing new under the sun. The only reason people will call anything original is that they are not familiar with the original. Stop fighting by trying to create unique ideas for your work.
GIGO (Garbage in - Garbage out) is a computer concept. It means that whatever data you put on your computer is what you will get back. Our brains work similarly. We end up becoming what is around us. Your main task as an artist is to choose the ideas that you want to influence you and ignore the others.
The best way to improve your art is by choosing a mentor in the industry. Study it carefully. When you are sure that you have mastered what makes you a unique artist and what makes your art impressive, you are ready to go. Then find three people your artist loved and study everything about them as well. Then repeat this process. Make this a routine. Once you feel you have gone far enough, you are ready to begin your work. Using the process described above will make you feel part of a team.
Nothing kills creativity as much as procrastination. Start doing things while you wait to find out. Do not be an artist who hopes to learn who you are before you start working on your art. If you expect to find out who you are, you will end up waiting a long time. We can only discover ourselves when we are immersed in our creative work. Being afraid to delve into art is natural. It's okay to doubt yourself. This fear affects all artists. It even has a clinical name - the impostor syndrome, described as the 'inability to internalize achievements.' The impostor syndrome makes you feel like you do not understand what you are doing. Do not let it overthrow you. Every great artist suffers from the impostor syndrome. The key is not to let it get in your way.
At first, it may be that no one notices your work and knows what you are doing. But do not let this stop you. Act like you're the best artist of the genre. Act as if you were working on something great. Keep working and believing you until you see the light at the end of the tunnel. The world is like a big stage, and we are the actors. Turn your workplace into a theater. What you wear while working is your costume. Your tools are your work materials, and time is the script. Start acting!
One of the best ways to be creative is to use reverse engineering in the works of the artists who inspire you. Note that there is a big difference between plagiarism and copying. Plagiarism is trying to pass on the work of another person as if it were yours. The copy, in turn, has more to do with reverse engineering. It's like trying to dismantle a cell phone to find out how it works. Most of the things we learn, we learn by copying, as in kindergarten, where you needed to learn to write by copying numbers and letters of the alphabet. A systematic approach to reproduction will develop your creativity: choose who you want to copy and what / how you will copy, and you will be well on your way to mastering your art.
It happens that, at some point, every artist needs to stop copying his hero. Your creative work will begin to emulate their work. Emulation is built from imitation. It starts with the realization that we can not be like our heroes and that our work will be different from theirs. Fortunately, this difference is not a defect. We're just ourselves. The enlargement of your thoughts is a true emulation, from which creativity arises.
If you have enough space in your workshop, install analog and digital work platforms. Fill your analog workstation with work tools like pens, markers, paper clips, and notebooks. When you get bored of working on the computer, work on your analog post. Sketch out your ideas, attach things to the wall, do things that do not involve electronics. You will be amazed at the influence this has on your creativity. If you feel you are starting to lose energy, go back to your digital workstation.
According to the author, her experience as an artist and book writer has taught him that having a few different projects happening at the same time is a good thing. He states that when he feels tired of focusing on one project, he changes to another, and sometimes needs time off from all projects. Every creative person needs to rest their brains and not think of anything. Sometimes avoiding work is the best way to reorient your mind.
One of the greatest fears of artists is the fear of remaining unknown, obscure. There is no magic pill that will make everyone become a fan of your work. People will not notice you at first because they are too busy to pay attention to you.
Sharing your work is very easy these days. You just need to put it on the internet and promote it. Obviously, you need to be open to sharing your work with others and learning the magic behind online marketing. Learn how to create a website and how to promote it using social networking and other internet tools.
However, if you are not comfortable sharing the details of your work, you do not have to do this. You can share many other things. A link to an interesting article, a funny meme, can show your fans a glimpse of your work. Just make sure you are visible and sharing. Sharing helps you connect with people who have interests similar to yours.
The place of destination is a matter of personal preference and taste. However, you may find that going to a place with a horrible climate can help you a lot. Bad weather helps you spend most of your time indoors, working on your projects.
In your journey to make connections on the internet, you can cross with opinions different from yours, some of them wrong, but do not try to correct them It is not your responsibility to correct anyone on the internet. Overcome the temptation to get into fights that are not yours. Otherwise, you will be caught in unproductive routines, of which it is difficult to detach. The only plausible way to show that someone is wrong is to create something that you think is right.
Often, when we commend one's work, we expect to hear a response from that person, receive recognition. It happens that people are busy and can not always respond to their fans' letters. The best way to deal with this is to not expect recognition from the people you admire. Give public praise to the work of these people, without expecting to receive something in return. Write an article about them and post on your blog, or retweet your tweets. Noticed or not, you will have done your part.
It may take time before someone recognizes the value in what you do. Unfortunately, there is not much to do about it. Stop searching for people's validation. Once you create your work and post it, it's not up to you to determine how people will react to it. Despite having spent months of sleepless nights working, this will come easy for some people. You will be very misunderstood and may even be cursed, but get used to it and move on. As long as you're doing what you love, you do not have to worry about what people say about you.
The best way to fight this is to keep a record of your achievements, by storing, for example, emails with compliments received during times when your work was very good. As you re-read these messages, you will feel relevant again. Try to do this, but be careful not to be stuck in the past.
The secret to balancing your formal employment with your creative work is to find a decent job with a decent salary, which gives you enough energy to work on your projects when you have free time. The worst thing a formal job can do to you is stealing your time, but that is rewarded for putting you into a routine. You can schedule your creative work for when you are free. Having a regular schedule is much more productive than having lots of free time. Creating a timeline is quite easy. Find out what time you are free to do your creative work and stay determined to finish during that time every day. 2ff7e9595c
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