Nothing Is Original

"Austin Kleon (and Milo)" by Austin Kleon is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

All artists copy others. Many would argue it is a fundamental stepping stone in the development of all original work. Austin Kleon wrote a book about it, which I love and highly recommend. It is this book that helped me to finally get going and begin this blog.

What a good artist understands is that nothing comes from nowhere. All creative work builds on what came before. Nothing is completely original … If we’re free from the burden of trying to be completely original, we can stop trying to make something out of nothing, and we can embrace influence instead of running away from it.

Austin Kleon ~ Steal like an Artist

And that is exactly what I am doing here, embracing influence.

In order to get started with writing pieces I could publish, I looked at the work of other bloggers, writers, artists and I decided that I really like the way Kleon formats his blog and newsletter. So, for now, I am going to emulate some aspects of the way he works. The content is different, and many other things - but the way he blogs and how he creates his newsletter is something I plan to emulate, at least to begin with. Over time I am sure I will find my own way - but for now, I need a guide and Kleon’s example will be invaluable.

Kleon wrote a post explaining copying as one way artists learn and describes how the process of copying anything, even badly from a number of different artists eventually becomes your own unique way of creating art.

New York Magazine Art Critic Jerry Saltz has 33 lessons on how to be an artist. One of his lessons values copying as well:

Lesson 3: Don’t Be Afraid To Imitate

We all start as copycats, people who make pastiches of other people’s work. Fine! Do that. However, when you do this, focus, start to feel the sense of possibility in making all these things your own — even when the ideas, tools, and moves come from other artists. Whenever you make anything, think of yourself as entering a gigantic stadium filled with ideas, avenues, ways, means, and materials. And possibilities. Make these things yours. This is your house now.

Jerry Salz

So - this is my on line house. Welcome. And if you are a creative type trying to ‘find your voice’, your way of expressing yourself and you haven’t yet sorted it - consider copying those you admire for a while until you figure it out. That’s what I plan to do. I hope this helps.

L x

How To Write a Book Review

I have read thousands of books, and yet I have only written a very small handful of reviews over the years. It turns out I am not alone. Lots of people don’t write them. And yet, I read the reviews of others all the time. They help me to decide what to read. I decided it was time I pulled my weight and contributed a little more for the benefit of my fellow readers. I also wanted to support authors. By writing reviews, I can help to make their books more visible to others.

So - I have decided 2021 is going to be the year I start writing reviews more consistently. This got me thinking. What should I include? What type of book reviews do I like to read? My general thoughts are that I don’t like them to include spoilers for obvious reasons, and I don’t like them to be scathing and disrespectful of the author - that’s just awful. I do like them to be fairly short without too much detail revealing the plot. If the reviewer liked the book, then a little explanation of why they liked it is helpful and conversely, if they didn’t like it - why they didn’t. These same thoughts should also apply when reviewing a narrator on audible.

After thinking about and attempting to write my first review, I did some research to find guidance as to what is appropriate here. Wow - there is a lot of detail out there about how to write a book review. Rather than get overwhelmed, I decided to keep things simple.

As a novice book review writer, here are some rules of thumb I have chosen as to how best write a book review that I am posting here, for any of you who are interested.

I found many detailed guidelines for book reviews out there. I have created my own simple summary to use as my own guide (see below). You are welcome to use these yourself if you want to.

Book Review Guidelines

Basic Info - Title, Author, Series (if the book is part of a series)

A few sentences to describe what the book’s about. Some people include spoilers with spoiler alert warnings. I prefer no spoilers.

Discuss what I liked and why.

Discuss what I didn’t like and why.

Conclude with a summary of how I felt about the book and the impression it made. Give a rating. I plan to use the same ratings as goodreads, as that is where I post most of my reviews.

General Rules of Thumb

1. Don’t include spoilers. Just don’t. It’s not necessary.

2. Don’t be sarcastic or judgemental, Don’t make personal comments - authors put so much time and effort in. Be respectful.

That’s it! I will come back and edit this as I will no doubt learn as I go, but this is a good enough place for me to begin.

L x

What you can do to help your favourite authors (other than buy their books).

In the last couple of years I have been learning more about the craft of writing, and about the publishing industry. I always knew writing a book was a great challenge, but I don’t think I really understood just how much effort is involved in editing, generating the interest of a publisher, and how challenging it can be to make a living from writing.

I have bought a lot of books in my life time, and have been given many as well. When selecting a book from a book store, my choice would be based on a lot of different things: the cover, the blurb, the first few paragraphs, the genre, a recommendation from a friend. In recent years, I have bought most of my books on line - from audible or from an online store. In these situations, I look at reviews from other readers - in order to make my choice. I read reviews written by readers at the point of purchase, or on goodreads - and I tend to look at a few positive and a few not so positive reviews, before I make my choice.

While I always read reviews, I don’t really write them myself and until recently - I haven’t thought a lot about that. It turns out I am not alone. Only a fairly small percentage of people go to the trouble of writing a review for the books they read. I guess in my case, I saw reviews as something other people did, not me. I felt no one would be interested in my opinion. Who cares what I think? But of course, people do care. People just like me, who are trying to decide whether or not this particular book is one they would like to invest in. And it ’s not just other readers who have a strong interest in reviews, but authors too.

Obviously purchasing a book is a great way to support an author, and buying books as gifts or recommending them to friends also helps as does borrowing a book from a library. But when you take the time to write a review, that helps an author far more, because, simply put, book reviews put their books in front of more people and increases their chances of book sales, which ultimately enables them to write more books for you to enjoy!

So, I have decided I am going to make amends. In 2021, I’m going to make more of an effort to review the books I read, as a way of paying my respects to the author who took the time to write it and, to help other readers make selections on what to read. In order to meet this commitment, I will have to get my skates on though, as it is April already and I have already read 12 books this year without writing a single review!

It will likely not surprise you that learning how to write a decent book review sent me down yet another internet research rabbit hole.

Five Year Diary ~ So It Begins

I bought a 5 year diary today. For those of you who are not familiar with the concept, each page in the diary covers one day of the year and is divided into 5 sections, so each entry has space for just a few lines. For any given day, entry one will be the first year you start writing and then on the same day the following year, you add another entry below the first, until you have 5 years worth. 

Each page in the diary contains five year’s worth of entries for one specific day of the year. So, for 3 April there are spaces for five separate entries. When my diary is finished, there should be an entry on the same page for April 3 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025. Awesome, right? I have always been fascinated by this concept, but also a little daunted. I wondered if I would be disciplined enough to fill it out every day and keep going for five years! Every now and then, I would go and look at the different 5 year diaries available - and then talk myself out of it.

What changed my mind? Well - last weekend I picked up my journal. I don’t always write every day - but when I do, the entries are fairly detailed. I started to flick through the notes I wrote in 2020, and I was surprised how interesting it was to see what I was thinking back in Feb 2020 as opposed to now. I ended up reading the whole book from cover to cover and it was really awesome to have captured thoughts, feelings , poetry, ideas and other little scraps of paper, drawings and items of interest. Afterward, I realised that it would be great to look back on these journals more often and then I remembered the 5 year diary, where you can look back at the previous year entries as you go. I immediately decided to revisit the idea.

I had another look at what was available and found one by Midori that I loved. It has a pleasing fabric texture to the hard cover and some lovely gold lettering and imagery on the front. It also has cool little pictures within the pages. Most importantly of all, the diary is not bulky and the paper quality is just beautiful, as are all Midori products.

We were up in Melbourne earlier today and so I picked up my diary from Bookbinder’s Design in Little Collins Street, Melbourne. And so, it begins!

I am not sure how I will go with writing in it every day but I will keep you posted.

L x

Drawing Helps Your Writing

One of the things I’ve noticed since I began learning about drawing and painting is that I now notice details that would have escaped me previously. I always admired a lovely scene or a beautiful sky. But now I notice colour and light and shadow more. And I notice how quickly it changes as well. When looking at a tree, I think about the shape of the leaves, the texture of the bark, the colours of the foliage, the flowers. I think about details like that when I am out walking and something captures my attention. Or when I am in a crowd. Observing these details and how I would capture them through drawing or painting makes the world a more fascinating place than before, if that’s possible. It’s as though everything I have ever seen was somehow slightly blurry or dull and learning about drawing has suddenly brought everything into sharper relief.

The small details in a drawing engages the observer, capturing their imagination. So too, with writing. Now that I pay more attention to what I see, I have a richer source of detail to tap into when I’m writing as well. Creating memorable places for my characters to live in is easier to do. I have a broader range of description available and I see with eyes that are open to more nuance than ever before. It’s a whole new world.

My drawing skills have improved and though I am still very much a beginner, I find drawing very calming. It’s a great way to relax and I enjoy it. There’s something satisfying about finding a different form of expression that can still be captured in a notebook.

For those of you who are writers, you may want to consider learning a little about drawing or painting. It’s fun and it might be helpful for your writing too. To get started myself, I began watching random beginner lessons on you tube, and then I also did a couple of free beginner on line courses through my local library website. Enjoy.

L x

Multilayered Meaning in Art

Self Portrait by Lynda Barry. Credit: Drawn and Quarterly.

A while ago I watched an interview with renowned cartoonist Lynda Barry. Barry helps inspire people who say they can’t draw. Her sense of humour, empathy and wisdom work to help people of all ages to find ways to express themselves artistically.

Barry is very interested in the link between creativity and learning and has participated in some fascinating and illuminating research in these areas over the years. I hope to present more bite sized pieces of that research in future posts. 

I particularly love the way Barry describes drawings as representational images of memories which are multilayered. These images can include a number of elements: what happened; our impressions; how we felt; what we thought; what time of day it was; what season; and how the other person felt - or how we imagined them to feel. They can also be rich with colour, texture, taste, and even sound.

When documenting memories within drawings, it’s helpful to capture all these things in some way. This is a great concept to think about when drawing, but it’s also great to consider when writing as well. 

The Lynda Barry interview I watched is here. It’s long but worth it.

And here is a another shorter, fun presentation she gave:

Enjoy!

L x

Welcome

I love reading. I read a lot of stuff because I love researching things. I can go too far with it though. I have to careful I don’t wind up down some kind of internet rabbit hole and lose half my day. Sometimes I find amazing things. Other times, not so much. I love books too. Audio, electronic and actual, physical books. At the moment I read mostly fiction; books about writing; and also books about the creative process. 

When I catch up with friends and family I will often be relating something interesting I learned about recently, or I’ll be talking about a book I read. And they say “How do you find all this stuff? You should write a blog ..."

I have always written. I have kept a lot of journals over the years: travel logs, diaries, bullet journals, and creative writing notebooks. But they are not really in a sharable format. At least not yet.

I do sometimes wish I’d kept a running summary of the fascinating things I come across. Like most people, some things I’ve learned had a significant impact on, and become part of, my daily life. But others, I lose track of, or forget about. Hence this blog - which is going to be an online journal I hope to add to pretty consistently. I plan to share the things I am most interested in. Right now I am interested in creative writing, psychology, art, music, the creative process and other random esoteric things. 

Curious? Well. By all means follow along. You can find all my musings here. Alternatively, you might like to read my weekly newsletter instead. It will be a short list of half a dozen interesting things I have found over the last week.  It will keep it brief and fun. If you are interested in the same things I am, I’d love you to subscribe and let me know what you think. And if you find it’s not for you, well you can always unsubscribe -  no problem.

L x