5 tips from steal like an artist book

Every creator goes through the phase where he thinks maybe upgrading the setup or affording a paid tool to help you become efficient but this book says otherwise. You can do all the things with the bare minimum you have.

Everybody loves to do something in their free time. For some it is writing, for some, it is painting. There is a wide range of things you can do, but the commonalities between these creative hobbies are standard for all.

These commonalities are rules that help us get inspired, market our work, and lastly, keep going. And the one author who has understood and written books for us that help us build our core commonalities is Austin Kleon.  

His trilogy of Steal like an artist is a must-read for every artist, and hobbyist, and not to sound too pushy but for every individual.

In this post, I will share 5 tips from his first book of the trilogy called - Steal Like An Artist so that every one of you can seek help in your creative pursuits.

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Tip -1 Steal like an artist:

All creative work builds on something that has been made before. Nothing in the world is completely original.

Save your thefts (ideas from others that you steal) for later - You need to have lots of little pieces of work from others that you can share. This comes in handy when you want to make a point or when you feel uninspired to look up and re-write them in your way.

What Austin means to say is –

Stealing is seeking inspiration in the creative world. You must be open to working from inspiration and also celebrate the victories of others.

We must seek inspiration from people and try to make it better with our input. As a writer, my inspiration mostly comes from fellow bloggers, authors, movies, and TV shows.

The only rule you have to follow while stealing is to give proper credit. Suppose you are a writer and your inspiration is coming from another writer's essay or a blog post. You must add a link to his blog and mention that this is taken from there and then input your thoughts on top of the piece.  

Tip - 2 Do good work and share it with people:

You have to enjoy your obscurity. Once you start gaining people's attention, you can't experiment a lot. There may be a few downsides. So, enjoy the obscurity.

People are generally too busy and don't care about your work unless it's good. You will get there, but in the meantime try out different things, experiment, start multiple projects, and stick to what works.

Nobody starts out with a huge audience. It comes with time. But, that is good, according to the author. He says, if you gained a huge audience in less time, You won't be able to explore different things and experiment with different ideas.

So, instead of looking for ways to reach a bigger audience, do good work and keep sharing them(more on this in future posts). It can be a small amount of work, but make sure to do good.

Tip - 3 Be Boring:

It's The Only Way To Get Work Done. Take care of yourself.

The whole image of leaving the job to pursue the life you want is being played out for too long and I see a little change where people are investing a lot more time in taking care of themselves. Building better relationships with health, money, and people.

Austin talks about the lifestyle when he means to be boring. The whole act of leaving a job to pursue your dream is boring and played out too many times. Austin xxx us to be at the desk job and keep working on the things you love at the side.

This way he will be able to put food on the table for the family while slowly achieving his dream.

So, be boring. Stick to a plan and keep working on it.

Tip - 4 Stay out of debt:

Stay out of debt. Learn about money as soon as you can. Live within your means. Save as much as you can. Keep your day job until you have made enough to live off things you do what you truly love. A job can offer connection with people and a monthly stable money flow to run your family. Spend quality time with your family.

The ideas come from daily work too. So, keep looking for it.

In order to have a life that is efficient to make you work on your dream after work is if you stay out of debt.

You need to be able to manage and reduce your expenses. Track your progress and reach out to as many people as you can and tell them about your work.

If done properly, you will be recognized for the work you do.

Tip - 5 Creativity is Subtraction:

Choose what to leave out. Figuring out what to leave out will get you way ahead. Placing constraints can bring you back into the creative zone. When it comes to creative work, limitations mean freedom.

Don't make excuses instead you can build something with what you have. Limitations can bring in better innovations you may have never thought about.

When starting out we may think about bringing in all the creativity we need and start complexing our system. Well, this is a neat way to say less is more.

No matter how quickly you want to create your artwork, it will be possible to do it often and for a long time only by doing it brick by brick.

Oftentimes, you don't need all the other eccentrics that will lead you to better results. For example, you may think being active on all social media platforms is necessary. But in reality, you can start out with one and keep sharing your work.

Interesting art comes from subtracting the work you already did.

I used to subscribe to all the softwares that helped me be more efficient but at last now only have two softwares I use a lot. One is Ghost (for hosting my blog) and the other is Canva pro (for graphics and media posts).  

I am also going to say this as being a writer for more than 2 years, that once you realize you can do things with less.

You can go on to read the entire book summary from here. Or grab a book in paperback from amazon here.

Please do yourself a favor and check out the author's newsletter and website from here.

You will seriously grab a lot of inspiration and ideas to cultivate in your own creative routines.

That's it for today. Thank you for reading.

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Until then, wake up, drink coffee, and keep creating😉.