Set up a day that works and do it over and over again

Tuesday, April 9, 2019

As if summarizing chapter one of Keep Going, here’s writer Neil Gaiman on the Tim Ferriss podcast (transcript):

Part of what I discovered, particularly about being a novelist, is writing a novel works best if you can do the same day over and over again. The closer you can come to Groundhog Day, you just repeat that day. You set up a day that works for yourself.

Want to be an artist? Watch Groundhog Day.

Earn it in reverse

Monday, April 8, 2019

My wife sent me this interview from The Cut with Disney heiress Abigail Disney about what it’s like to live with more money (that you didn’t earn) than you’ll ever need. I sent it to my editor, who said, “At first, I wondered why I was wasting my time reading this and by the end I wanted to know this woman.”

Disney talks a lot about how being rich alienates you from people of all regular walks of life, and describes the steps she’s taken to make sure she doesn’t lose touch with reality. “Just like I watched my father increasingly surround himself with yes men, I started to deliberately surrounding myself with no ladies.” (See: “The Need for Eyerollers.”)

At one point, talking about her fortune, Disney says, “My philosophy is you try to earn it in reverse.”

I love that. Whatever luck you’ve had, you might feel like you don’t deserve it, and, actually, you might be right. (If you’ve read my 3 thoughts on publishing, you know one of my favorite lines is from Unforgiven: “Deserve’s got nothing to do with it.”)

Many people would tell those who’ve had good fortune, “No, you do deserve what you have! Don’t give into imposter syndrome!” I like this other approach, which leads you to new work: Why don’t you try to earn it in reverse?

New DJ set for My KUTX

Sunday, April 7, 2019

I recorded a DJ set for My KUTX in early 2017, and it was one of the highlights of my year, so I was thrilled that Art Levy invited me back into the studio to do a set of songs that kept me going while writing Keep Going.

Art also had some really kind words for the book:

Zine-like in appearance, jumbling together comics, poetry, and artistic advice. The homemade aesthetic and Kleon’s sense of humor help these books transcend the self-help genre that they’re nominally filed under. Kleon’s new book, Keep Going, is especially potent, the kind of book that desperately needed to be written right now. Its starting point is the dilemma that a lot of people are facing: how do we keep making art in a world that just keeps getting messier, and what role does creativity play during anxious times?

You can stream the set online, and if you like the tracks, I made a playlist of them over on Spotify.