Austin Kleon

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A negative approach

A page from Keep Going

“I keep thinking that I shall have no more to say,” said philosopher Mary Midgley, “and then finding some wonderfully idiotic doctrine which I can contradict.” She admitted it was “a negative approach, as they say, but one that doesn’t seem to run out.”

She was 81 when she said that. She wrote well into her 90s.

This is what writing often is for me: Making a list of everything stupid and idiotic that someone else is saying and then sitting down and trying to articulate the exact opposite.

There. Now you know my secret!

The washing up

“Right, you f—–er! I’m going to do the washing up.” — Withnail & I

I enjoyed Mike Powell’s recommendation of washing the dishes:

It became a welcome ritual, a ballast against the chaos of the everyday. And like any worthwhile practice — marriage, creativity, compassion — it engendered the kind of patience that lets you see how life is something to be managed, not conquered. You might finish a load, but you’ll almost always have another one coming.

(Every day is Groundhog Day.)

And later:

[M]ost of life is ordinary… ordinary isn’t the enemy but instead something nourishing and unavoidable, the bedrock upon which the rest of experience ebbs and flows.

Yes.

Airplane mode

One thing I didn’t even consider when writing Keep Going is that people would read the “Airplane Mode can be a Way of Life” chapter on an actual airplane!

I’m flying almost every day on tour this week, so I’ve been in airplane mode a lot. (Writing this from the Burbank Airport, however — never pay for wi-fi!)

 

How writer Kio Stark keeps going

My friend Kio Stark, author of the books Don’t Go Back To School and When Strangers Meet, sent me a message yesterday and I asked her if I could share it here. (Maybe we’ll make this a regular thing? We’ll see.) Here’s what she said:

I just wrote a new strangers newsletter, and not having sent one in 6 months, I realized that writing it is one of my best “keep going” strategies. It’s small and doable, and reminds me that I am good at writing. Because it’s about documenting interactions with strangers, it also pushes me to pay more attention when I’m out in public with other humans.

It started as a blog in 2009 — they were very short back then — as a way to keep in touch with my writing self while I had a day job. I used to write them on my lunch hour. They were maybe 100-150 words tops. The newsletter ones now are longer because I don’t have a day job anymore…

Kio told me that a lot of those short pieces on her blog eventually made it into her novel, Follow Me Down. (A very Show Your Work! type of case study.)

You can watch her TED talk and subscribe to her newsletter here.

New DJ set for My KUTX

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.

Here I am in the studio and here’s the setlist:

Keep Going is on sale now!

I wrote this book because I needed to read it. It’s my best one yet. You can get a copy here or anywhere books are sold.

If you’ve already read it and enjoyed it, please leave it a kind review on Amazon or Goodreads. Those help a ton.

Unboxing

A few days ago the big box of author copies of Keep Going arrived on my front step. This is one of my favorite points in the book timeline. I’m trying to savor the moment of holding something in my hand that I feel is the very best I can do.

Here’s the beginning of a Robert Frost’s “A Prayer in Spring”:

Oh, give us pleasure in the flowers to-day;
And give us not to think so far away
As the uncertain harvest; keep us here
All simply in the springing of the year.

It’s spring outside, but the harvest is in, and it is a good one.

Pre-order Keep Going and get a FREE print!

If you pre-order the book before midnight EST April 1, my friends at Workman will send you a free 8″ x 10″ print of my blackout poem, “Overheard on the Titanic.” (“I mean yes we’re sinking / but the music is exceptional.”) Details here. Pre-order sale is now over! (If you want a mini 6″ x 6″ print, tear out the page in Keep Going.)

Here’s a closer look at the print:

We made a book trailer

We were having dinner and I was trying to think up ideas for a Keep Going book trailer and I thought, “Why not just have Owen letter it?” (He’s six.) I asked him and he said sure and we shot it right there at the kitchen table and I edited it on my laptop in the bathroom while he took a tub. (I’m not sure if it’s going to be the book trailer, but it’s a book trailer!)

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