Showing My Work

Yesterday, I read Austin Kleon’s book Show Your Work. I experienced oscillating tingles of optimism and surges of energy to capital-C Create. These were familiar sensations–things felt when I read Steven Pressfield's The War of Art (and it's even more distilled sibling, Do the Work), and Rick Rubin/Neil Strauss’s The Creative Act. While the books from Pressfield and Rubin/Strauss are beautifully written, Kleon’s book contained the right mixture of humor and practicality to motivate me to take measurable action: I will channel his Creative coaxing into more consistent posting here on Stan K. Richard's blog.

In chapter 3 of the book, “Share Something Small Every Day,” Kleon lays out Sturgeon’s Law:

Science fiction writer Theodore Sturgeon once said that 90 percent of everything is crap. The same is true of our own work. The trouble is, we don’t always know what’s good and what sucks. That’s why it’s important to get things in front of others and see how they react.

Sturgeon’s Law is a comforting redoubt from the perspective of a neurotic comedic blogger. It prompted me to look back at some of my older posts on this blog—posts that I was too precious with, posts that I over-analyzed to the point of letting them sit in ‘drafts’ for weeks at a time—and Sturgeon’s Law held up. At least 90% of this site could probably be considered crap, despite the fact that every post felt fraught at the time of publishing—could this post be the one that launches me into comedic stardom, or will it cause me to be fired from my day job?

Henceforth, I will be getting back to business. I will post daily-ish in a variety of formats. The blog site will reflect more of my personality and range of interests, and hopefully, you the audience member will reflect your personality and interests back to me (via comment section, via email).