37 Comments

“What would it mean to be done for the day?” <-- one of the best questions ever. I spent every morning this week asking myself that question at breakfast and it's transformed my studio practice, how my days flow, and the time we spend together as a family in the evening. So much goodness came out of that sentence. Thank you for sharing it.

Expand full comment

Austin, would you ever consider sharing one of your book proposals from a former book? Proposals are SO HARD! They are also essential yet the one kind of writing that it's not easy to get examples of.

Expand full comment
author

That's not a bad idea. In the meantime, my agent has a nice webpage that has a book proposal template and other resource: https://www.twliterary.com/submissions/

And I think Anne Trubek occasionally runs a book proposal course — her newsletter is worth reading for everybody who wants something to do with the publishing industry... https://notesfromasmallpress.substack.com/p/book-proposal-course

Expand full comment

Thank you!

Expand full comment

Love the reminder to use simple tools! I'm finding that I'm feeling distanced and more disconnected when I write on my laptop. I need to get back to my journals and index cards! What do you do to manage the work of moving from hand or analog composition to making it digital and shareable?

Expand full comment
author

Hmm I don't know, I sort of consider the scanning or digitizing of work to be a crucial part of the process, a chance to sort of "proof" the thing, or set it in stone or something. It's a good idea to just budget time for the digitizing and sharing like you do for the making

Expand full comment

Last week I made my yearly pilgrimage to the (online) Levenger store. I bought paper, lovely thick paper that I’ve finally given myself permission to use. I bought gel pens and refills from Amazon. My husband always asks why I need more pens. Especially if I buy refills. They just seem to go walk-about. My note-taking and making system is complete. I also been known to grab slips of paper and yes, the occasional napkin and borrowed pen, because you just never know when someone will say something and all your shopping is not where you are.

Expand full comment
author

Hush, hubby! 😂

Expand full comment

Retail is not my preferred therapy, but I just saw that there is a book about weaving at Black Mountain College. I've been obsessed with Anni Albers for years and just read a biography of Ruth Asawa. This is an exciting find.

Expand full comment
author

Oh cool. Looks like a catalog of this show? https://www.blackmountaincollege.org/weaving/

There was an Anni Albers show at the Blanton recently that was small but awesome.

There's a marvelous book I own called LEAP BEFORE YOU LOOK that's a catalog of a BMC show I saw way back at the Wexner center in Columbus.

Expand full comment

I’ll keep an eye out for it. Thanks!

Expand full comment
Aug 23Liked by Austin Kleon

Best boy Jim Harrison also wrote on legal pads. Highly recommended his two small volumes of poetry: In Search of Small Gods and Dead Man’s Float (his final work) along with the book Conversations with Jim Harrison (my fave) if you want to completely fall in love with this ridiculously lovable man who has so much funny wisdom to share about life as an artist.

There’s also a half hour documentary that recently came out featuring JH called “All That Is Sacred”. You can watch it for free on YouTube. “In the late 1960s, poets, writers and musicians descend upon Key West to pursue their love of literature and fishing (and cocaine and acid). Tom McGuane is soon joined by friends Jim Harrison, Richard Brautigan, Russell Chatham and Jimmy Buffett. They create some of their generation's best art.” I think you would dig it. I was in tears by the end lol 🥲

Expand full comment
author

That doc sounds great — I'm very interested in Key West (Joy Williams did a guidebook I own about it, I love the movie THE BEACH BUM, and BAD MONKEY is set there, etc.)

Expand full comment

Austin, I so hope you have either read Pilgrim at Tinker Creek now, or will have the chance to soon. I read your posts with notebook-pencil-index card-banker box envy, but on finding you saying you had not yet read Annie Dillard's masterpiece, I found myself flummoxed. How could it be? You may need a new banker's box just for the reading of Pilgrim. Lots of note-worthy words in that book. Enjoy!

Expand full comment

Thank you for #5: you (always!) and Oliver Burkeman are my teachers today. Sharpening my pencil and opening my new notebook!

Expand full comment
author

go, go, go!

Expand full comment

Austin-- do you still do morning pages? I see you mentioned using a Safari pen for morning pages. You haven't mentioned them in a long time.

I use a Bee 6x9 notebook for my Commonplace Book, a steno pad for daily log, and a flat rolodex for addresses and passwords.

Expand full comment
author

yeah, I still do at least 3 pages in the morning, but they're not restricted to the way Julia Cameron says to do them. sometimes they're diary-like, sometimes they're me planning the day, sometimes they're just all over the place, or maps or drawings. but I fill at least 3 pages in the morning over breakfast

4 notebooks right now:

- big diary

- logbook

- pocket notebook for day-to-day notes

- commonplace diary

Expand full comment

I have four too:

--typed rambling morning pages (very un-Julia)--huge document with photos

--steno pad daily log, kind of Kanban--to do, doing, done

--steno pad for scribbles during the day

--art notebook, scrapbook, commonplace book

Plus my Writer's Block-- a word and image memoir tall stack of pages in sections

Expand full comment

Loved that article on being done for the day. I’ve been working at deciding enough’s enough and closing the loops so my brain doesn’t keep spinning. Just a little more to chew on there.

Expand full comment

Hey Austin, what have your answers looked like to the question “What would it mean to be done for the day?”

Expand full comment
author

Oh it changes day to day depending on what I need to do in the studio.

On Monday and Thursday, as long as I leave with a newsletter filed, the day can be done.

The other days are wild cards, just depending on the to-do list.

One thing I’ve been doing in my diary every morning is writing about what I want to do with the day, so I’ll build a little to-do list in my pocket notebook as I’m going. I think this is a very underrated thing to do with your diary: planning rather than retrospection. (I always have a “what happened” record that I keep in my logbook, so that frees me up to do whatever I want in the diary)

Expand full comment

Ah, I work in my diary in the evenings, so they take on a retrospective tint by default. What happened during the day, where did my mind go. Time to consider incorporating planning and looking ahead!

Expand full comment

Raul the Third drew the beautiful Lowrider's in Space series with Bic ball point pens on paper grocery bags. That has always amazed me and driven home the point that you don't always need fancy supplies.

Expand full comment
author

He’s great. Also check out Emil Ferris’s MY FAVORITE THING IS MONSTERS

Expand full comment

I love Colle. I receive their newsletter, and it's always great to discover new collage artists. I became interested in collage after reading about Janice McDonald. She has been famous for creating daily collages for the past few years. Additionally, she makes flip-through videos that I find very soothing to watch.

If you want look her up: https://www.janicemcdonald.com/blog/about-my-collage-diary-a-social-media-phenomenon

Expand full comment

Thanks for introducing me to Janice! Love it.

Expand full comment
Aug 23Liked by Austin Kleon

I purchase soap erasers from Dick Blick 1”x2”x1/2”. They come in boxes of 12. I carve them for stamping on my art work. If you several together on a piece of plexiglass you have a larger stamp! I use ink pads, fiber paints and dyes.

Expand full comment
author

Oh that’s a fun idea, putting them together

Expand full comment

Anne Lammot also writes on index cards.

Expand full comment
author

She does! Can't believe I forgot to include: https://austinkleon.com/2018/02/17/a-fresh-pack-of-cards/

Expand full comment
Aug 23Liked by Austin Kleon

And don't forget the noble pencil. Both Hemingway and Steinbeck wrote with pencils. I have some friends who do paper restoration, and they say pencils are much better to use than the ball point pen.

Expand full comment
author

Yeah this is a big secret with pencil: the graphite actually holds up over time and doesn’t fade — even if you put a notebook through the wash, pencil will often hold.

Expand full comment

You are absolutely right. I have a friend who was attempting to restore a Nobel laureate's science notes. He was also a physician so made notes with a ball point pen and then folded the paper several times to fit in is lab coat pocket. She kept saying, "I wished he had used a pencil."

Expand full comment