Letter 1
TIME:
Tuesday, December 13, 2022; 11:12 a.m.
TITLE:
The Daily Dispatch
Dear Reader:
I’m taking a cue from two influences today: Scott Scheper (the man who is revitalizing the Zettelkasten with his ideas about the ANTINET) in the idea of letters as a way to blog, and that of Austin Kleon’s concept of the daily dispatch as a means of showing your work.
I like the idea of letters. I write letters to friends and family. So why, then, shouldn’t I write letters to the person reading this? Dear reader, if I don’t address this to you, who am I writing for?
So you can imagine my amazement when I came across Scott Scheper’s “emails”. He started these emails not a full year ago and already he’s amassed more than 52 “emails” to the reader.
I adore this concept. It seems like such an easy way to blog. I might be a good academic writer, but blogging has always eluded me. I barely have more than a handful of posts, and I’ve had this website for over two years.
So, letters it is.
But the bulk of this letter, dear reader, is actually to highlight a book I’ve been rereading: Austin Kleon’s Show Your Work.
I first picked up this book in early 2022 after YouTuber Ali Abdaal recommended it in one of his “book talks”. I recall reading it in one sitting but, as someone with ADHD, I don’t think I really parsed all of the information contained within such a small book.
I was feeling down recently about not having that much of a portfolio to show people, even though I do a lot of work in my free time. I saw Show Your Work on my shelf and thought, “Well, maybe I’ll give it another shot.“
Dear friend, this book really has been reshaping how I approach my own self-promotion.
I struggle to promote myself and my work. Ironically, that’s essentially what I went to undergrad for. There, I studied theatre, a performance degree, and yet I hated sharing myself and my work on social media.
And so, when I turned to the academic, dramaturgical side of theatre, although I had a decent amount of work on my computer, none of it was shared online.
How are people like you, dear reader, going to see the work that I do if I don’t share it?
This is where Austin Kleon’s idea of the “Daily Dispatch” comes in. Although I have ADHD, I can certainly try to post a snippet of my work online on my Twitter profile or on my Mastodon profile.
Kleon’s theory ties two ideas in his book together. 1) Be a documentarian of your work, and 2) Share something small every day.
The first half of this idea requires you to turn your end-of-the-day work, no matter how small, into something visible and “tangible” through the screen. I tend to take a lot of notes in my ANTINET system, which produces physical notes of what I do.
I’m in the influences stage of my development, where I’m reading and intaking a lot of information, but not putting a lot out. So, then, the documentation of what I do will be what I’m influenced by on any given day.
The second half of this process is to share that something, however small, every day. After a year (if posting consistently is your thing, which is very difficult for me), you’d have 365 posts about what you do. Thus, a visible portfolio of your work.
Dear reader, this is such a small thing to do and at the same time a powerful tool! If I could only point an artistic director to my Twitter, or my Mastodon, and say, “Look! This is what I do and what I’m thinking about,” and have them corroborate it? That’s an incredible thing.
And not only that but, in the process of sending out the daily dispatch, you’d be able to gain a following of people interested in your work. Chances are, if you’re interested in something and are doing interesting work, others will be interested in what you do as well.
This reminds me of a skill I learned while reading The Slight Edge by Jeff Olson: Every day you have the opportunity to work towards something, or away from something. Even if you work to build your skill or following 1% (heck, even 0.5%) every day, by the end of an entire year, you’ve built yourself up by 365% (182.5%). It’s such a small concept, but it develops the slight edge over others that you may need to get a job, or to be the kind of person you want to be.
With the daily dispatch, you can grow your work’s online portfolio.
I hope that, combined with my activity on Twitter, Mastodon, and these Letters here, I can build up a portfolio of my own work, past, present, and future.
And I hope that these thoughts can influence your own creativity and daily discipline.
Now: Go out and produce something!
You have it in you already.
My regards,
Ryan Rappaport
END TIME:
Tuesday, December 13, 2022; 12:17 p.m.