Hugh Macleod is a writer (on his blog gapingvoid.com) and cartoonist.
He’s best known for his writing, which features his signature sketches, which are drawn on the back of business cards.
If I could sum this book up in one sentence, it would be:
Work hard, be consistent in your creative pursuit, be yourself and authentic, and put your stamp on the creative process.
Ignore Everybody is comprised of 39 nuggets of wisdom that aim to help you and I in our creative endeavours.
He talks in the book about being a child at nursery.
And what do children do at nursery?
They play with crayons.
Our creative pursuit is a way for us to play with crayons, so to speak, as adults.
For me, blogging is my way of playing with crayons.
It’s play.
I try to remind myself of this when I don’t feel like writing.
But then I remembered a quote I read in Carl Jung’s Book, Modern Man In Search of a Soul:
“Man is completely human only when he is playing”.
Then it dawned on me that the creative act is no easy feat.
Yet the feeling, once the creative act is completed, imbues one with a sense of euphoria ( from my experience).
Humans have been playing with crayons for millennia (figuratively speaking).
You just need to look at sites like the Gobustan National Park in Azerbaijan, where some drawings are 40,000 years old.
Anyway, let’s get to the Takeaways:
1. The sovereignty you have over your work will inspire far more people than the actual content ever will. How your own sovereignty inspires other people to find their own sovereignty, their own sense of freedom and possibility, will give the work far more power than the work’s objective merits ever will.
There’s one thing that separates good writers from bad writers.
The good writers show up every day, no matter how they feel.
They do the work no matter what.
That’s why they sell the most books, have the most impact, and are, in essence, successful in the first place.
They exercise the sovereignty they have over their work.
They take responsibility for their work.
And above all, they ship the work.
And it’s only when you ship the work that you can inspire others to do the same.
2. Doing anything worthwhile takes forever. Ninety percent of what separates successful people and failed people is time, effort, and stamina.
Are you willing to show up every day (or at least most days)?
Are you willing to think in terms of decades rather than years?
Are you able to see the bigger picture?
Are you able to find joy in the work?
These are all important questions we should ask ourselves about our commitment to the creative act.
If the answer is yes to these questions we’re bound to leave our mark on the world.
Not for wholly selfish reasons but to help ourselves and help others.
It’s entirely possible to be selfish and unselfish at the same time.
I think this is required to live a happy life.
But most of all, you need to find joy in your work.
Everything else springs from this.
Especially in the creative act.
3. Nobody suddenly discovers anything. Things are made slowly and in pain.
Ernest Hemingway once said:
“There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.”
The creative act is slow and painful.
But above all.
It’s worthwhile.
One of the most famous artists in history is Michelangelo.
It took him four years to paint the fresco in the Sistine Chapel, Vatican City.
It was mentally and physically demanding.
And no doubt he would have suffered physical and mental pain.
But if you go to the Sistine Chapel ( like I did in April), you will see why Michelangelo is held in such high regard.
It’s because his artwork is truly sublime.
This level of sublime only arises through hard work and pushing one’s artistic abilities to the limit.
4. MAKING A BIG DEAL OVER YOUR CREATIVE shtick to other people is the kiss of death. That’s all I have to say on the subject.
I couldn’t agree more with this quote.
If you want to be a writer, you write.
What you don’t do is tell your friends and family, “ I’m working on this book,” “ I write this and that,” or “ I want to be a New York Times best-selling author.”
No, no, no.
A real writer does two things.
He reads a lot.
He writes a lot.
He doesn’t make a big deal over his writing.
If people ask him about it, he always downplays the writing and dismisses it as a hobby.
This helps him do two things:
Takes the pressure away from him so he can focus on the art.
Allows him to make his unique art without modifying it to win the approval of others who don’t care.
5. “Your book has thirteen chapters,” I say. “Voilà! That’s thirteen blog posts. One chapter per blog post. Put it online, and you’ll have a book offer within six months. Trust me.”
In the book, Hugh recalls a time when he had dinner with a friend named Marie.
She wants to write a book, but is more interested in cuddling up to the powers that be in the publishing world (to get her book published ) than writing it on a blog and trialing it out online.
Hugh recommends that if you want to write a book, you should not worry about publishers or the powers that be.
Write one article per chapter of the book you plan on writing and see how its received online.
If people resonate with your writing, great.
If not, then you move on to the next writing project.
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