The Truth About Creativity
Let's have an honest chat about creativity. What it is, what it isn't and what it can do for you.
Ask a designer or an artist or a musician or a writer or anyone that deals in creativity, where they get their ideas. I'll bet you a case of beer that they say something non-committal like "they just come to me" or "I draw inspiration from all around". Yeah, nah.
The real answer is that they take them. Steal them even. But "stealing" is such an emotive word, so let us stick to "take" for now. Yep, even that artist that you really, really like. Bowie, Mozart, Scorsese, Michelangelo, Dr Seuss and even little ole' me. But that is OK. In fact, that is better than OK, that is GREAT and exactly as it should be.
Don't just take my word for it, ask T.S. Eliot:
"Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal; bad poets deface what they take, and good poets make it into something better, or at least different. The good poet welds his theft into a whole or feeling which is unique, utterly different from that from which it was torn"
You can tell he meant this because he lifted most of that quote from Walt Whitman.
Want a more spiritual guide? Even the bible backs me up here...
"there is nothing new under the sun" (Ecclesiastes 1:9)
"Oh no!" I hear you wail. "We have to be original. We are pioneers, we don't copy"
Copying would be looking at the house next door and saying "I want to build one just like that". Creativity is looking at the house next door and saying "That's a great house, but how can I take what they have done and make it even better?"
"We are the fresh voice of our industry"
Fear not and let Nobel laureate André Gide guide you:
"Everything that needs to be said has already been said. But, since no one was listening, everything must be said again."
Playing the ancestral re-mix
Think of it like genetics. We are essentially the re-mix of our parents and our ancestors. We may take on their features, their culture, their mannerisms, their accent or their fears, but we also get to add something uniquely us to the mix. If you are doing it right, then you will become more than just the sum of your parents.
Creativity is the same deal, except this time you get to decide who your family are.
"We got to pick and choose the ancestors who would inspire the world we were going to make for ourselves." (Jay-Z)
"So what am I paying you for?"
What you pay for is the skill of knowing what is worth taking, and how to apply it to your project.
What creativity can do for you...
Copying is the old cliche that tells aspiring authors to "write about what you know".
Creativity is instead writing the book that you want to read. Producing the art you that want to feel. Making the music that you want to hear or producing the film you want to see.
Without creativity you will only ever be the business you are or you were, but add some creativity and you can become the business that you want to be (or something like that).
alex@travelscribe.com - (+61) 0434 080688