The Things That Keep Us Bound.
I find myself stuck on the originality hamster wheel, where I keep torturing myself and overanalysing every project I want to do, examining it through the hard light of originality.
What does an original work mean?
Is there any such thing as something that has been created with zero influences? Aren’t they elements from an iteration of something that already was, just looked at from a different perspective?
How does perspective come about? Isn’t it from getting things that are and playing with them, like LEGO pieces? For example, take 2 or 3 LEGO pieces, things that are already in existence, then while playing, you combine them in a way perhaps no one has ever done, you are said to have created an original shape.
Point is, you let yourself play with what already is, then if you play with it long enough, you start making combinations that are unique to you, but you first need to know yourself enough for you to infuse yourself and your uniqueness into it.
So, which comes first? Finding yourself or doing stuff? I think we find ourselves in the doing.
What is an original poem or fiction? You use existing words and combine them in ways that are unique to you.
Using songwriting as an example of creative work, songwriter Pete Seeger, had the following to say about the process;
“Don’t be so all-fired concerned about being original. You hear an old song you like, but you’d like to change a little, there’s no crime in changing a little”
“It’s a process. It’s not any particular song, it’s not any particular singer. It’s a process by which ordinary people take over old songs and make them their own-
“I look upon myself and other songwriters as links in a long chain. All of us we’re links in a chain. And if we do our job right, there will be many, many links to come.”
“Even the most original song you can think of is liable to have a good deal of tradition in it. After all, the major scale and the minor scale were invented thousands of years ago… And the English language was invented a long time ago, and the phrases that we use. And we’re just rearranging these ancient elements.”
Austin Kleon, in his book “Steal Like an Artist”, says it’s not about literal theft. It’s about inspiration, not imitation. He says all creative work builds on what came before.
Just like Kirby Ferguson says, “Everything is a remix: The most dramatic results can happen when ideas are combined. By connecting ideas, creative leaps can be made, producing some of history’s biggest breakthroughs.” “Creativity isn’t magic: it happens by applying ordinary tools of thought to existing materials. And the soil from which we grow our creations is something we scorn and misunderstand, even though it gives us so much — and that’s… copying.”
Kleon says “Stealing like an artist” means studying the work that inspires you, understanding it deeply, and transforming it into something uniquely yours. It’s about remixing, reinterpreting, and reimagining ideas through your lens.
My note to self and to everyone else struggling with mental naysayers getting in the way of bringing whatever it is we want to bring to life is this: get over yourself and the arrogance of thinking we can all, by ourselves, create something truly original without any influences.
People who are biased toward action, I call them high velocity people, have an idea and they run with it, they find their unique angle in the process of doing.
To be “original” / creative, you need to do.
Keep going,
Ije