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Imitate or innovate?

Less searchable M0rd4nt

06:55 / 20.05.02

So I'm pretty good at cobbling stuff together from different source to make something new, yeah? But I'm less good at coming up with fresh stuff of my own. I can bet on having one, maybe two, original ideas per year, maybe one useable original concept every couple of years.

And I'm bored of it. I know that to an extent all creative endevour is built on the work that's gone before, but some people still seem to come up with new ideas, new approaches.

Is this just how I am? Do I lack some vital ability- call it genius, call it whatever- that allows others to innovate? Or is it something that can be changed, something that can be worked at?

Saveloy

08:27 / 20.05.02

I read somewhere that David Lynch attributed a particularly fertile creative period of his life to his habit of putting 4 or 5 sugars into his coffee (or was it tea?). Probably important to note that this was drunk in a favourite cafe - a place that matches the offender profile for places condusive to daydreaming:

- public
- allow solitude
- unthreatening
- quiet, stylewise

Public transport (during quiet times of day) is also great for this. You want somewhere quiet but which throws little nuggets of unexpected inspiration your way.

that

09:14 / 20.05.02

So did he stop putting sugar in his hot beverage, or did the sugar kick just stop benefitting his creative faculties? Or did the cafe close? What happened, man? Enquiring minds wanna know.

Of course, with 17 calories per spoonful, well...

Lurid Archive

10:39 / 20.05.02

I think I had an original idea about five or six years ago and it has kept me going since then. As I've got older, I've realised that it wasn't actually very original. If it had been, fame and glory might have been mine.

I can't really speak generally, but in what I do originality is rare. Mostly, people are competent and insightful.

The Sinister Haiku Bureau

11:33 / 20.05.02

I'm not convinced that making the distinction between 'development' and 'creativity' is a useful one, I suspect if you look hard enough, you can see elements of pure inventiveness in even the most simple acts of 'development' and see all sorts of precursors in the supposedly 'original'. Maybe it just takes a buttload of slightly original ideas to mutate together and feed off each other to become something entirely new.
But, on the subject of ways to increase your creativity, this is the one I find most useful. I've mentioned this guy before, win wenger, but I find his ideas very interesting and fairly useful, and I've had mixed results using his techniques, sometimes really impressive, sometimes less so. The rest of the site's kind of interesting as well.
I find marajuana helps as well.

We're The Great Old Ones Now

13:03 / 20.05.02

Just take what you have and push it that bit further. Which you already know. You're one of the most imaginative people I know, I think.

But 'originality' is a vexed issue, as any number of regular barbelith posters will tell you. And film studios and publishers want things which are original but not incomprehensible.

I'm sulking right now because I keep writing things you could make on a small budget. I want to do epic. I'm also peeved because I keep turning to obvious structures, and whilst the results are not predictable, the process is, and I want to surprise myself.

Maybe you need to stop writing what you know: go find something interesting about which you know nothing. Perhaps it will take you somewhere new.

Saveloy

14:04 / 20.05.02

Cholister>

Don't know the rest of the story, sorry. Probably he fell out of the habit without thinking about it and then made the creativity connection later on.

Actually, is there a decent Lynch bio or autobio about?

higuita

14:05 / 20.05.02

I've always found a good length of solitude, insomnia and the sense that you're about five wednesdays away from insane tends towards being the most fruitful time for creative endeavour.

This may not be a route you care to follow (I certainly wouldn't recommend it, as it has a zombie-bognor rating on the funometer) but it certainly helped with my thesis.

Be happy you're having original ideas. Some artists only ever have one, and live off it for the rest of their lives. Some have a couple of really big embarrassing ones (paging Mr Hirst, you have a call on the bifurcated picklephone) and the rest of their work is coloured and put in the shade by association.

Things could be worse - your idea of creativity could be forestalling next week's eastenders storyline.

[Is forestalling the right word? I do hope so. I'm having the most tremendous trouble with my vocabulary recently. My apologies if a few pages of my dictionary have got glued together.]

Saint Keggers

15:37 / 20.05.02

Im always at my most creative point in the day at four in the morning. Just when the sun begins to lighten the sky. The birds start chirpping.
Although sometimes I get over creative and then spend the next few weeks in a depressed state because what I create isnt as awe-inspiring as the thoughts that spawned it.

rizla mission

15:58 / 20.05.02

I remember Kurt Vonnegut saying in some essay somewhere that all works ogf art can be split into two catergories - those that are created from the artist's direct experience of life, and those that are created from the conventions and history of the medium in question..

..then he proceeds to get all snotty and say that the former is better than the latter, and he is it, but, er, I still think it's a good way of looking at matters of originality..

I tend to think energy and intent are more important than originality anyway..

Fist Fun

17:51 / 20.05.02

Creativity just hits me by suprise sometimes. I think you just had to do what you are doing and if it comes it comes. Cross-polinate, as well. Hit projects on different sides. Read widely.
Another helpful thang is to really master the basics. I was stuck a while ago on a programming thing I was doing. Couldn't get past a certain stage. Went back started studying the basic concepts from scratch, this allowed me to overcome the bump and break into new areas that do allow creativity.

Murray Hamhandler

19:34 / 20.05.02

I'm not entirely sure that "originality" even exists anymore. Here's a test. Disseminate the most original idea you've ever had through mainstream channels. Then pore through various internet message boards (pertaining to whatever medium you used) to see just how many people pointed out all of the ways that your idea couldn't be any less original (w/examples, of course). I don't think that we should strive for novelty, as it's seemingly impossible to come by and largely unnecessary in light of all of the good ideas in the world that are just waiting for you to put your own unique twist on them. Put an established idea throught the wringer of your own sensibilities and worldview. That's probably about as close to originality as you're likely to come.
Arthur Sudnam, II

Rage

19:59 / 20.05.02

Oh so many original ideas of genius that I've had.

If only I could remember them.

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