Create what you wish existed
How to navigate the paradox of originality, authenticity, and imitation
Hi there! You’re reading the Bonfire newsletter from Kevan Lee & Shannon Deep. We’re hosting a FREE event on June 24 about the hidden rules running your life 😱. It’s a values workshop you’re gonna love. It’d be great to see you there!
On originality
Does the world really need more content?
The question seems rhetorical—of course, practically-speaking, the answer is “no,” as evidenced by the ocean of content we’re already drowning in and have been drowning in since the 2010s. AI, with its longwinded answers, is certainly not helping either. The world needs a lot of things right now, but more blogs and TikToks and Substacks are not top of the list.
Besides, hasn’t everyone already said all there is to say about [fill-in-the-blank topic]?
These two questions—one about volume and one about sameness—stop an astounding number of would-be creators in their tracks.
We talk often with folks who are interested in making something new only to be discouraged by the volume and sameness of what’s already out there. And it’s frustrating and sad because the people we talk to have so many interesting things to say!
It doesn’t need to be this way.
Most meaningful ideas are not waiting for one person to say them once. They need to be said many times, in many ways, by many people, in front of many different audiences. The goal is not always to discover untouched territory. Sometimes the goal can be to bring your taste, context, and care to territory that already exists.
There is room for your original voice, and there is power in creating what you wish existed—whether you’re doing so for public consumption or creating something only for you.
You can erase so much of the friction of starting something new by embracing a new perspective. That’s what we’ll try to do in this newsletter, give you some new ways of looking at what you previously felt as “stop” energy. Ironically, in doing so, we’ll be creating more content and plumbing a topic that others have plumbed before—including ourselves!
Let’s jump in.
The originality paradox
1 - Originality is not about being first
A lot of people avoid creating because they feel like someone else has already made the thing or said the thing or written the thing. But originality is rarely about being first. Originality comes from:
Angle
Voice
Taste
Evidence
Examples
Timing
Format
Audience
Personal experience
So many things!
The question is not whether the topic is untouched. The question is what you want to bring to the topic.
No doubt you can think of countless examples of things that you enjoy that were not the very first of their kind. Probably even things you yourself have made in the past. A very obvious one for me is this newsletter: People have been making newsletters for a very long time, many of which are about marketing and branding and career and creativity. Nevertheless, here we are! Another newsletter, but this one is all about what WE want to bring to the topic.
2 - You’ll be in good company. Everyone steals.
Austin Kleon wrote an entire book—truly built his entire personal brand—on the idea that great artists steal. All artists steal.
And would you believe he’s not the first person to make that observation? Artists and creators have been talking about stealing inspiration for years.
“Originality is nothing but judicious imitation.”
— Voltaire
“Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal.”
— T. S. Eliot
“The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.”
— Einstein
“There is nothing new under the sun.”
— the Bible
Originality is not about being first, and it’s not about being wholly new. The act of creativity is one of connecting the dots of disparate ideas, which by their very nature need to exist in order for you to create them. It’s hard (impossible?) to be a creative person without drawing from the world around you and being inspired, motivated, and encouraged by the work of others.
3 - The problem isn’t repetition; it’s shallow imitation
The problem is not that someone else has already explored your topic. This doesn’t need to stop you from doing your thing. It gets problematic, at the intersection of creativity and content glut, when creators merely repeat a topic without adding anything to it.
How do you avoid shallow imitation?
Iterative work always adds something:
A sharper frame
A better example
A lived story
A clearer explanation
A new audience
A more honest tone
A more timely context
Shallow imitation, on the other hand, does the opposite. It borrows the surface of an idea without the substance underneath. It repeats the headline, the structure, the vocabulary, or the aesthetic, but it does not make the thing more useful, more specific, more generous, more true, or more alive.
Here’s one way to think about it:
Not: Has this been done before?
But: Do I need/want my version of this to exist?
That question can be much more useful because it moves you away from comparison and toward contribution. Maybe the world does not need another essay about creativity in general. But it might need your essay about a specific creative block you keep seeing in your work. Maybe the world does not need another art project, but you do — because of what you have to say, what you want to explore, or simply because you like making things and you feel joy in doing so.
4 - Create the version YOU wish existed
5 - You have what it takes!
These last two points are deeply intertwined. We have our intellectual knowing: It’s one thing to understand the true definition of originality, to not fear adding to the content pile, to believe that it’s valuable for your new creative work to exist, whether for an audience or just for you. It’s a whole ‘nother thing to then do something about it!
It’s easy to make art. It’s hard to express yourself.
Some of this comes down to confidence: Sometimes when people tell us they fear the trap of sameness, what they’re really wondering is how well they’ll be able to translate the authentic voice and POV into something IRL. I can relate. (And I have plenty of examples of times when I did not succeed in my translation.)
But if we can leave you with one word of encouragement, it’s this: You are creative! You can figure it out.
Sometimes it just takes repetition to get you closer and closer to the thing you actually want to be saying with your creative work.
Sometimes it takes permission (please feel free to use this substack as your permission slip).
But once you get creating, you’ll see that the work you come up with is unique and valuable on whatever terms you want it to be: public-facing, personal-to-you, and everything in between.
What will you make?
No need to worry about volume or sameness. With a new perspective on originality, what will you create next?
We’d love to hear what you’re up to. Drop us a note in the comments or by email anytime.
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