Don’t try to be original was some of the best creativity advice I ever received.

The internal imagination can be SO judgmental!

I think there’s a certain nerdy subset of the “creative” personality type that tends to get obsessed with the need to be ORIGINAL.

I’m one of them. Cookie-cutter formulas are the devil. Redundancy drives me nuts. I try my damnedest to avoid repeating myself, like ever. So much so, that during one songwriting phase, I wrote lyrics that had no chorus. If someone had pointed out that I still had a repeating musical section, I probably would’ve nixed it as well.

Realizing how much this obsession had been holding me back, I had to learn that there are other ways to be creative where copying is actually encouraged. Whereas I’d always looked down on “crafters” who enjoyed following recipes and instructions, I discovered that I did really enjoy reverse engineering and copying audio equipment… and eventually gave into the joy of just photocopying the circuit boards and reprinting them for my own use. So much easier!

But still, as I went along experimenting with different ways of expressing myself, I found it hard to escape the inner judgment of imaginary and real-life friends harshly criticizing me for “stealing” and trying to “rip off” other artists. Were my friends REALLY so judgmental? Well, in some cases, yes! But in most cases, it was just my imagination, fueling a constant anxiety that someone would notice that some little detail was actually a little trick I pulled from another artist I found on the internet… And how FURIOUS they would be!

Effin’ nerds. Can’t go anywhere without running into a hundred of them and their snarky comments. Unless I turned off the internet, but why would I do that?

Suppose I need to get me some therapy. Gonna go copy some sh!t and enjoy it this time.

thanks

Monica