Some Words On Inspiration And Creativity (Updated)

There is no such thing

Before I begin, I must insist you realize this fact: There is no such thing as originality. If you've ever tried to be "original", you will recognize what I mean when I say you came to a complete blank. You might once have thought you had something original, only to find that someone were already doing it even better than you had imagined in the first place. Originality is only a word people like to use to describe things that are so different, they cannot recognize its origin.

Find the origin

So whatever you decide to do, know where the activity originates. If you want to transcend in any particular field, to be genuinely inspired I strongly recommend you go back to the starting point. To the first ideas and creations in your particular field. Whether it is music or the arts. The first string instruments, the first composers, the first to draw pictures on walls, the first innovators of technology. Read some history on the matter. Focus on what they did, how and why, rather than who and when. Though knowing specific history can be helpful for a conversation matter, it won't help you become truly inspired. You're not trying to become a historian or professor, you're trying to become the person historians will tell people about.

By doing this you will become more aware of the "evolution" of your craft. How it came to be. Then you will hopefully be able to take it to the next step. Because you will understand it more than most.

Don't be demotivated by lack of success or popularity. Many artists have been dead long before being discovered. But that thought itself might be demotivating enough, so you have to at least try to get some notoriety for your work in your lifetime. Preferably right now. Because you are desperate. You are not alone. Searching for "creativity" online might be the reason you arrived to this site.

So what is creativity?

How can I put it in as simple words as possible without being vague or romantic like those countless quotes we have all read, but quickly forgotten?

Creativity is taking one thing and combining it with another thing, sometimes not even closely related. And it doesn't have to be your own creations you combine, you are free to take from any artist, musician, innovator. As long as you are not copying them to the letter or stealing in an act of plagiarism. As long as you make it your own.

This is how all great creative minds work. Some might feel a bit guilty for doing it, while others know it and put it behind them in order to move forward. Combining ideas birth new ideas. Do you think the inventors of the telephone imagined there one day being portable telephones, with high definition cameras, powerful computers, and televisions flat as paper fitting in their pockets? The touchscreen itself would be enough to be burnt at the stake not many years ago. All these things are combinations of ideas. Some use them simply because they have them, and take great ideas by great men very much for granted. While others use them to do great things that were not possible in the past.

Look within

Another place you can look for inspiration is within. Ask yourself who you are. Have you ever tried that? Where did I come from, where am I now? What do you think of yourself? Don't do what you usually do, which is to worry about what other people think of you. I know you do that all the time. Even when people aren't around, you might worry about: what if someone saw me right now, or is watching? What will people think if I do this or that?

That way of thinking will stop you at every turn. And most likely ruin every day forward if you keep it up. But it's a hard thing to stop doing, since most of us do it constantly. So at least start with becoming more self aware of your own thoughts, ideas and opinions on a personal level. What are you all about really? And not worry what people think you are all about.

What a lot of people tend to do is to react. They do not pause or think before reacting, they just do. They are not aware of themselves, they are very much aware of the group, and how they must react to be automatically accepted by it. We forget those people because they do not stand out. They're not special, they're just like everyone else in a group. Expendable, easy to come by, a statistic.

As a barely started science fiction writer, I too look back to the origins of things. Not only of other people's work, but my own. I've found that I have repetitive tendency in many of my projects. As I was studying my second year as a 3D animator, I realized too late that my final delivery film was basically the exact same film as the one I delivered the first year. It only looked different. So I hit that wall, and couldn't proceed because I panicked and desperately put together a short animation film that didn't deserve the name, and got an F.

A few years later I found a new perspective, after looking into technology and science fiction I went back and I passed. I even got an A on one of my projects, which was directly inspired by looking back at origins and taking those ideas forward. Which was the second thing I've ever gotten an A on. But there is no greater feeling than getting an A on your own creative work. At that point I knew I could do it again independently.
But I'm no longer looking for an A from my teacher. I've set my bar even higher and the next time the world will grade my work.

Science fiction becomes science sooner than we think

I have noticed that a lot of subjects once considered science fiction, no longer is fiction. Technology and science itself has surpassed ideas once expected in more than a hundred years, but science has shown us that computer technology has evolved exponentially since it's birth and is showing no sign of stopping. It's at a point where computers will be able to surpass human intelligence in the next thirty years(according to well known physicists, not me.)

In a way this nullifies the predictions made in many science fiction novels, films etc. People who read and watch them will no longer dream of the future like we did. Basically every story ever told is being told over and over again in different forms in the same mediums. To me this is a clear sign that we need evolve as writers and aspire to give people new experiences. Look to new heights and even entirely new mediums.

As for my own inspiration, an example:

A few days ago I was at a friends house, watching the stars from their balcony, philosophizing and talking shit, as I often do. And I remembered reading about a dying star in the Orion constellation, Beselgeuse, which is approx. 640 light years away from us and if compared to our own sun it would reach out to the orbit of Jupiter, swallowing us whole. The red star which astrophysicists believe to have exploded approx. 600-700 years ago.(May vary). Considering that it takes light(in the speed of light) so long to get here, we might see it explode one day. Any day. Could be tomorrow, could be a year from now. Could be a hundred or even hundreds of years. But when it does, for about two weeks, our planet, Tellus also known as Earth, will have two suns until it will begin to fade away.

Artist rendition of Betelgeuse(ESO/L. Calçada)

Imagine that. What does that mean? How would something like that look like? Will we have two shadows? Will some parts of the world perhaps have several sunsets or sunrises as the world turns? I would assume there would be some sleep deprecation as it would be as light as day for two entire weeks. How would the world react? Would we tremble by the sight of such an awe inspiring phenomena or will everything go ahead as normal when news outlets tells us not to worry?

Surface simulation of Beselgeuse, looks incredible in motion

I found out that there are others who wondered these questions, but weren't exactly in the science fiction department. More like in the science department, where they simulate the surface and explosion of dying stars and such, which has provided my with a lot of research content for my own work. I have even gone as far to use it in my new virtual science fiction novel as a key moment. Nothing says end of the world like red skies and bleeding stars. And the prophecy already exists in some form in mythology, whether it was the Mayans with their predictive calenders ,an Indian Chief high on plants or modern takes like the internet theories of Planet Niburu. Which means there is an audience for it.

Looking back

I have also looked back at my own work, and found that I can use one of the actions of a fly in one of my first animation short films as a gameplay mechanic.(It flies into a sleeping persons' ear and enters it's dreams and thoughts). This would be a great way to find clues or reveal secrets. And thus my imagined universe grows even larger.

The perspective of a fly in danger(original sketch)

Got myself a new camera in order to evade getting inspiration from Google images, and start getting my own. The Sony HX400V has a 50X Optical lense, which takes some pretty ridiculous photographs. Like this one:

I can almost touch it!