On Creativity

Category

You’re not good enough

I remember reading an article some time ago about how men and women approach new job positions. It said that while women waited until they were 100% qualified, men would jump at a new position when they were only 60% qualified. Men figured they would learn the rest once they were on the job, the article explained. I don’t know if that’s true, and it’s a generalization regardless, but if it is I think men have it right this time. If we all waited until...

Flawed genius

I’m always on the lookout for flawed genius. Rather than solid perfection, I prefer the crazy, quirky, and niche every time. I stole this term from Paul Barnett of Mythic Entertainment, who was discussing his (late) game Warhammer Online, and its rival World of Warcraft: “I believe WoW is a work of flawed genius. When you dismantle [these works] you can never be sure whether you get genius or flaw.” I once evoked this in the finale post of Sakurasou na Pet no Kanojo, and though my prose is awfully unpolished,...

Steal like an artist

Among certain circles, I think there’s too much focus on the unique. It’s nearly a fetish. “I’ve seen it all before” or “This is just like ______” are not the dirty words some imagine them to be. They’re the result of a creative truth you may not be aware of. Artists steal. Artists steal all the time. Any artist who tells you she doesn’t is lying. There’s nothing new under the sun, but there are new combinations of what’s been seen before. And often, what you think is original...

Disorganized ≠ creative

Recently, one of my bosses referred to one of my colleagues, a salesmen, as creative, in comparison to me. What. This happened last week, and I’ve barely stopped drinking whiskey and slamming my head on every available surface since then. I don’t talk about my writing or blogging at work often, because frankly, I don’t care for most of my coworkers. The ones I like know about both, because I’m not ashamed of the things I love. But to be called less creative than...