Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative

"Everybody is inspired by somebody."

Instead, chew on one thinker—writer, artist, activist, role model—you really love. Study everything there is to know about that person. Then find three people that thinker loved, and find out everything about them. Repeat this as many times as you can. Climb up the tree as far as you can go. Once you build your tree, it’s time to start your own branch.

Go deeper than anybody else—that’s how you’ll get ahead.

"Fake it ’til you make it."

First, you have to figure out who to copy. Who to copy is easy. You copy your heroes—the people you love, the people you’re inspired by, the people you want to be. Do not copy from only one hero... copy from all the heroes that you love.

Second, you have to figure out what to copy. Examine where you fall short. What’s in there that makes you different? That’s what you should amplify and transform into your own work.

The best advice is not to write what you know, it’s to write what you like. Write the kind of story you like best—write the story you want to read.

Whenever you’re at a loss for what move to make next, just ask yourself, 'What would make a better story?'

If you’re out of ideas -

• Take time to mess around. 
• Get lost. 
• Wander. 

You never know where it’s going to lead you.

If you have two or three real passions, don’t feel like you have to pick and choose between them. Don’t discard. Keep all your passions in your life.

Don’t worry about unity—what unifies your work is the fact that you made it.

There’s only one not-so-secret formula that the author knows: Do good work and share it with people.

• Step 1: Wonder at something.
• Step 2: Invite others to wonder with you. You should wonder at the things nobody else is wondering about.

...The World is a Small Town.

"There’s only one rule I know of: You’ve got to be kind." —Kurt Vonnegut

The author recommends public fan letters. The Internet is really good for this. Write a blog post about someone’s work that you admire and link to their site. Make something and dedicate it to your hero. Answer a question they’ve asked, solve a problem for them, or improve on their work and share it online.

...It’s the Only Way to Get Work Done.

A day job puts you in the path of other human beings. The worst thing a day job does is take time away from you, but it makes up for that by giving you a daily routine in which you can schedule a regular time for your creative pursuits.

The solution is really simple: 

• Figure out what time you can carve out, what time you can steal, and stick to your routine. Do the work every day, no matter what.
• Get a calendar. Fill the boxes. Don’t break the chain.

In this age of information abundance and overload, those who get ahead will be the folks who figure out what to leave out, so they can concentrate on what’s really important to them.

"Creativity isn’t just the things we choose to put in, it’s the things we choose to leave out."