As creators, we always want to make something original: something 100% unlike anything anyone has ever seen before.
The problem is that it’s really hard.
You and I aren’t gods; we can’t just speak something into being. We’re mortals. We need to make things from other things.
So what can we do? I say: repackage, not reproduce.
Talk Less, Repackage More
On vacation some time in 2009, Lin-Manuel Miranda was looking for something to read.
He brought with him a hefty book impulsively. He would’ve never realized that the book he had chosen would define the next decade of his life: Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow.
The book ignited something in Miranda which got him writing like he was running out of time. He eventually created the musical Hamilton, which went on to win awards like crazy — including several Tonys and a Pulitzer Prize.
Miranda created something fresh and bold (especially given the subject of a founding father’s life). But I dare say that it’s not as original as you might think.
While writing, he combined elements from a whole bunch of places. He based the play on the life story of Alexander Hamilton (not something of Miranda’s own making). He took musical cues from artists he grew up listening to; the song “Ten Duel Commandments” from the musical clearly has traces of “Ten Crack Commandments” by Biggie Smalls in its veins.
Miranda reproduced the story of Alexander Hamilton (albeit loosely), but he repackaged it in a really exciting way. That’s what made it so unique.
In an oversimplified way, Hamilton is essentially Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow repackaged in musical form. And Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow is essentially documents and historical records of the founding father repackaged in book form.
We’re Repackagers
If you look hard enough, you’ll realize that everything ever created is just other things mixed together and repackaged in a different way.
Lion King is repackaged Hamlet. Snowmobiles have the body of a motorcycle with tank tracks on the back and skis in the front.
Even this article is Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon but instead of a book, I’ve repackaged it into a newsletter.
There’s nothing purely original anymore, so you can stop pressuring yourself to create something that is. I know it’s helped me.
The problem then isn’t what’s something new that you could create, but how can you present the same things in a different way.