make an impression
originality is emergent
I find myself wanting to better understand the essay writing processes of my favorite essayists. So often when I read their essays I have thoughts like, "Wow, they are so verbose. So verbose and so wise. How do they have so much to say about this one thing?" And so in this essay I will share my thoughts on impressions and copying while doing an impression of another essayist.
directives and discernment
Some of my favorite essayists employ directives in their writing: do this, be like that, avoid those behaviors. These directives are of course informed by the ideas they are simultaneously sharing in the essay, and they are often phrased as suggestions, one of many potential paths. They also make generous use of the second person pronoun, you.
I do all of those things in my writing as well, but I've thought a lot about those conventions ever since I read an idea from my friend Nibras in support of telling stories instead of giving advice. Nibras prefers to discern the lessons herself by reading other people's stories of their lived experience.
I think that's really interesting, and that there are tradeoffs to each approach. I feel like some readers will miss out on the advice if they are only given the story - the attention they've allotted for the story does not allow for the surfacing of its lesson, although they would receive the lesson if it was explicitly written. For myself I view all-story-no-advice-mode as one of many writing tools to pick up and set down as I see fit.
environment-essay fit
The essayist I am doing an impression of prefers to do their writing somewhere other than their residence. They go somewhere with an intention to write, and then they write. I am writing these words on a note on my phone on the back half of a ten mile walk. I was glued to social media for the first half, and then I set the intention to log off for the final five miles, to give myself space to listen to myself, to be with my own thoughts and my own ideas. Pause to cross the intersection.
I feel a sort of body-mind synthesis as I write: taking each next step is effortless, and writing each next word is effortless. I imagine that my impressee also carefully considers the containers of their writing venues: noise levels and visuals and time allotted.
This reminds me of a lesson of nature. Every plant and every animal is what it is, it never tries to be itself. We are the only species who gets in the way of being ourselves. As long as the plant or animal is in the right environment, it will grow and flourish. How many of our problems have the simple solution of putting ourselves in the right environment?
inspiration and theft
I am not stealing my impressee's essay style by writing this essay. In fact I am certain that their essay on impressions and copying would look quite different. Rather, I am inspired. I read their words and it alchemizes with my own creative landscape to burst forth on the screen.
I am fascinated by the spectrum of creative originality vs. theft. My position is one of anti-extremism. Nothing is truly original: every creation is informed by something external that the creator experienced and thought about. And nothing is truly stolen: even in the cases where something is directly lifted and reshared with no alterations, it is done at a different time and by a different person. These are meaningful details that shape the container of the creation and how it is received, which sufficiently distinguishes the copy from the original.
I have received theft allegations (among others) because of my "oh to be a girl who" tweet series. These tweets are inspired by what I view as particularly evocative snapshots of femininity. I copy the text of a tweet, swap first person pronouns for third person pronouns, prepend the text with "oh to be a girl who", and tweet it without attribution to the original writer or the original tweet. I am happy to have my own informed perspective on the question of originality vs. theft as I observe a trend of more internet content becoming publicly available and open-source, encouraging copies and remixes.
breaking convention
I am a rule of threes enjoyer, please look to the previous three sections each with three paragraphs for evidence. I'd considered writing a concluding paragraph here, but what better opportunity to get to know a convention I enjoy so much by intentionally breaking it?
There's a grand human tradition of breaking away from a particular context, expanding one's awareness by inhabiting a different context, and then returning to a version of the original context with a much greater appreciation of it. This appreciation can only happen when one puts distance between themselves and whatever is so familiar that it almost fades from conscious awareness. I am thinking about the religious kid - atheist teenager or young adult - religious adult pipeline here, though there are many others.
And so it goes with creative acts. I have three different blogs and I want to better understand what I'm doing with this blog in particular - it's the least defined and least intentional of the three. This essay doesn't answer that question, but it's a clue, another step on the path, a thread in the tapestry.
If I must steal, let me steal like an artist. Let my voice be one among many feeling out the contours of this indivisible moment. Let it be the soil which inspires more creativity, more sensemaking, more artistic soul. The ideas in your head might be the perfect gift for someone else to receive.
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Let me know your thoughts on originality vs. theft. What are your sources of creative inspiration?
Related essays you might like: The Internet’s Gift, Gameful Living, Arguing on the Internet