Let’s kick off my series on 7 Tips for Creative Growth (see last week’s introduction) with one of the hallmarks of how to water, nourish and give sunshine to your creative life:
Get a tattoo that says: “I AM INIMITABLE.”
Not necessarily a real tattoo. Unless you’re keen on tattoos. I’m too squeamish. But metaphorically, at least, tattoo this phrase on your skin, your heart, your soul.
The greatest hindrance to creative growth, the meanest spirited, the most insidious, destructive force in our creative lives – is comparison.
In our world of social media, comparison is hard to escape. But even without social media, unless we live as a hermit, comparison is something we’re likely to do, just by dint of being a human and connecting with and seeing and paying attention to other humans.
Consider the following scenario.
You’ve been happily – and confidently – going about your creative day, dreaming up worlds and words, pounding out your story, feeling pretty good about yourself and your creativity - when BAM! you’re stopped in your tracks.
Stopped by a reference to a friend’s high word or them finishing a project when you’re at the beginning of yours – or worse stuck in yours.
Stopped by news of a fellow writer securing an agent or a book deal or film deal.
Stopped by them winning a prize or securing an interview or having their work amplified in some way when you feel like no one’s even notching what you’re doing.
Stopped just by seeing someone writing or creating - who isn’t you! Who looks different from you and writers differently from you and lives a life that looks different from yours and therefore makes you doubt whether you even fit in this world.
Does that sound familiar?
And then, how many of you experience this moment of comparison, this tiny beat in the course of your day, like someone’s put a massive pin in that joyful, confident, buoyant mood you had – and left you deflated and like you want to jack it all in?
Yep. That happens to me too, all the time. I’m sure I’m not alone.
And why does it happen?
Because we forget.
We forget the beautiful truth – that we are inimitable and that our creativity depends on and comes from that uniqueness.
Being inimitable means that you are utterly unique and that no one past, present or future (including a very well-trained AI bot), will be or can be, anything close to what you’re like. And that when you make something, it’s an extension of who you are in your unique self.
Everything we do has all of ourselves in it.
We inhabit the things that we make.
They have our soul.
And that’s what makes our work great: nothing less than our inimitable selves.
And so, it follows, that comparison is completely pointless and honestly, rather silly. Worse, it dissolves and dilutes that unique part of ourselves that we so need.
As an experiment, I wonder how much our creative lives would expand and how the quality of our work would soar, if we spent more time tuning in (getting to know our unique selves, being curious about who we are and where we’ve come from, our character, our passions, our proclivities, our infinite layers, and what we can bring to our work) than comparing ourselves to others?
I know we all know this stuff about not comparing, but like all bits of good advice, we need to remember it. And remember it often. And now, rather than just telling yourself, “I shall not compare,” there’s something active you can do instead: get to know yourself, your voice, your uniqueness, better and channel that into your writing.
So, several times a day, take a deep breath, close your eyes and repeat to yourself: I AM INIMITABLE!
And then let that carry you forward in all you do. Put that uniqueness into your work. And remember that whereas comparison will drag you backwards, your faith in your unique voice is what will keep you growing as an artist. And that the more you can familiarise yourself with that uniqueness and trust it and celebrate it, the deeper your roots will settle and the higher your branches will reach – and the more you’ll grow, creatively.
Your homework for this week is to keen reminding yourself, especially when the comparison gremlin rears its ugly head, that your uniqueness is the fuel and substance of your creativity: you are beautifully inimitable.
Tune in next week for my second tip for creative growth.
Writing Prompt
Our job, as writers, is largely to keep throwing obstacles at our characters. That’s what makes good fiction. Sometimes life can feel like that for us too: as though we’re constantly having to overcome one thing after another. The news would certainly have us think that everything is always heading towards disaster.
However, it’s important - vital - to think and give space to how our characters’ lives (and our own lives) might turn out well, as that is often where hopes, longings and motivations can be found. Looking to how things might turn out well, could also steer you towards the end of your story where, depending on the kind of writer you are, things might just turn out okay for our characters.
There’s a beautiful poem called Sometimes by Sheenagh Pugh, which gets to the heart this:
Sometimes
by Sheenagh Pugh
Sometimes things don’t go, after all,
from bad to worse. Some years, muscadel
faces down frost; green thrives; the crops don’t fail.
Sometimes a man aims high, and all goes well.A people sometimes will step back from war,
elect an honest man, decide they care
enough, that they can’t leave some stranger poor.
Some men become what they were born for.Sometimes our best intentions do not go
amiss; sometimes we do as we meant to.
The sun will sometimes melt a field of sorrow
that seemed hard frozen; may it happen for you.
Use this poem as a writing prompt, maybe starting with the word ‘sometimes’ and repeating it over several times, letting it take you to possibilities of things going well rather than badly in your life. What if things turned out well?
You could also use the first line and a half: ‘Sometimes thing don’t go, after all, from bad to worse…’ as a starting point or weave in one or more of the following words to inspire you: Sometimes. Years. Thrives. Well. Care. Born. Sun. Happen.
And then write for ten minutes (or longer if you’re on a roll), non stop, without looking back or thinking or editing. See where it takes you. Let it lift you from the doom and gloom thoughts of things ending badly.
Adapted Writing Prompt
Use this prompt to write from the point of view of one of your characters, imaging how things might work out well, despite all the odds. How sometimes, your character’s best efforts might not go amiss. Even our characters need to get a break every now and then.
Recommendation
Poetry as Medicine
I love dipping into poetry collections for inspiration and encouragement. I often use them as writing prompts, as with Sheenah Pugh’s poem above. William Sieghart, psychiatrist and poetry lover, runs a beautiful project called The Poetry Pharmacy, where he turns to specific poems as medicine. Two lovely poetry collections have come from this where he shares a poem for a particular ailment (sadness, loss, grief, depression, procrastination etc.), accompanied by an essay. It’s a lovely gift and a lovely thing to have your bedside too.
A Quotation to Chew Over This Week
I have this quotation on my wall as a reminder that all I need is within me and comes from me - from my inimitability. And if Toni Morrison wrote it, we’d better pay attention.
“You are your own best thing…You are.”
Beloved, Toni Morrison
With love, dear friends and keep writing - and tune in for my 2nd Tip for Creative Growth next week.
Virginia🤍
Virginia Macgregor is the author of five novels for adults and two for young adults. She has an MFA in Creative Writing with a specialisation in the teaching of writing. She lives with her husband, her three children, her four cats and a home full of books and coffee mugs, in New Hampshire.
I love this!! So looking forward to the rest of this series! 💗
I love this so much. And I suffer so much from Comparisonitus (what I call comparing myself to others), but I love this as a response to that tendency!