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Eric Siu argues that creators start by imitating others, then struggle to figure out which parts of themselves to actually share. You find your real voice by copying first, building skills, and refining what feels true over time.
Eric Siu argues that creators start by imitating others, then struggle to figure out which parts of themselves to actually share. You find your real voice by copying first, building skills, and refining what feels true over time.
And this is what happens whenever we embark on some sort of creative process. You start off and what you're making is actually you trying to be somebody else. You're not really being yourself. So then you think that the answer is, oh, just be yourself and everything will be okay. The problem is it's very hard to know what parts of yourself you really want to express. And also your selfness is very primitive. It doesn't have that sort of maturity. And it's actually through the process of imitating others that we pick up new skills and we learn what things we actually want to keep.
