Inspiration vs. Iteration

Many weeks ago in one of my classes, we were talking about creativity. One person stated that they believed everything has already been done. The whole class seemed to agree to this.

That statement bothered me. I don’t believe everything has been done already and to get into that, I think you have to differentiate between inspiration and iteration.

Inspiration is an influence. Iteration is a copy.

I will concede that every creative endeavor is inspired by something, but just because one thing led to the spark that ignited something new doesn’t mean that the new creation is a copy. People are all unique and add their own experiences, beliefs, and personalities to their creation, which makes those things new.

I couldn’t write a novel in the exact same way another would because we each have our own voice (that’s avoiding the case if I’m actually forcing myself to sound like a specific author because that isn’t trying to make a new creation, that’s just copying). The pictures I take are different than others because of my perspective or what I find to be pleasing to the eye. Taking that a step further, with editing pictures, I’ll fix up the image until I think it looks good, which layers pieces of my personality into it.

If everything had been done already, then how could we keep creating?

I can see where this argument is coming from when, for example, most chick flicks seem to follow the same formula. This definitely can blur the line between inspiration and iteration, but each of those movies can be as different as they are the same. Different actors, directors, and writers breathe life into the stories in different ways. All the stories have different characters and plots that they have become new creations.

The world would be so boring if everything had truly been done already.