How to be original and exceptional at what you create?

[Lyubov]

Ok I will keep this concise and understandable.

I make videos. You can switch out videos here for stories, for writing, anything on the creative side. 

I think what I make is decent but it’s not great and I believe above great there are some people making videos on YouTube, writing books, etc that are just excellent. I’m talking like 15-30 minutes of pure gold and most of these videos get the views. 

So aside from effort, which we know commitment and effort are important, what makes a content creator or story teller or writer or whatever (creative person) truly great, truly original and special? I’m not talking just raw numbers of subs. There are exceptionally great accounts with like 100k subs. But I’m talking about reaching that level instead of just being a sort of imitation of someone else or a less original channel / creator.

How to be really creative and original? Seems like some people ride waves as they emerge and part of it is commitment and being attuned and in flow but also some luck as well. 

[LastThursday]

@Lyubov there is technicality and originality. If you're having to compete in a market place then you're jostling with other creators for eyeballs. You choose a niche and then try and stand out in that corner of the market. 

You can produce content for its own sake because you have some latent ability or drive to produce a particular type of content. For example maybe I like to create music because I'm good at it or enjoy it, and just want to share my creations. This can work because your talent or enthusiasm comes through in your creation. Someone out there will enjoy consuming that. But this can be hit or miss in a market.

You can actually explore the market and work out where the empty niches are. Maybe you see there's a gap around some idea like "history of manga". It feels interesting enough to you to start researching in that area, and you start to pump out videos around that subject. Over time you build up a fan base. The idea is original because nobody else thought about it before. The idea is good because you don't have competition in the market (think Leo Gura).

You can also just imitate existing content but just do it better than others. If you do a lot of work in one area then you can continuously strive to improve your creations. This is technicality, you polish the production of your music, or make your videos tighter with better lighting and sound. I think this naturally happens if you do something a lot, but you can consciously work on technicality too. This is probably good for people that are not super original, but do like to compete against others. 

There is a difference between just being creative and original for its own sake and being creative and original for an audience in a market place. Originality comes from actively choosing things that others haven't done before. Creativity is the constant desire to be original.

Edited 1 hour ago by LastThursday
typos