It wasn't until very recently that the full impact of what Wim Wenders said in his advice to young creators hit me:
This back in time hit me as very prohibitive. Is he saying we should not explore all the things that we are interested in? I pretty much dismissed the idea at the time as one important part of what Wim says was missing. How do you know you can or cannot do something better than anyone else?
Endeavors are after all journeys into the wilderness, they are not akin to taking the fastest train to the next station.
A few years later while trying to understand what vocal training looks like I came across this video to 'find your own voice'. The trainer Ramsey notes that everyone feels that:
"I don't like the way that my voice sounds, I just want to sound like my favorite singer" -Ramsey Sound Studio
The entire problem with developing your own style or your own voice starts here. The beginners problem is that we donot like our own voice and our own style, in knowing what the art that we like is capable of we are hooked to the masters that are performing it.
Pain is the primer. Just as in singing songs that you are not built for, (lose yourself trying to sing Bryan Adams or Pavarotti for example) there is considerable pain in pushing your abilities in zones you cannot keep up for long.
There is no play that you can imagine in such situations, everything is just hard and you have to be 'serious' about it. But creative acts are possible only in play. As Stephen King writes in his book 'On Writing':
“Writing is at its best— always, always, always— when it is a kind of inspired play for the writer. I can write in cold blood if I have to, but I like it best when it’s fresh and almost too hot to handle.” - Stephen King
We can only play when we are well within the abilities of our craft. Almost on the verge of boredom too probably, because creativity really does arise from boredom after all. You push yourself not to achieve some external goal but to relieve yourself from internal boredom Thats what children play for too.
Coming back to Wim's words again, "Do what nobody else can do except for you". What are those things?
Those are things that you are not straining on to keep up but are running ahead with. The abilities you have accumulated to use and use. And when you are bored, to use in playful and mischievous ways that keep yourself interested in it.
“I’m always ‘working.’ It looks like work to others, but it feels like play to me. And that’s how I know no one can compete with me on it. Because I’m just playing, for sixteen hours a day. If others want to compete with me, they’re going to work, and they’re going to lose because they’re not going to do it for sixteen hours a day, seven days a week.” - Naval Ravikant
And when you know you are doing it, you also know that you are very close to doing it better than anyone else.
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