The act of creation is surrounded by a fog of myths. Myths that creativity comes via inspiration, that original creations “break the mold”, or that they’re the products of geniuses and appear as quickly as electricity can heat a filament.
But creativity isn’t magic.
It happens by applying ordinary tools of thought to existing materials. And the soil from which we grow our creations is something we scorn and misunderstand even though it gives us so much and that’s copying.
Put simply, copying is how we learn. We can’t introduce anything new until we’re fluent in our domain and we do that through emulation. […] Nobody starts out original and we need copying to build a foundation of knowledge and understanding.
After we’ve grounded ourselves in the fundamentals through copying, it’s then possible to create something new through transformation — taking an idea and creating variations.
The most dramatic results can happen when ideas are combined. By connecting ideas together, creative leaps can be made.
These are the elements of creativity: copy, transform and combine.