Story of the Day
I spent a hot July afternoon wandering around a Pablo Picasso exhibition in Barcelona.
Perhaps you’re familiar with some of Picasso’s more famous artworks.
Like Guernica, his 1937 masterpiece about the Spanish Civil War.
Or his blocky geometric modern artwork Two Girls Reading.
But, even the most knowledgeable art historian will find listing all of Picasso’s works hard.
He holds a Guinness World record for the most paintings.
He created over 13,500 paintings and designs.
AND over 100,000 prints and engravings.
A prolific dude Picasso.
I couldn’t get my head around those figures until I found out this fact:
The man created into his nineties.
That’s a 70-plus-year career!
Picasso is so famous today because he created so much artwork, some great, some terrible, and some forgotten.
He’s a huge catalog.
He didn’t worry much about novel ideas or plagiarism, either.
Picasso famously said,
“Good artists copy, great artists steal.”
Almost no one can create at Picasso’s level.
But writers can still take inspiration from Picasso.
Forget about finding one original idea. Chances are you won’t find it. Instead, follow your interests. Combine and remix ideas from multiple sources.
Avoid spending years perfecting a single masterpiece. You don’t need more talent, time, or resources. Do the work, release it into the world, and move on to the next project.
Experiment. Explore different genres, forms, and conventions. Not everything will work. Not everything has to.
These are all ideas I write about inside the Power of Creativity.
You can buy the series directly from me.