Related:
This was similar to that youtube video I had seen a few days ago (at this point). The author talked about blatantly stealing other ideas and characters and essentially just working on a piece that was her creative dumping ground. Then over iterations they became something new and she was able to refine them into real characters, plotlines, and worlds. She emphasizes that creativity is not about creating ideas, but learning to capture and manipulate already existing ones.
This made me think about the link to neuroscience and memory. When we actually play through a memory, we’re not actually remembering the event as it was recorded. We’re remembering the process of remembering the memory. It’s through this that the actual event gets recorded, like an image that’s been recompressed, so it naturally changes ever so slightly with each “save.” In this case it’s difficult to figure out if our memory is an actual recounting of what happened vs the stories we’re telling ourselves (consciously or unconsciously), and it’s the reason why we feel it’s possible that we misinterpret thing and can also be a victim to gaslighting (more on that another time I think). The Midnight Club by Margot Harrison uses this concept creatively!
Makes me think that I’ll just have to…iterate things so much until they turn into something new. But this is only if I’m actually looking to create something novel instead of trying to extrapolate an essay from already existing information (nonfiction/Medium essay?)