There is a fine line between imitation and inspiration – I do not believe either one is in particular bad as such – but, one will lead to progress and success – the other will lead to frustration and decline.

I always had a hard time accepting that I was inspired and not imitating something. I always wanted to make something completely new, that no one have done before – to be truly unique.

The struggle comes when you have to come up with ideas, i will watch movies, read comic books, read novels and play games all in an attempt to find something that is truly inspiring, that will ignite my creative flame, and that will enable me to find something truly unique, something that no one have ever done before.

But every time, I get hit really hard when someone hears about the idea, or see the drawing, and the start the sentence with: “ohh, yea, thats just like… ” and this always hurt, I always lost my spark and my desire to work on with the project. And I come to realize, that maybe, it was the fear that someone would use the word “imitation” about my work. For years I have been struggling with completing projects. The fear of showing my stuff to the world, the fear of being called an imitator.

The other day, I listened to a podcast called the Fizzle show , and they talked, really briefly about imitation, and how this was not cool. And that got me thinking, and I realized something.

There is a fine line between imitation and inspiration. And sometimes the two will melt together. Sometimes, if you start with imitation, and then move on and add your own stuff and ideas to this imitation, it ends up becoming my own. And the imitation is no longer an imitation, but have become a inspiration.

Add to this, that if you combine imitations, they immediately becomes inspirations instead.

It is like singing a cover song, some musicians completely copy the lyrics, the voice the beat and everything else there is to copy, and it is difficult to hear the difference between the original and the cover. But the moment that the artist start changing the beat or the pitch, making the song their own, this is when the magic can happen.

I have now realized, that there is no such thing as unique ideas, everyone is inspired from something, ideas do not come out of nothing – so everyone will always imitate someone. And I stopped being afraid of imitation, and I believe that you should to.

Start creating stuff – do not be afraid of imitation, because, you will always end up putting your own soul and feelings in that project, and it will always become your own, if you are aware.

All creative power starts with imitation.

Imitate to become inspired.