During his talk to the IFOH,
Clay Shirky,
author of Cognitive Surplus,
talked about how
things like LOL Cats
and Twitter are important.
“There’s a gulf
between doing something
and doing nothing.”
“LOL Cats are the gateway drug
to other forms of
making something,
sharing something.”
“Twitter is plainly a creative act.”
In the writing world,
we have fan fiction.
The writer creates the world,
the characters,
the ‘rules’,
and fans create variations
on these existing stories.
Many writers
use fan fiction as a stepping stone
(the most recent being
E.L. James with 50 Shades Of Grey).
It is an easier first step
along the road to innovation.
Do what works for you
to cross that gulf
between doing nothing
and doing something.