How To Develop Your Creative Vision / Aesthetic

Okay! So we finally got to the fun part!

When you are creating your IP, you are the one in charge.

You decide the look.

You decide the hook!

When you do this, the only rule is —

Don’t doubt yourself.

If you doubt yourself, people pick on you.

If you doubt yourself, you pick on you.

Faith in what you are doing may feel like a fantasy or a luxury to many, but that is what gets you through.

Why can’t we say, “don’t copy?”

Because what are you doing now?

Copying!

If we see something we love, we copy it.

We say the same words.

We try the new hairdo.

We try blocking our time, because … you know… time blocking!

You can copy as an IP creator.

Sure, we don’t claim someone else’s IP as ours. That’s a given.

But if you decide you want your IP to look like an ethereal AU of an existing IP that is thrum-drum action? Go ahead! Give it a whirl.

Real IP creators are actually quite flattered, intrigued, or excitedly spooked by seeing another IP creator sing harmony in their corridor.

“Oh my gosh!”

“Holy ****!”

“Sarah, I had no idea they had so much talent!”

It is worth it.

If you are a dedicated lover of H.G. Wells, say, and you want to do an IP that feels that way, but a bit more modern in speech and with a tip to another time period you love, then go ahead.

We gather inspiration in a plethora of ways.

We cache it like chickadees who save seed for the winter days.

Did you know chickadees have hundreds of thousands of places to cache their food?

You and me, too!

Thousands, man, thousands.

Take that! Your brain has already been at work, caching in idea after idea, visual after visual, motif after motif, note after note.

So what if you can’t remember the part you felt was most important during your younger days?

You have hundreds upon hundreds of ideas more. You are okay, man. Okay?

So what if you forget a couple ideas here and there…especially if you have a thousand of them?

Don’t fret about forgetting where you’ve stored your aesthetic or your creative vision. You have thousands of aesthetic pieces? You will have no problem shaping or forming your creative vision.

Speaking of which, do you know what your creative vision is?

Usually, you can get it down to a sentence or two.

“Sarah, my creative vision is …”

Try the prompt.

“My creative vision is [your answer here]. I would really love to create / build [your answer here] with an aesthetic I am thinking is [your answer here].”