Stop Trying to Find Your Style

We spend years trying to find our style. We borrow from the artists we admire. We decide what belongs to us and what doesn’t. We build rules around the kind of writer, musician, painter—or artist—we think we’re supposed to be. And eventually, those rules begin to feel like identity. But there’s a problem: our creative rules solidify. Our lives don’t. We graduate. Move. Fall in love. Have children. Change countries. Change our minds. Develop occasional back pain. So why should the art made by that person remain exactly the same? In this video, I explore the strange relationship between style and identity—and what happens when the work you make no longer looks, reads, or sounds quite like the work you thought you were supposed to make. Maybe your style was never something you were supposed to find and keep. Maybe it’s simply the trace you leave on whatever you happen to make at this point in your life. You’re not finished becoming who you are. Why should your art be? Thank you for thinking with me. —Dan #Creativity #CreativeProcess #CreativeLife #Artists #Writing #FindingYourStyle #SelfDevelopment