The Keys To Unlimited Creativity (I Wrote My First Book!)
- Daniel Cuesta
- Mar 18
- 9 min read
Updated: Mar 26
Insight 90 | 3 Lessons From Becoming A Writer: Gardens, Graves, And Thieves.
I would like to begin with a thank you. Whether you’ve been here since day one or just last week, I am eternally grateful that you have decided to join me on the lifelong journey of pursuing wisdom.
That said, I do have some very exciting news to share… by the end of today's article, there will officially be 86,733 words published under the Wednesdays of Wisdom (WOW) Newsletter 😱. It is quite humbling to consider that this figure is equivalent to having written a whole book!
*(Meaning that technically, if you have been a day-one reader, or close to one, you have officially read my first book. All Glory be to God ;)
This journey has been fun, stressful, rewarding, complicated, growth-inducing, and so many more adjectives, but above all, this journey has been a blessing.
It is one in which I have picked up three techniques that have ultimately reshaped how I approach creativity as a practice. These are tools I believe are foundational to developing (and maintaining) any endeavor or expression of thought. They are simple, and that's precisely why they are spectacular tools. If you haven’t already and are looking to nourish your imagination, these are the three most helpful strategies to do so:
Grow A Garden.
Kill Your Darlings And Bury Them.
Steal Like An Artist.
These three concepts, when applied together and consistently, are bound to yield fruit you are proud of and will always serve to jump-start and keep your creative expression alive.
1. Grow A Garden: Perhaps the most helpful and influential piece of advice I have received for my writing career came from my mother when I was quite young. She has always believed that I would become a writer and would often remind me that “writers write”. It may sound obvious, but maybe that's precisely why it was so impactful. Of course, writers write! Nearly two years ago, with that information in hand, the next question became “What then do I write about?”
This is where the second most helpful and influential piece of knowledge I have received for my career originates (also shared by my beautiful mother). She shared with me the power of “300 Ideas” and challenged me to generate a document with that many potential topics and concepts.
This took me over a week, but by the end, I realized the list before me was game-changing. I suddenly had a wealth of different paths to pursue, some more promising than others, and a reservoir of ideas to explore if I ran into a rut or some form of block.
This exercise showed me that you don't know what to say unless you take the time to know what you are interested in saying. I've come to think of this list as a garden. A place I can come to whenever I need a burst of fresh thought or a reminder of a previous curiosity.
Like any good garden, it must be tended and cared for. When new insights come, they should be added; when old ones are taken care of, they should be crossed off. This way, your document of “300 Ideas” always stays fresh and relevant, personal and yet professional.
This is something you can sit down and do this very week by taking thirty minutes to write and list your goals, ideas, and interests so you know exactly what you're dealing with. It might take a few sessions, but when you’re done, you will discover the liberty that is clarity. It’s easy to fall into analysis paralysis when there are so many opportunities out there, but sitting down to write 300 of them strikes the perfect balance between having a healthy amount of options and good guardrails under which to operate.
If you happen to be concerned about generating this many ideas to begin with, then read on to point number three today, and you'll discover a helpful aid to the process.
2. Kill Your Darlings And Bury Them. I promise this lesson is not as dark as it seems, but rather a metaphor for a practice we would all benefit from doing more often. Have you ever heard of the expression “To Kill Your Darlings”? It’s a literary concept that encourages authors to cut beloved sentences, characters, or even entire scenes when they realize that, although well-constructed, they do not advance the momentum or plot of the work.
Over the past two years, I have had to learn this practice and apply it frequently to prioritize an article's message over “how smart it sounds” or “how lovely the play on words is”. The thing is, although I logically know it serves a greater purpose, removing these darlings can sometimes be very challenging. After all, I have already spent time developing these ideas in these ways, and now, all of a sudden, they are going to go to waste?
This is where running a graveyard comes in handy; it's a place for your dead darlings to go and rest (once again, only a metaphor). In my case, it's a long document where I copy and paste sentences and sections that don’t make the final cut for any given piece.
I have found that this practice motivates my creativity in two ways. First, by giving me the freedom to write and know that none of it will go to waste. Secondly, I am reaffirmed that, whether they see the light of day or not, these sections serve a purpose in the grander process. If it doesn't become published, then at least it was scaffolding used to build up and support the idea while it was being polished.
Furthermore, keeping a document of the pieces I have worked on serves as a form of “editorial purgatory”. A place I can go back to time and again to potentially expand upon previous thoughts, reword, or even entirely rewrite a concept if needed.
Much like the Garden from lesson one, the Graveyard of your Dead Darlings becomes a source of inspiration because it's where previous concepts have waited to be further sharpened.
3. Steal Like An Artist. This may be irony at its finest, as the very lesson here is one I myself “stole” from New York Times best-selling Author, Austin Kleon, and his book aptly titled Steal Like An Artist. In this work, Kleon explains that true creativity comes from remixing what already exists with some hint of you in it rather than being something “entirely” original. It should be no surprise, then, that even this statement is not original but rather a remix itself! King Solomon said it first in Ecclesiastes 1:9 when he wrote:
“What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun.”
As a result, art galleries are really more like a den of thieves. No matter the artist or their medium, everything created is influenced by something already in existence. This is the result of being a created human species to begin with. All we have comes from one who always was, God, the original originator of it all, the great “I Am.”
Learning and applying this insight gave me an incredible amount of freedom that I had previously not allowed myself. Suddenly, the burden I was carrying to come up with everything on my own dissipated. This opened a whole new world: using material already out there while infusing it with my own taste, flair, and story. The wheel doesn’t need to be reinvented, but it can always be used in a different way or built upon.
It should be noted that this is drastically different from being a “copycat”. Those people never make it. They follow trends and fade away in the grand scheme of things. Instead, this is an encouragement to leverage the power of benchmarking, seeing what others in the industry do, think, and work on, and then uniquely bring together perspectives from all around to form your own.
Pablo Picasso, one of the greatest and most well-known artists in relatively recent years, is attributed with saying, "Good artists copy; great artists steal." Imagine that! Picasso, a man we often credit with being wholly original, was actually one who often drew inspiration from others.
Ending how we started, this is a great way to help fill out those first 300 ideas. Our creativity is fueled when we begin to notice the creativity found in others.
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There is this Italian word that has recently raptured my attention: Sprezzatura. It is the 16th-century idea of “studied nonchalance,” or the art of making difficult actions and activities seem easy, natural, and effortless. The beauty of the word is that in order to achieve this level of skill, it takes years of practice and compounding moments of little progress.
And yet, it is so natural to yearn for the Sprezzatura Stage when we are yet to traverse all the other important steps of development to get there. It takes time and effort. Although our paths and pursuits differ, these three practices lay the groundwork for developing and maintaining any creativity in whatever you pursue.
If you are looking to strengthen your mind and enrich it so that it can blossom, then you absolutely must:
Grow a Garden.
Kill Your Darlings And Bury Them.
Steal Like An Artist.
When it is all said and done, creativity is not stumbled upon, but rather something you cultivate and nourish. This week, I invite you to grow a garden and tend to it, see just what it is you think, and find liberty in that clarity. Work to release that which, although enticing or pretty, detracts or distracts from the main message in your life. And finally, learn from those who came before us to have something better and more unique to say to those who will come after.
- Making The Most Of Being Curious
Daniel J. Cuesta
Acknowledgments:
First, thank you to my Lord Jesus Christ. Without Him, this journey would not be possible. I don’t always feel ready, so I thank you, God, for all the ways you never fail to hold my hand.
Secondly, I must deeply thank my mother for being my number-one fan, supporter, believer, and, above all, prayer warrior. She has stayed up late, woken up early, and constantly does everything in between to care for and nourish my soul. Her sacrifices and consistency are unparalleled. My mother is my hero. She is a treasure I do not deserve, and I can never repay. Thank you, mi madre hermosa. Te amo.
Thirdly, my wonderful Tata (Grandmother), Zoraida Santoyo. Thank you for always being on my side and encouraging me to continue even when the road gets difficult. Thank you for the reminder that God never sleeps, which means we never have anything to worry about. Your work ethic inspires me daily.
Fourthly, my editor, THANK YOU SO MUCH, for believing in me and constantly providing feedback to sharpen my craft. Thank you for your continued support, even when I was past due on deadlines or cutting it too close. Your graciousness and skill have played a monumental role in making me both a better man and a better writer.
Lastly, there are numerous committed readers I must shout out by name, as their thoughtful, intelligent, and sincere connections have contributed greatly to shaping this Newsletter:
Ms. Tara Fox, thank you not only for nourishing my love for literature when life was at its lowest, but also for never failing to be present and always providing such pensive perspectives.
Mr. Benjamin Korkis, thank you for keeping me focused and vigilant of the details (as iron sharpens iron). Your attention to the small things always brightens my day and reminds me to give it my best, and never just “good enough”.
Mr. Matthew LaPorte, thank you for allowing me to bounce ideas off you and engage in meaningful conversation, and for your willingness to come along on this journey. Your kind heart never fails to amaze me.
Lastly, to each and every single one of you, the readers, thank you for being so awesome. For sharing, responding, and applying what I truly believe to be these life-changing concepts that better equip us to seek out the Lord's will for our lives.
While only God knows what tomorrow holds, I thank him for today and raise a metaphorical glass to the journey to come. Whatever it may hold. 🥂
Sources:
Grow a Garden: In the morning sow your seed, and at evening withhold not your hand, for you do not know which will prosper, this or that, or whether both alike will be good. - Ecclesiastes 11:6
Kill Your Darlings And Bury Them: For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. - Hebrews 12:11
Steal Like An Artist: Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm. - Proverbs 13:20
