Why Not Knowing the Rules Is Good For Creative Work
Fill the knowledge gap later.
When you want to start doing something new, it’s tempting to first educate yourself on the subject. Find all the right courses, download books, and talk to knowledgeable people.
In other words: you feel like you need to know the rules. You feel like you need to get ready.
While this may be the right approach to certain practical areas (like business), when it comes to creative areas — it’s the wrong approach.
If you’re writing fiction
It’s tempting to write like your favorite author. It’s even more tempting to google “how to write a novel” and follow a manual. But art is created by going in the dark abyss of the unknown.
When I went to middle school in Russia, they taught us various techniques that Pushkin used for his novels and poems. I doubt that Pushkin even knew these techniques existed.
Haruki Murakami wrote his first novel at 30 years old. He didn’t want to sound like “another Japanese writer,” so he did something odd: to make sure he sounded as far from conventional literature as possible, he wrote his first novel in English (which he barely knew). He then translated it back to Japanese.
