There Are No Original Ideas
(As a Writer That’s the Best News You’ll Hear All Day)
My Medium friends can read this over there as well.
I remember sitting in an old seminar room at Birmingham University in 1993, no-doubt half-asleep from a night at The Guild, when one of my English lecturers leaned forward and said something I’ve never forgotten:
“There are no original ideas.”
He paused for dramatic effect.
“It’s just a big barrel,” he added. “Centuries of thought, swirling in a magic mist.
Writers put their ideas in, and when you reach in, you grab a handful — blend them with your own voice — and throw them back in for the next person.”
That image stuck, not just because it was poetic, but because it gave me permission to stop chasing originality like it was some distant, sacred flame.
And instead, to embrace my job as a blender of borrowed brilliance, filtered through my own experience.
Writing Becomes Easier When You Remix
The moment you stop trying to create something entirely new — and start focusing on combining, remixing, and reframing ideas through your own lens — writing becomes lighter.
You’re no longer pushing against the weight of perfection.
You’re leaning into your lived experience. Your story.
Maybe you grew up on a family farm , never quite fitting the mould of a ‘real’ farmer , but found yourself captivated by the rhythms of rural life and the ecological questions no one seemed to be asking.
You channeled that curiosity into a quiet obsession with the green heartbeat of the countryside — writing from a vantage point no one else quite has: part insider, part observer, with a voice entirely your own.
Or perhaps you’re a lifelong basketball fan.
You’ve read Phil Jackson’s books on leadership. Watched countless hours of Jordan, Kobe, and LeBron. Listened to every podcast breaking down the triangle offense.
And now — when you sit down to write about personal growth or creative discipline — you’re not inventing from scratch.
You’re blending strategy from the court, lessons from the locker room, and your own life experience into something fresh.
That’s how ideas work.
A no-look pass from one world… becomes a slam dunk in another.
That blend? That’s the magic. That’s your voice in the mist.
Dip Into The Barrel…
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