1/ Creativity and Inspiration for SWers aka Stealing Like a Content Creator(Thread):

What this thread will NOT be about.

Before we get started, a few words about what this thread won’t cover.

2/ We won’t be talking about trademarking, legally protecting your ideas, how to get your stolen work off of another site. What your options are if you see your content pirated.

3/ All of this technical, legal stuff is above my pay grade and I’m frankly not qualified to give advice on it.

I’m also not going to talk about how to plagiarise other content creators and make money from swiping their ideas verbatim.

4/ I can’t stress enough that this is bad form and will never help you build your business. It may be quick cash, yes, but it’s never a good long term strategy.

But the fact of the matter is that we are all, no matter what niche we find ourselves in, content creators.

5/ I spoke about this at length before in my content thread and won’t rehash that here.

What we’re going to talk about here is how to collect content ideas and put your unique spin on them to make them your own.

Let me just lay down the gauntlet right at the start.

6/ There are no truly original ideas. None of us invented sex work, our niche fetishes, our platforms. Occasionally we come across a fresh, exciting idea and we’re SURE that no one has done it before. We do a little research and come back completely deflated.

7/ Someone, in another country, did exactly the thing we were planning to do and fuck my life they did it well so I guess it’s back to the drawing board. Stop. Let’s talk about how to draw inspiration from great ideas and make them our own.

8/ “Good artists copy, great artists steal.”

I don’t remember where I first heard this, but I remember where I found it first firmly cemented in my mind. Austin Kleon’s brilliant book “Steal Like an Artist.”

9/ This thread will be borrowing heavily from that material, with my own spin on it (see what I’m doing?). Austin posits that while there are no new ideas under the sun, art of all forms keeps evolving and expanding by covering the same ground over and over again in fresh ways.

10/ For the purposes of this thread, if you don’t already, I want you to view whatever content you create as art, okay? I’m not flexible on this. Stay with me.

Every book and movie you’ve ever loved. Every TV show. Every painting.

11/ All those artists stood on the shoulders of those that came before them.

You don’t see a pop singer saying “Well, that chord progression was used by Madonna in 1986 so I guess I can’t use that one.” No, music keeps evolving and growing. In our content, we can do the same.

12/ I’ll never forget an episode of “Inside the Actor’s Studio” with Billy Joel as the guest. He broke down the music of Uptown Girl and explained how it was initially written as a classical piece, almost a minuet.

13/ He explained in another interview that the entire album was a homage to Franki Valli and The Four Seasons. Stay with this thought because this is what we’re going to learn to do.

1 + 1 = 3

14/ When we see two great ideas and we combine them in a unique way, we create another, possibly better, but definitely unique to us idea. Any ideas combined this way, by YOU, are inherently unique because you are a unique individual.

15/ You have your own story, cultural shifts that influenced your life, your own hobbies, likes and dislikes.

What you NEVER want to do is draw exclusively from one source and copy that idea exactly.

16/ What you can do, and what I encourage is look for ideas that seem interesting to you and add a unique to you spin.

I can’t stress enough that, if you can, have fun with this. Creative business needs to stay creative to thrive. Just PLAY. It’s only sex.

17/ And yes, we make money here and I take money very seriously, but for the content creation part, let your childlike creative mind take over. Don’t think too much about it. Just PLAY.

How to find ideas. You can’t pick and choose what has already happened in your life.

18/ But you can pick and choose your teachers, mentors, and inspiration. Surround yourself with and consume the best of the best content. Not just content in our industry. I’m talking all sorts of media that interests you.

19/ You really never know where your next fun (and money making) idea will come from. Watch films, listen to music, buy porn (tip well!), read books. Anything and everything that you bring into your creative little brain can and will help you come up with original ideas.

20/ The more diverse the better because that diverse pool of content will help YOU be individual in what you create.

Collect don’t hoard. Absorbing as much content as you have time for is the goal. Being creative, however, is a flow.

21/ You want absorption and expression in a comfortable to and fro. Don’t try to learn everything about something before you start creating around that idea. Absorb, collect ideas, express. Repeat forever.

Let’s have ourselves an example. Say that it’s oscar season.

22/ And you are known to your followers and fanbase as a bit of a cinephile. You think it would be fun to create some free and paid content around this event.

Ideas you could have and use:

Porn parody clips of best picture noms
Dirty oscar monologue JOI

23/ Live tweeting the red carpet or the show itself
Cam party on Oscar night. Every time you pick the wrong winner, you strip.
An exclusive date package for an oscar watching party, black tie dress and champagne required.

24/ FMTY package exclusive offer (in better, safer travel times) to Hollywood.
“Silver screen legends” cosplay content series.

The ideas can be endless. Are all the above good ideas? Fuck, no. Do I have to follow through on all of them, absolutely not.

25/ Sometimes (often) the whole point is creating ideas.

Let’s say you see a colleague with an idea that you consider inspirational. They have made clips based around Marvel villains, let’s say. Should you run out and do exactly the same? Nope.

26/ But what you can do is think in terms of “hey this is a fucking great idea, how can I adapt this to my interests, passions, and fan base?

Lord of the Rings characters? Star Wars? A content series of based around the characters of Anchorman? Dirty Elle Woods parody?

27/ You see where I’m going with this.

Come from a place of abundance of ideas, not scarcity. We seem in this business to think that there are a finite amount of ideas and money. I love you very much, but that’s not true. Ideas are everywhere.

28/ Sex is a billion-dollar industry. How can we avoid letting the well run dry and freaking out because all the good ideas are taken? Always be in motion. Always be collecting ideas, evaluating them, creating and testing them, refining them.

29/ But don’t hang your hat on one particular idea for too long or as “your thing”. Its sort of like building on different platforms, but in the creative sense. Keep moving, keep collecting, keep creating.

An action plan to collect inspiration:

30/ The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron. If you haven’t read this book, I can’t recommend it enough for creative types. And we all here are creative types, friends. The book is a 12-week course and a self-help and creativity classic.

31/ There are weekly exercises and essays to help awaken your creativity but the program is built on two cornerstones that I can’t recommend enough.

Morning Pages: Julia recommends that every morning, you journal stream-of-consciousness style, three pages, long hand.

32/ And that you don’t read it back for at least 8 weeks. I’ve done this off and on during different periods of my life, and although I’m not doing it now, I can look back and see how my productivity and creative output increased during those times.

33/ Since I personally don’t take the time to do morning pages anymore, I do this. I keep a journal with me at all times, just a little moleskine in my bag and by my bed. When I get an idea, I jot it down without judging it. Capture those thoughts.

34/ You never know where it will lead.

The Artist’s Date: The second thing that Julia recommends, and I still do til this day, is a weekly artist’s date. This is an hour a week alone, where you take your creative self on a date and play.

35/ You can watch a film, bake, go for a hike, go into a shop or museum. Vital for filling the creative well.

Be a bandwagon jumper. So let’s say that in our community, a trend is sweeping through. Everybody in your niche is doing a thing.

36/ Do you partake of the trend or do you ignore it to stand out. You partake of the trend, sweetheart. Every time. If you’ve been in this business for any amount of time, you’re well on your way to developing loyal fans.

37/ If every other SWer in your niche is on TikTok, let’s say, your fans are primed and ready to see you on TikTok. Get your fine ass over there and do the thing.

Partake in challenges. Join the community. Have fun and don’t take it all too seriously.

38/ If everybody and their mother is doing an internet challenge, join in (as long as it’s synced with your voice and branding, and if it’s not there’s still likely a way you can reference it in a way that works for you.)

39/ Personally, I have a goal and intention of being everywhere I can be so people can find me. I’m going to bring my consistent voice with me, and I’m going to have fun with it. You should too.

First look for “HOW” others are doing things, not “WHAT” they are doing.

40/ When it comes to looking directly at colleagues, also notice how they are doing things, not just what they are doing. Are their websites easy to navigate? How do they curate their social media? What products and services do they offer that you can make your own?

41/ Never assume that someone else’s idea is a profitable one. With all that being said, don’t assume that just because someone is promoting a product or service its making them money. There’s no way of knowing that.

42/ The only way to find out is to adapt the idea to your business (make it original by combining it with existing ideas and from your point of view) and test it out.

The magic is where hustle meets the creative idea. But what if everybody has a similar idea? Who wins?

43/ We all do. A rising tide raises all ships. But, yes, I know we all have to make a living here slinging ass to some degree or another. There’s really only one way to set yourself apart:

Do it better. Do it more. Throw yourself into it. Balls deep.

44/ Hustle + creativity is the most powerful force. If someone is doing Mommy Clown Domme clips and this is something you want to do to, get after it. Become an expert through education. Hustle and find ways to improve the art. Understand the psychology.

45/ Throw yourself into it all the way. This is how you become a thought leader.

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

46/ So shit, what if you have a great idea (let’s say Morticia Adams parody cosplay) and you’ve been pushing this hard and you see other workers posting this idea as their own. How do you handle it? Unless you’ve trademarked your idea, there’s nothing you can do to prevent it.

47/ Sorry. But here’s where I get sneaky. Instead of calling them out publicly or even approaching them privately and chastising them for stealing your idea, do these things instead to keep your intellectual property safe:

48/ Keep your content plan and editorial calendar (wrote about how to make one of these in my Content Strategy thread) private until you’re ready to start the promotional plan and launch.

49/ When other’s copy (and they will if it’s a good idea), contact them and offer to promote them and/or collaborate. It’s much better form, shows strength, builds your network and community in general, and will get more eyes on you and your content.

50/ You don’t need to hoard your ideas because you’ve been gathering and working on creative ideas for months or longer, yes?

Here are some words to say:

“Jane! Oh my god I just saw your tweet about your Morticia Adams cosplay humiliation video! I love it!

51/ I’m a big fan of that character. Retweeted! I love playing her in my videos too (link her to a previous clip you had made). If you have the time and space in your schedule, we could totally collaborate on this and make something together if you’re into it!

52/ I understand if not and I won’t take it personally, let me know!”

Just trust me on this one, it’s going to get you a lot further than, “Listen, whore, I made a video like that 3 months ago, who exactly do you think you fucking are?”

Think like a YouTuber.

53/ Collab, collab, collab.

So how do you stay ahead of the curve? As soon as others start copying your idea, you launch a new one. This is why editorial calendars are so great.

54/ You’ve launched, you’ve made money, and while people around you are starting to see this and making content in a similar vein, you’re already excitedly planning your next moves and creating that. We don’t rest on our laurels here, we keep moving.

55/ Keep your audience guessing. Having a stream of interesting and creative content that give your own spin, while still delivering on your brand promise is going to have your fan base coming back to you over and over, excited to what you are going to do next.

56/ This is what you want. Keep it up, love.

If you’ve drawn inspiration, don’t be too proud to credit your source. Whether that’s a vanilla artist or a professional in our industry.

57/ If people come to you asking for more and you don’t have it, whether the “it” is information or art, spread love by sending the person to the other industry professional. Build relationships. Don’t be stingy. Always treat others how you want to be treated.

58/ Now, get out there and let your creativity run rampant. I’m always rooting for you. You’ve got this.