You're afraid your work isn't original

This fear of unoriginality stops so many makers before they begin, and it rests on a misunderstanding I can clear. Nothing is wholly original; everything builds on what came before — every maker reworks inherited forms and subjects into something new only in its particular combination, and even the works we call most original were assembled from existing materials, so the standard you are failing, total unprecedented originality, is one no work has ever met. Your particular seeing is the originality — though the subjects have all been used, no one has ever looked at the world from exactly your position with your exact attention, and this is the real source of originality, in the seeing that reshapes the shared materials, so bring your true specific seeing to whatever you make. And the fear of unoriginality often masks the fear of being seen — it can be easier to say the work is not original than to admit you are afraid to show your genuine vision, so ask honestly which it is. Release the impossible standard, and bring your seeing. What makes you feel it's all been done?