What makes one piece of creative work stand out above the rest? What makes something catch our eye, quicken our hearts, fix in our memories? It’s easy to make a judgment call on whether an idea is just OK or whether it feels like something really special, but it‘s much harder to say why that is.
I’ve spent a good deal of time, probably more than I should, contemplating this thorny question. And I’ve come to the conclusion that there are five properties of really exceptional work; five universal qualities which, once you understand them, you can use to evaluate whether the idea you’ve been nurturing has any chance of becoming something heart-stoppingly great.
Simplicity
The best ideas are the simplest. It seems almost fatuous to say, and yet it’s remarkable how often this irrefutable truth is overlooked. Your idea may be complex in execution, but should be simple in concept. Ulysses by James Joyce is notorious for its literary innovation and capacity to bamboozle, yet, if you strip away the verbal complexity, it is the story of two men over the course of a single day in Dublin.
