Holographic Sparks: How Ideas Contain Wholes

Discover the other half of creativity—the fleeting sparks that, when captured, illuminate entire universes of hidden ideas.

“The creative process is a process of surrender, not control.” —Julia Cameron

What’s a spark?

It’s the core of my theory on creativity.

A spark is simply a good idea. What makes it good? It comes to you with both the instructions for its execution and the energy to bring it to life.

Not all ideas are sparks. Some fizzle out when examined.

So how do you know when an idea has substance?

Let’s consider holograms.

Good Ideas Are Holograms

Do you remember the holographic toys that were popular in the 70s and seemed to hang out at the gift shops of national monuments and COSI museums ever since?

Every child is filled with wonder the first time they see a hologram, and imagine how this 3D scene is captured on a flat piece of plastic.

They seem magical—flat images creating the illusion of depth.

Holograms work by recording light patterns with two lasers on light-sensitive film.

The fascinating thing about holograms is that you don’t need the full piece of film to show the 3D image.

If you cut off a small piece of the plastic with a pair of scissors, instead of having a small piece of the greater image—like you might expect, the piece you now have contains the whole 3D image—only seen from fewer angles.

And if you cut up an even smaller piece from that fraction, that speck would still contain the information of the whole 3D image. Even though you may require a magnifying glass to see it at that point.

(This would be as remarkable as breaking a vinyl record into a thousand tiny pieces and being able to spin any speck and having it contain the entirety of The Beatle’s Greatest Hits.)

With holograms a single fragment isn’t just a part—it holds the entire picture.

That’s how great ideas work.

Holographic Sparks

A great idea isn’t just a thought—it holds a network of meaning beyond the words used to express it.

One idea connects to a larger whole. And when you capture that spark, you’re not just saving one thought—you’re preserving the entire web of ideas it’s connected to.

You only discover the rest when you finally sit down to unpack it.

If you lose it, you lose more than a thought.

You lose the pathways it would have opened.

The Other Half of Creativity

Creativity isn’t just what happens when you sit down to work.

It’s a process that also fills the spaces in between—when you’re in the shower, lying in bed, or driving. The best ideas come, often at inconvenient times, because your subconscious has been working on them in the background.

Most people believe creativity equals productivity, that it only happens during focused work. But that’s just half of the process.

If the first half of creativity is when you sit down and work—when is the other half?

The rest of the time.

But this goes beyond simple preparation.

It’s capturing the sparks as they come.

Capturing Sparks

The how is easy: always have a way to record ideas.

Carry a notebook. Use voice memos. Jot things down as notes on your phone. There are no right or wrong ways. Many famous authors, and even generals, carried a “commonplace book” for this purpose. I use a list on my phone.

It doesn’t matter how—you just have to catch them before they disappear.

And they will disappear.

So, if you ever find yourself thinking, “Ah it’ll come back to me later. I shouldn’t worry about it.”

Do not listen to this voice—it’s optimistic at best and lazy at worst.

Instead, this is your cue to move.

Because now you only have seconds.

If you have a creative idea in the shower…

Get out and write it down.

If you have a creative idea in bed…

Roll over and write it down.

Wherever you are, whenever inspiration strikes, capture it.

Because it’s not just one idea—it’s a holographic spark.

The Magic of Everyday Occurrences

When you create, you’re tapping into something larger than your day-to-day thoughts. You’re accessing a deeper intelligence—the part of you that makes connections your conscious mind misses.

If you don’t capture these moments, you’re missing out on the most creative part of yourself.

Imagine a part of you that ponders in the background, and after hours or days of piecing together the puzzle in the background, finally, comes together as a choir of voices come to let you know that you have had an idea.

That has meaning. It’s potent. It’s not just one idea. It’s a spark.

It has the idea and the motivation all coalesced into one beautiful seed.

This scribbling or note you take is just the start of that idea, and once you sit down next and transfer it into your project, you’ll find that you know what comes next.

You know where to continue from there. And that progress doesn’t come from willpower, or pressuring yourself into performing or improvising each time you sit down.

Instead, you’ll find your daily creative quota being met with ease, and often much more than that.

Because you’re using other parts of yourself, that others simply don’t know exist, or don’t prioritize in the way we should. Simply listening to them.

And when you do listen to this voice, you can hear it more clearly, more frequently.

That’s what it means to create with your whole self.

Creating With Your Whole Self

When you create from inspiration, you’re tapping into something larger than your day-to-day thoughts.

American novelist Flannery O’Connor once wrote, “I write to discover what I know.”

Nothing could be truer.

Have you ever read what you’ve written, or something you’ve made, and wondered how that came out of you?

I once became lucid in a dream where I was standing on a dock overlooking an angry ocean. The waves shifted and swelled with crests four feet tall that would slam back into itself as a light drizzle spotted the surface. The water tore apart and came back together dramatically.

In the dream, I looked on in wonder with a palpable sense of awe that I could not attribute to myself. The ocean was so real. The pattern across its surface would be impossible to paint. I can remember it still. And in the background was a score turning my dream into a blockbuster film.

It wasn’t a memory of a place I had been or a song I’d heard before.

“This is beautiful.” I thought in the dream.

“How could I have created this?”

I knew then that the truth was, that the version of me standing on the dock had not created it.

I was experiencing what another, greater, part of me created—for my own enjoyment.

I awoke from that dream realizing something that would affect the way I created from then on.

Embracing the Unplanned Spark

A good idea at an inopportune time is like that angry ocean and that swelling score.

An invitation from a deeper intelligence—the part of you that we all share, which dreams in narratives, that composes music you could never write while awake and makes connections your conscious mind misses.

If you don’t capture these moments, you’re missing out on a way to connect to the most creative part of yourself. The part that has the vision, that sees the greater path the stepping stones form.

The inspiration it sends is only an invitation and a mystery on the surface, but it contains a chance to discover yourself.

To find out what you know.

How you feel.

And accept your part in the creative process, while being an important part, is not the most important part.

It’s a collaboration between you, and you.

It always has been.

People fear the creative idea that is bigger than them, that simultaneously excites and terrifies them, and often that takes more than one day to achieve.

Same as you couldn’t create it in a day—your role in the partnership isn’t to experience the whole thing at once.

But instead recognize the whole in the part that comes your way, when it comes your way.

For it contains multitudes.

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