If you are a creative, its really important to know what sort of creative work you want to make. Everyone has a creative “niche”, whether they think one exists or not. No idea what yours is? Try the taste matrix.
A taste matrix is a listing of artistic mediums (on the y axis) and taste preference (on the x axis). Artistic mediums are pretty self explanatory — film, music, videogames, etc. Any medium which you interact with a lot is good to place in your matrix. The taste preference, on the other hand, is a little more interesting. The first part of the section should have something you really like, that fits as something you’d like to make yourself. The second part should be the opposite: something you don’t really like at all.
Now, in order for this to really work, there needs to be some sort of “hot take” involved. If you say your favorite movie is The Godfather and your least favorite movie is A Talking Cat, then what constitutes as “taste” is instead confounded by variables such as technical achievement, strength in acting, general quality improvements, etc. Ideally, you want to have 1) a movie you really like that no one else does, and 2) a movie you don’t like that everyone else likes. This allows it to be filtered much closer to pure taste preference.
Once you have this matrix lined out, look at your choices from a macro view and see if you can spot any patterns. Are the things you like short and fast-paced, or long and slow-paced? Do they use dull tones or bright colors? Is the writing simple and Hemingway-like, or more Dostoevsky? These patterns along the matrix will inform you of the things you want to do more in your own writing, in order to create your own creative niche.
So that you can really understand this, let me show you a personal example. It might be worth noting that there’s always an updated version of this on my Ideas page, but this one is just how I have it on the day of writing this article. These matrices do change over time!
| Media Type | I want to make stuff like… | I want to make stuff NOT like… |
|---|---|---|
| Film | Do The Right Thing | Come and See |
| Videogames | Devil May Cry 3 | Disco Elysium |
| Television | Breaking Bad | Game of Thrones |
| Books | Siddhartha | No Longer Human |
| Music | Since I Left You | Buffalo Springfield |
| Anime | Cowboy Bebop | Death Note |
| Manga | Yotsuba! | Berserk |
Overall, I am biased towards vibrantly colored, fast-paced stories with amoral driven characters but usually morally good endings. I am biased against slower, grim-dark stories with heavy world-building and amoral or morally ambiguous endings.
So, how would I use this information to help me make new, original stuff? Well, I would know that if I wanted to ideate more stories, if I started with the basis that the stories needed vibrant colors, fast-pacing, amoral characters, and morally good endings, it would limit me to a niche I know I enjoyed but also keeps it open for me to write a lot more things! Your niche might very well be the opposite of mine, and that’s perfectly acceptable — you keep working on the stuff you like, and we’re able to capture the maximum amount of audience for the both of us.
I hope to expand on the concept of taste matrices later, as this is something I’ve only recently designed. As most recurring readers know, I’m a big fan of utilizing what you consume in everything you produce. Maybe this matrix idea can be even better?
