How To Write More Creatively

What Lion King's origin story can teach us about creative writing.

The Near Death of The Lion King

In the early 90’s, several screenwriters proposed something that had never been done before at Disney: make an animated movie based on an original concept. At that time Disney had made all the classics: Pinocchio, Dumbo, Peter Pan. But they’d never written an original story from scratch.

Studio chief Jeffrey Katzenberg was skeptical and told colleagues it was an experiment. Lion King’s director, Rob Minkoff recalls:

“No one had any confidence in [Lion King]. It was seen as a B movie at Disney.”

The original script was pitched to, and rejected by, Disney executives as “Bambi in Africa with lions”. After re-working the script, and pitching it again to executives, CEO Michael Eisner asked “Can you make this into King Lear?”, the play written by William Shakespeare. Then another producer named Maureen Donley weighed in with her own Shakespearean suggestion: “No, this is Hamlet.”

From that moment, Lion King was re-written as Hamlet with lions. Disney greenlit the project. Over $1 billion in earnings, two Oscars, and a golden globe later, it was the right decision.¹

When I read this story my first thought was: Can the Lion King’s path to production: starting with a crazy idea, then layering on something familiar, be a path to writing more creatively?

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The Primal Mark

Justin Berg, a creativity expert now at the U Michigan, conducted a study to explore how the initial framing of an idea shapes creativity in what he calls the “primal mark”. He wanted to understand how starting points influence both the originality and practicality of ideas.

• Group 1 was given a three-ring binder. Their ideas leaned practical—business cards and resume folders—but lacked creative spark.

• Group 2 was given an in-line roller skate. Their ideas were 37% more original but often lacked practicality.

• Group 3 also began with the roller skate but were later shown a photo of familiar office products. With a few extra minutes to revise, their ideas maintained originality while being judged 14% more practical.

Berg’s finding: Combining an unconventional starting point with a later injection of familiarity produces ideas that are both creative and useful.

Which raises the question: Why did combining an out-of-the-box idea—talking lions—with a familiar storyline like Hamlet work so well for The Lion King?

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Where Unique Ideas Come From

This creative philosophy worked for Lion King, and it can work for your writing too.

Good writing is all about consumption and production. Here’s how to apply Berg’s insights to your own process.

• (i) Start with something wild: The Lion King began as an epic tale about a familial feud between lions. Do the same—let your thoughts run free. Transcribe your concerns, dreams, or questions like a journal.

• (ii) Then ground it in the familiar: Just as Hamlet gave Disney’s executives a structure they recognized, bring in insights or structure from what you've been reading or thinking about. Anchor your ideas in something known.²

This sequence—novelty first, familiarity second—produces work that feels original and useful.

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Using This To Be More Creative

On The Tim Ferriss Show, Adam Grant shared that he drafts ideas at night, when he's groggy and thinking less linearly. Then in the morning—clear-headed—he refines them.

In essence, he’s doing what Justin Berg’s study suggests: starting with novelty, then layering in clarity and structure later.

When you're creating something new, start from the unexpected. Then, return later with a familiar lens to refine it.

Hakuna matata.

— Grant Varner

1. Adam Grant, Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World (New York: Viking, 2016), pp. 134–138.

2. Even this essay was part of a personal struggle to become a more original writer, weaving evidence from Adam Grant’s Originals, with my own thoughts and observations. Ironic?