If you want to be a creator, then consume, and create. There's no other secret to it, honestly.
I've been finding more and more articles on Medium and other places about what you should do if you want to become a creator, what books you should read, what websites you should frequent, what tools to use, and so on.
Ironically, a lot of this advice is focused on anything but creating. Their entire point is to teach you how to become a creator yet they talk very little, or not at all, about the activity itself.
This is because the idea of being something is always more attractive when you're being told that there's a "secret" or "better" way of becoming what you want without putting in work, like everybody else.
And I'm not going to lie, there is indeed more that goes into becoming a creator than just creating. You need to consume content before you create it, so that you can get an idea of what others are doing and to use their experience as a guideline to help you become better and better. You also need to learn a few techniques, "best practices" or just rules that help you understand how to do what you want to do well.
But no matter how much time you spend consuming, or learning the rules, or reading the advice of others, you'll never really become a creator, or anything else to be honest, unless you actually put in the work.
You can read thousands of articles and books about writing and yet you'll never become a writer yourself if you do not write.
You can look at thousands of pictures and analysis and tutorials and yet you'll never become an artist unless you create art.
You can listen to music all day long and watch tutorials on how to play an instrument, but you'll never become a musician unless you play music.
The examples can keep going.
Sometimes, the best way to become something, anything, is to simply put in the work and do whatever it is that you want to become. Write, code, sing, paint, etc. Look at what others are doing, listen to their advice, consume the content that you think will help you improve, but then use all that and actually do something yourself. Sometimes that's all you need. Sometimes that's the only "secret".