What is the Creative Process?

Creative people seem to follow a process, though often the steps are stated with more complexity. There are many variations on what the creative process is and how it works. And there are a lot of lists like this online - perhaps that's even how you found my blog. The steps, outlined below, cover the five major points and are presented to be most useful to you.

1. The Input Stage

   · Observation, collection, and absorption of stimulus from the world around us by using our senses for gaining inspiration

   · Identify the product or artwork you’d like to create

   · Research and brainstorm – free of judgment

   Examples: you want to paint a picture or write a play – what inspires you? Seeing or hearing something new while looking at or hearing things with which you are already familiar. Remembering a particular summer vacation spot. Smelling baked cookies. A desire to capture a feeling or represent a theme in words or art or music.

2. Finding Potential

   · Discovering patterns, similarities, and relationships. Identifying possible uses for the idea and/or product.

   · Everything counts in brainstorming – write everything down that comes to you

   · Narrow down your brainstormed ideas or choices to those you can do something with (keep the other ideas for later!)

   Examples: Ask yourself: How can this idea or product be used? What could I do with this idea? What if I wrote a song instead of a play? Can I show this better as a sculpture or a painting? Should my story be 1st Person point of view or 3rd?

3. Re-Organization

   · This is where the work comes in – putting the pieces of your idea together

   · Changing the order of all the parts of an idea or product.

   · Refine, draft, edit, revise, rehearse

   Examples: sorting or arranging your closet or locker; changing dialogue in a scene to make it flow better; add brass to a musical arrangement; change your narrator

   4. Production

   · The actual doing of something. Creation and presentation of your product.

   · A completed performance, design, or artwork.

   Examples: painting a picture, writing a skit, performing a play, playing a musical instrument, baking a cake, writing a draft of a novel and then reading it fresh

   5. Evaluation

   · Judging the final product – or judging the item while in production for re-organization.

   · Review, give/get feedback, reflect on the process

   Examples: Is this product well or poorly made? How can it be improved? Have others observed my intent? Look at notes from a beta reader. Take ideas back to Re-Organization or Production stages and apply your new thoughts

   Know that this is all a continuing process! You will be going back-and-forth between Production and Re-Organization constantly, and Re-Organization and Finding Potential perhaps just as much. You will write or rehearse, perform, evaluate, and go back. Maybe even back to the Input Stage when something isn't working at all and you need to start fresh.

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