From Preparation To Implementation

An artist wakes up one morning and gets an idea for a painting. A copywriter walks on the riverside and a great campaign takes shape. A musician stumbles upon a homeless man and an excellent composition comes alive.

How often we hear this and wonder why ideas come this way only to others and not to us. But if you at this closely, you'll discover that all of the above had already been working on the idea. And what happened one morning, or by the riverside or on the road is actually the third step in the creative process.

To understand this, let's look at the process of creativity and the five steps it involves.

Step 1: Preparation
This is when the problem is first seen by the creative person and he starts preparing to find a solution to it. This is when all the knowledge you've gained in your chosen creative field comes into play. Everything that you've seen, heard, smelt and felt till date starts working together to help you find a solution. No wonder that creative people are always hungry for new knowledge and more information even on unrelated subjects. Because they know that they will never know when and from where a great idea will come by.

Step 2: Incubation
This is when creative people try to understand the real problem. They get into the nitty gritties... into the minute details of the problem. And then, once they have all the information on the problem, they combine it with all the related and unrelated knowledge they've gathered and put it on the back burner and let it stew.

Step 3: Enlightenment
This is also called insight. It's the moment at which the unconscious and the subconscious minds, having finished working on the problem, present an "AHA!" or a "EUREKA!" This is the step where the artist, the copywriter and the musician mentioned earlier were on.

Step 4: Evaluation
This step is where you evaluate the solution. Will it work, will it not? Is it the best? Is it worse? It's not always the right answer, even though it may be amazingly creative. This is where you find a balance between imagination and reality and evaluate if the solution is practical.

Step 5: Implementation
And finally, it's time to implement the idea. The artist creates the masterpiece. The copywriter writes an award winning campaign and the musician creates a memorable score.

And after the idea is implemented, the five steps begin again... the preparation, the incubation, the enlightenment, the evaluation and the implementation... all working towards making the idea better than before. Again and again. 

~ Arun Verma

17 Words To Ignite Creativity

Get passionate about your chosen creative field. Be passionate enough to find inspiration in whatever you see.

16 Words To Ignite Creativity

When losing confidence, think of the times when you were really successful. Feel good about it.

15 Words To Ignite Creativity

Practice nibble nibble creativity. Making one change for the better in your creative project. Everyday.

14 Words To Ignite Creativity

Join a community of like-minded people. Or create one. It always helps to network.

13 Words To Ignite Creativity

Create for the sake of creating. It’s better than not creating at all.

12 Words To Ignite Creativity

Forgive yourself, forgive others. Don’t blame anyone for your failures. Keep creating.

11 Words To Ignite Creativity

Form a schedule for your creative project. Stick to it always.

10 Words To Ignite Creativity

Be positive. And build a world of positivity around yourself.

9 Words To Ignite Creativity

Take your mind off what whatever kills your passion.

8 Words To Ignite Creativity

Tell yourself often that you are highly creative.

7 Words To Ignite Creativity

Reward yourself for even the smallest successes.

6 Words To Ignite Creativity

Try finding solutions in every problem.

5 Words To Ignite Creativity

Spend more time with people.

4 Words To Ignite Creativity

Follow a creative ritual.

3 Words To Ignite Creativity

Overcome your fears.

2 Words To Ignite Creativity

Ask ‘why’.

1 Word To Ingite Creativity

Absorb.

Get In Touch With Them

Many well known creative people have been known to be recluses. They prefer to create in isolation and are unwilling to interact with other people. In fact, they take the belief of ‘creativity being an individualistic activity’ a wee bit too seriously. And in 99 cases out of 100, it is these same creative people who after locking themselves up from the world for days, months and years find themselves slaves to intense depression and serious phobias and manias.

Sure, you have to create alone but it is always better for your creative soul to share your creativity with the world. Not only in the form of a finished piece of art but even when it comes to a thought process. Because when you share your thoughts with like minded people, you get feedback. When you get feedback, you learn and absorb more. And when you learn and absorb more, you create more. And better.

And it doesn’t take more than your willingness to go and reach out to a world of like minded people. Luckily, to use the cliche, the world is shrinking and like minded people are just a phone call, an email or a short walk away. Go ahead, get in touch with them.

Remember that guy you met in a chat room who went gaga over your poetry and left his email address in your mailbox? And you never did much about it…. it’s time to get in touch with him. Remember that woman you met at a friend’s wedding who wanted to drop by to check your paintings… call her up and invite her over. That old pen friend of yours with whom you had a heavenly rapport… get in touch with him now. Remember when you were playing the guitar and that colleague of yours who played drums asked you if you like to form a band? Get in touch with him now. Remember your next door neighbour who said that she likes the music you play every night… drop by at her place in the evening. Remember that online discussion group you were a part of but had to quit ‘cos you were spending too much time online… subscribe to it again. Remember the local play reader’s club you were a part of, go for their next meeting.

Getting in touch and interacting with people takes no more than 1 hour of your time, once a week. Am sure, that isn’t asking for too much considering you’re doing it to better your creativity. And besides, when you’re going through a bad stage in your life, be assured, you’ll always have a person who believes in you and your creativity giving you a helping hand. And when business is looking bleak, it’s your friend at the cafe who will pleasantly surprise you with an assignment you would love to pick up.

After all, God and creative people work in mysterious ways.

~ Arun Verma

Don’t Wait For Opportunities To Knock

In fact, find opportunities, hold them by the neck, drag them to your door, punch them hard, push them down, pull them by the collar and make them knock till the cows come back home. To get creative, don’t wait for problems to happen. Look around you and you will see there is still a lot to improve. There’s always around you a leaking faucet, a poem unwriten, a picture unclicked, a masterpiece unpainted, a child neglected, a recipe untried and a call unanswered. If you see problems, look at them as opportunities to find new ideas.