The 5 Steps of the Creative Process

Motivation

I've been thinking about creativity a lot, particularly in an applied setting. However, the insights derived from all this could apply to artistic creation too. I'm not an expert in creativity, but I feel that I've had my share of creative experiences, both online and off-line (mainly off-line). So, here is how creating something looks like for me, a process I apply, often without realizing it, in my every buzz and biz process involving creativity.

1. Come Up with an Idea

This is fairly easy, since ideas are a dime a dozen. However, coming up with an idea that's applicable and useful, is not easy nor simple. Oftentimes I need to look into other people's stuff, assimilate the concepts they are built on, work on something else, and then one day the light bulb is lit. That's when I am ready for the next steps. If I cannot proceed for some reason, I note down the idea in as much detail as possible, for future use.

2. Create the Mental Scaffolding for the Idea

This is the most interesting part since it's mainly a mental process, involving a lot of creativity. This is where all the structure of the creation comes about, be it a detailed outline of the whole thing (e.g. in a new video for Safari, or an article for a blog post), or some other kind of structure. If it's a musical piece, this stage could involve the selection of the right key, as well as the chords, the chord progressions, the main reefs, etc.

3. Imbue the Whole Thing with Emotion

No idea could gain any motion if it weren't for emotion. Unless there is some emotional depth in the whole thing, it's bound to end up like a LI article (at best), and few people really care for this sort of creativity, even if they are sometimes obliged to "like" articles like that. Emotion in a video takes the form of the voice-over, the animations, and to some extent even the images used. If the video allows for background music, this can be part of the emotional aspect of the creation process. For music projects, the emotion is the melody, the lyrics (whenever there are lyrics), and the whole "sound" of the whole piece.

4. Work on the Whole Project

Sometimes it's easy to forget that no matter how good the inspiration, or how vibrant the whole project feels, unless you put a lot of work to it, it's not going to go anywhere. As the famous American inventor, Thomas Edison, said: "Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration" or something like that. Even though creating the visuals and the words for a video are essential, unless I put down a lot of effort in cleaning up and resizing the images, editing the script, recording the whole thing as many times as it takes, and creating something that other people can view (or at least preview), the whole idea doesn't mean much.

5. Refine and Publish the Project

Getting the whole thing into a good (and marketable) shape is not a trivial task. However, after I've done all the work for it, it seems fairly easy in comparison. Nevertheless, unless I make an effort to put the final touches to the video, render it properly, and upload it on the cloud, it's just a DIY project. What makes it something that can add value to others is putting it out there. It's not so easy if it's something personal (like a piece of music, a poem, etc.) but it's not as hard as it seems either.

What's your experience with creating stuff, either for artistic or professional purposes? Is your process any similar to mine? How does beBee fit into all this? Feel free to let me know in the comments below.