See the thing with the creative process is that the more you try to pin it down, the more elusive it becomes. The more you try to define it’s boundaries, the more nebulous it is. The more you try to do anything with it, the more it fights back. And, if you’ve ever found yourself in the throes of tackling a new creative project, you understand this to be true in practice not just theory. That’s why, for all of these reasons and more, it’s taken me two weeks to write this very short post.
I wasn’t sure of what angle to tackle this from or how detailed I should make this post. So, I’m settling for less detail and more straight talking.
For all of my griping and moaning about how to define the creative process it really boils down to one stupidly simply question:
How do you create?
The creative process is what you do when you make something. It’s how you make. Some people have elaborate processes that involve the same 6.5 steps done the same way every time over the course of 2.68 months. For others, the process is defined by and entirely dependent on the individual piece of work. Furthermore, some might declare they have no process but in an ironic twist of fate, that in and of itself, is a process.
The creative process is exactly what you make it. It is uniquely yours and the only requirement is that you engage–somehow, someway–in the process of making something. And that, my friends, is all I have to say about the creative process.
For now.
The Iteration Project 