Cre·a·tioN

Article 008.

What you're reading is a creation. Started as an idea and pushed forward with action. But if you recall from Article 001: Norton notes a notion. There was no creative process in mind for Category: Notion. It was a notion about a notion. A desire to write more. A way and want, to put more thoughts out there, in a form that was something beyond the ordinary newsfeed chatter. I started a newsletter, not knowing how well it will be received. This is now the eighth edition. And although it is still early on, and less than a month in, I still do not know how the newsletter is being perceived entirely, but I do know my thinking about the newsletter has adjusted already. Could you say I am developing the creative process in real time?

What began simply as a notion, now comes with more planning, a weekly publishing schedule, and a lot more thoughts into how I can make this newsletter worth a damn. So when did the creative process really begin then?

There is some official language when referring to the creative process, with specific stages:

"The creative process is the evolution of an idea into its final form through a progression of thoughts and actions". (How to improve creativity: MasterClass article). There are five established stages of the process- preparation, incubation, illumination, evaluation, and verification.

Even up to this point, I can say honestly, I haven't been following some specific process, I wasn't looking at each stage like, "Welp, time to incubate". It wasn't something I had been thinking about...or was it? As the article states, "There are five stages that most creators subconsciously follow while pursuing their creative endeavors". If that happens to be true, then that makes me wonder even more, had the ideas been subconsciously forming longer than that first edition? I believe yes, in some way, because I did know I wanted to write more. But that was all. And then by the definition, this newsletter would be stage five of the process, verification.

We'll stop here for now, before we go too deep down that rabbit hole. If there was a process in motion that led to me eventually writing this newsletter, then there must be a separate creative process for the actual writing of each article. And that will be something I'll address in later articles. This article actually took a whole different turn from what I originally had in mind when I sat down and began typing, which will set up more topics around the creative process, and creating in general. Linkedin saw the value of creativity for its users and put out "Creator Mode", an alternative feature for engaging with your audience, followers, and connections. This newsletter is a product of Creator Mode.

Until next time, Take care.