Dissecting The Creative Epiphany
This article was originally posted on Launchora as part of my weekly Guide series.
I’m going to confess something to you right now. I know you may not want the burden, you just came here to read something about storytelling and the elusive ‘creative epiphany’, and now you have to read my confession. I would apologize but I don’t want to start 2019 with an apology that I don’t actually mean.
So, are you ready to hear my confession? Here it is…
I spend a majority of my creative absorption time…
Wait… I should explain what creative absorption time (CAT) is first. CAT is the time I spend (and even you spend) watching/reading/experiencing creative content like movies/shows/books/articles where the goal is to excite your creative neurons and learn something new by consuming something someone other than you created. It’s basically all the time you spend when you aren’t working or thinking or socializing (exclusively). Makes sense? Let’s move on.
I spend a majority of my creative absorption time watching non-intellectual content.
What is non-intellectual content (NIC)? It’s creative content that I don’t particularly consider to be something that needs my full attention. Now, it’s tough for me to consume NIC in the reading format, because that actually does require my full attention (and I do not enjoy reading books I don’t care about). So the usual NIC in my life is in the video format - movies and shows (nonfiction and fiction). NIC is a relative concept, because what may be NIC to me may not be to you, and vice versa.
I’ll give you an example to explain myself. I love watching television, and right now one of my favorites series to watch is Amazon’s Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. However, I stopped watching season 2 of the show after binging the first half in one sitting. Why? Because it’s so damn good that I can’t do anything else while I watch it. And given how busy my schedule has been for the past few weeks (or years even), when I come home after work, I still have some stuff left to figure out intellectually. So, instead of watching something I love, I watch something I don’t care much about. Hence, NIC.
In the context of this guide, the NIC that I’m consuming right now is the show Lucifer on Netflix.
At this point I’d just like to give a little disclaimer that just because I’m calling this show my NIC doesn’t mean it’s not good or non-intellectual. It’s actually quite an enjoyable and well-written show, which makes it perfect NIC for me.
So, what does Lucifer have to do with creative epiphanies?
Damn, I forgot to tell you something. I could go back and write it, or we could just keep the flow going, right? Okay, you’re right. Flow is more important. So I’ll tell you now. It has something to do with my confession. The reason I spend a majority of my CAT watching NIC, is because the time I spend watching NIC is when I get almost all of my creative epiphanies.
See? My confession wasn’t just a gimmicky way to start this guide. It had everything to do with the topic.
Because I had my latest creative epiphany just a couple nights ago while I was watching Lucifer. For those of you who heard the latest episode of my podcast Storytalking With Lakshya titled What Kind Of Year Has It Been?, you heard me mentioning this moment.
So let’s get to the point now. Let’s dissect the creative epiphany.
To do that, I’m going to use this last one I had, since it’s so raw and unfinished, which makes it perfect for discussion here. Why? Because something that is already ‘finished’ gets modified in your head to the final version you made. Then all the tangents and sidetracks and possibilities and ‘wrong paths’ disappear from existence. All that is left is the final product, which usually has very little in common with the version you come up with during the creative epiphany.
I’m going to break down this dissection into four sections - How It Happens, How To Make It Happen, What Happens During, and What Happens After.
How It Happens
Let's start with a myth-buster, and technically a guide-title-changer. The creative 'epiphany', is more of a creative 'discovery’. If you believe that your creative ideas are just sudden moment of genius or clarity, then you're not really paying attention to the circumstances or patterns that lead you to that idea.
Every story I have ever written didn't just come to me out of nowhere. It came to me because I was doing something or listening to something or thinking about something (consciously or subconsciously), which then formed into a thought or a question.
I still call it a creative epiphany because that is what it feels like.
In the case of the epiphany I had watching Lucifer earlier this week, my thought was triggered by a moment in the will-they-won't-they romance between the show's titular character Lucifer (who happens to be an immortal), and his friend Chloe, a human/mortal police detective. It got me thinking about how an immortal can love a mortal, given that the mortal will get old and die, and the immortal will live forever. That thought led to my epiphany.
So what was my epiphany? A question...
What if there was a world where you're an immortal UNTIL you find love? And once you do, you become a mortal and are able to die with that person.
How To Make It Happen
So how do you to create the circumstances to get a new creative epiphany? I'll give you two ways I do it, based on what I'm working on.
If I'm working on a new story, then my epiphany almost always comes from experiencing another story. That story could be fiction, nonfiction, or literally happening in front of me (i.e. during people watching).
If I'm looking for a new creative idea to come to me at work, then in most cases it happens because I break down what I'm working on into questions. I ask myself this - if I was to explain what I'm working on or struggling with to an outsider, how would I put this situation into words or bullet points? And when I did, what questions would they have for me? Once I do that, I end with with 5 to 10 points or questions, and when I start answering them, I get my creative epiphany.
What Happens During
This is the most fun part of having a creative epiphany - the immediate minutes after the epiphany is triggered, where everything is possible and your creativity is free to roam across all the neurons in your brain. It's also the time for making a lot of quick decisions while continuing to hold on to the original thought. So let's talk about what happens during this phase.
The first thing you should do - and probably have already found yourself doing - in this phase is keep the idea's spark alive. Give it love. Tell your idea it is awesome, and that it has never been thought of before?
Why? Because if you don't, your idea will die due to a lack of confidence and a boatload of insecurities.
After you show it that you love it, start creating the many, many paths of possibilities of where that idea can go. Don't judge them just yet, they're not ready to be scrutinized by an overthinking perfectionist. Think of them as toddlers - adorable, full of possibilities, and fully dependent on an adult.
Once you're done with all of that, end this phase with one question -
Have I done any of this before?
If the answer is no, great! Move on to the next phase.
If the answer is yes, find the files (in your computer or in your mind) where you stored all the ideas you had and rejected. You might find something that helps you in creating this new thing. bag them up, and move on to the next stage.
After I had my creative epiphany about the immortal beings love story, I explored a lot of paths within the next few minutes. The ideas were coming to me so quick that I didn't even type them, because I was afraid my thoughts would be too fast for my fingers. Instead, I opened up the voice recorder app on my phone and just talked to myself. I debated various plots, characters, mythologies, world-building ideas, and even formats that would best fit this idea.
In the end, I settled on two separate story ideas that felt like they were ready to go to the next stage.
What Happens After
This is the phase where we have to honest with ourselves about the truth when it comes to these creative epiphanies. And that truth is this -
Not all, and in reality very few, creative epiphanies actually turn into something more.
Why? Because having an idea is easy and exciting compared to putting in the work to actually make it into any kind of product.
Because it is during this 'let's try to make it work' stage that you either give up, fail even after trying, or realize why the idea won't work.
However, that doesn't matter. Because every idea goes through this phase. So all you really need to do is simple - do the work and just try.
So what is the 'work'?
Everything you did in the previous phase - all the paths you created and tangents to went on - write them down, and start projecting their future. One by one, you'll start seeing the limits of each path. Once you see the limits, you'll start seeing which path works better.
As I mentioned in the previous phase, my immortality love story was now two separate stories. So when I reached this stage, I figured that after doing the work and pick the paths that feel best, I would end up choosing one over the other.
However, that did not happen. The more I thought about both stories, the better each story got on its own. I now found myself wanting to write them both.
That's when I asked myself this next question -
What if I create two stories - two different worlds, both dealing with characters that are immortal - and tell two different stories that are complementary to each other?
That's where I got the idea of creating 'dual stories'. That thought become my next creative epiphany, one that needed me to step up and do something I haven't done before.
I turned my creative epiphany into a creative challenge.
So what are 'dual stories'? Are they interconnected? Or different universes altogether? I have no idea. That's why it'll be fun working on it.
But what about the leftovers? All the paths and tangents and awesome little nuggets that you just can't use in this story or product? SAVE THEM. They'll come in handy in a future epiphany's after-stage.
So there it is. The full dissection of a creative epiphany, using one I had just this week. I have no idea what the final product of it will be, but I am excited to see it through.
If you liked this experience, then you might also like the next episode of Storytalking With Lakshya that I’ll be recording and posting this Saturday (Jan 5), where I’ll be literally talking my way through creating these two stories, with the working title of 'dual stories'. Subscribe to the podcast through the below link on a podcast app of your choice (or download the Launchora app) and you’ll be notified when the new episode is up -
Talk to you then. But until then arrives, maybe pass the time by sharing your last creative epiphany?
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