KobeSam.ca’s Creative Process

Whenever I create a post for this website I go through a six-step process. Ideation, selection, information collection, writing, editing, then publishing.

An Overview of My Creative Process

Ideation: Ideation is about coming up with ideas. Ideation can occur both accidentally and intentionally. Accidental ideation occurs when you are going about your life and an idea comes to mind out of seemingly nowhere. Intentional ideation occurs when you are purposely looking for ideas. Sometimes intentional ideation occurs in formal problem-solving settings, but it can also be done informally when you become interested in something and are trying to develop an understanding of it. An important thing to note is that ideation is about coming up with as many ideas as possible. (A great resource on ideation is this ted talk: The shape of ideation | Stefan Mumaw | TEDxLawrence.)

Selection: Selection is about choosing an idea to work with. It is typically a good idea to use decision criteria so that you are justified in choosing the idea. However, sometimes selection is just about taking an idea and going with it, because you have to make a decision eventually.

Information Collection: Information collection is about developing an understanding of what it is you are going to talk about. To develop an understanding of your idea it is essential you think critically about it, so you can develop research questions. Once you have these research questions it is your job to go out and find the answers. When doing so its essential that you consider the quality of the sources from which you are gathering information, a framework that I like to employ to do this is The Three Rs of Research.

Write: Writing is about creating a narrative from what you have learned. When writing, it is essential you have an understanding of who you are as a writer, what you are writing about, and who you are writing to. Having this understanding will help you understand how you can best communicate your message in the form of a narrative.

Edit: Editing is about adjusting content so that one can ensure the writing communicates its intended message. Once writing has finished, it is essential you do your due diligence and ensure that what has been written conveys the message you intended it to. When editing you should check for:

• Structure and logic – make sure that things make sense
• Tone – should align with the message’s intentions and level of formality
• Consistency in style and voice – it should feel as though one person is sharing the message
• Correct spelling and grammar

Publish: After you have gone through the rest of the creative process, its time to choose a medium to share your creation and simply hit post or publish.

Conclusion

While this is my personal creative process, it is not one that I suggest you just accept and adopt. I recommend trying aspects of it, seeing if they work for you, and adding what works to your own creative process. We all are creative in different ways and it is essential we all develop our own creative styles, so we as a society are better equipped to tackle any emerging problem from a variety of perspectives.