Creativity is more than just one idea

Given the scope of creative projects, creativity usually is the realization of projects that consist of more than just one idea. You see it theoretically in the cyclical nature of the creative process and practically if you consider the amount of good ideas in most well-known creative works.

Look at a good book, for example. Even if it starts with one good plot idea, to really turn it into a good book, you need a lot of additional ideas about the characters, the setting, side-plots, objects, dialogues, etc. Harry Potter is not just the idea of a boy who grows up to be a famous wizard but it is a creative project that consists of countless ideas: Diagon Ally, Quidditch, Hogwarts, etc.

So, instead of just one idea (which one might remember)

a creative project consists of multiple ideas and looks more like this (simplified):

A lot of different ideas that are hard if not impossible to remember. If the creative project gets larger, if it goes beyond a single idea, if you start to flesh an idea out, it becomes harder and harder to memorize all the information. Organization will help you remember what you did, what you still have to do, help you to take up the work where you left it, even if this was years ago. In extreme cases it also allows your work to be finished postmortem (if, of course, your work is that good).

This leads to two important consequences: ideas must be captured and they must be collected.

Ideas must be captured

Given the fleeting nature of ideas, especially if one idea follows after the other or a project consists of a lot of ideas (and which one does not?), ideas must be captured as soon as possible. This means, bringing them into an enduring form, whether it is bits and bytes or ink on paper.

Ideas must be collected

Given that ideas often come spontaneously to different projects that are not currently in the realization phase, ideas are sometimes unused for a very long time until they are finally needed. This means that ideas must be collected somewhere. Collection means order and structure, and we return to this in “Collecting Ideas“.

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Why Organize Creativity?  |  Project ideas vs. assigned ideas