The Creative Process
If we look at the scientific literature of creativity, the following process model by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi is widely known. According to Csikszentmihalyi the creative process can be divided in five phases:
It starts with the occupation with the subject. Creativity does not work in a vacuum, you need information about the domain before you can have creative ideas. After this comes the incubation phase, a time where the work on the problem seemingly stops. The person does something different. He occupies himself with other, seemingly unrelated matters. This phase suddenly ends with the insight or aha-experience. Suddenly the solution to the problem comes into the mind of the creative. After this experience, the idea must be evaluated. Often ideas seem brilliant at first but they do not work when they are thoroughly tested. If the idea holds, it must be elaborated: it must be refined, the details must be worked out. After this the creative is one step further to his overall goal and the cycle begins anew.
Important Restriction: Simplified Model
The five phase of the creative process rarely occur in that simple, clearly defined way. Also note that the process is cyclical, i.e. except in the case of a small, well defined problem working creatively not only generates but set the ground for the development of new ideas. Often the solution of a problem raises new problems which also have to be solved, which raise new problems, etc.
What does this mean?
First of all, don’t let it fool you. The creative process is messy: There can be an overlap of different stages in a process that jumps wildly from stage to stage, even different processes running simultaneously and in parallel.
Second of all, take a close look at the first two phases of the creative process. You need to occupy yourself with the subject and you need time.
“But that’s trivial!”
You will probably think something like this, but is it? If it is trivial, then why isn’t everybody doing it? Why do we treat creativity like it happens without effort? Like you don’t need knowledge to solve a difficult problem, all you need is the creativity to see the simple, elegant solution?
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