The creative process, what schools won't tell you

One of the things I feel like schools often fail in teaching is how to navigate the creative process. Creation is a bumpy process, because transferring from mind to creation involves difficulties and problems along the way. What starts off as a really good idea in your mind will travel through different iterations and needs to be edited due to a few different things. I like to split the creative process in three points in order for you to understand it a bit better. Bear in mind many people have spoken about the creative process and my opinion is just another one to add to the pile to better understand our thought processes.
Illumination: Usually the creative cycle starts off with a really good idea, you begin said idea and then realise very quickly that what you thought was a brilliant idea is not as easy to pull off as it was in your mind. Often when creating conflict arises and we find that we lack the resources, skills, or magic in order to make what we want happen. When that conflict arises we must work to find a resolution that is both conceptually and aesthetically resolved.
Deterioration: Another point in the cycle is that what you felt was a masterpiece in the beginning often starts feeling like a disaster at some point in which there is no turning back to get it back to a good idea. The idea at this point feels like the worst thing you’ve ever made. (This is usually not true, its just the feeling.) You then usually collapse in a moment of defeat and hopefully don’t throw the whole thing away, but its good to walk away at this point.
Resolution: The next day you walk in and see what you can salvage from the original idea and you have two choices. Keep pushing through or admit defeat and start over, but in starting over do realise that you begin the process all over again. Here comes the pivot point, you realise that you don’t have what it takes to succeed in achieving your original idea, but you can resolve it another way that is feasible. While it doesn’t look like the original idea in your mind, it actually has blossomed into something much more interesting.

​Keep making art, keep pushing through that crazy creative process. xoxo