Stages of The Creative Process

The same process that creates one thing creates all things. And that process goes through seven stages that connect and loop around each other in anP1020101 interactive waltz.

If what we’re creating comes easy to us – family dinner, F-R-E-E-writing, a dollar – we don’t tend to notice the stages. If what we’re making is more challenging – conference catering for 300, a published novel, a million dollars – becoming more aware of the process is essential.

With conscious creation, knowing which stage of the process we’re in allows us to follow the right steps at the right time — and enjoy the dance.

The seven stages of the creative process are: Intention -> Incubation -> Investigation -> Composition -> Amplification -> Completion -> Implementation.

These stages are not mutually exclusive, as implied by separating and laying them out in a list like this. But doing so enables us to observe and understand the quite different challenges inherent in each.

One of the main reasons that creative projects become derailed is because we bring in thoughts and behaviours appropriate to a different stage. A common example is writers who try to edit into shape (amplification stage) their early ideas and insights (incubation stage), instead of allowing them full formation.

In the coming weeks, I’ll be looking at each of these stages in detail and, using three quite different examples – writing a novel; the feminist project; creating money – to demonstrate how an understanding of the stages of the process makes creating anything a whole lot easier.