For those of you who work in the creative field, you will generally be identified as having unique thoughts. Because that's what helps you create various interesting works or ones you've never thought about at all. In this process, you go through stages called the creative process.
The creative process is an effort to realize ideas in real form through the development of thoughts and actions. This process will involve critical thinking and a person's skills in solving problems. Quoting from the book The Art of Thought (1926) by social psychologist, Graham Wallas, five main stages in a person's creative process are outlined. These stages are:
The preparation stage is also known as the brainstorming process. At this stage you will use your mind to wander and find inspiration. Well, inspiration can come from many things, for example from seeing the work of various figures, when walking around, reading books, watching films, or when you chat with anyone.
In this preparation stage, the key is to find inspiration. Inspiration is not something that will come by itself, but it must be sought using a process that you think is most appropriate. One method may not be enough to help you find inspiration, so you also need to apply other methods.
The incubation stage seems contradictory to the brainstorming process you just carried out. Because at this stage, you will move away for a moment from the ideas you have previously searched for. Even so, this 'rest' stage is quite important because without realizing it, your subconscious mind will continue to shape all the information that has been prepared into interesting new ideas.
At this stage you will usually say "aha!" or “eureka!”. That moment occurs when your idea moves from the subconscious to the forefront of your mind and becomes the answer to your search process. This can happen in any condition, such as when you eat, shower, wash clothes, or when you go to sleep. It happens suddenly and seems like the answer to the problem you are solving.
So next, you will enter the verification stage. Here you will consider the validity of your idea and compare it with other alternatives or solutions. This is a moment of reflection for you to see whether your idea is in line with the initial problem that was initiated or not. In this process, you can solicit opinions from your colleagues or conduct research to test ideas.
After this stage, you can continue with the idea if it fits the problem you wanted to solve at the beginning. However, you will return to stages one and two if the idea doesn't feel right. Don't worry because you have to go back to the initial stage. It could be that you will find an idea that is truly more fitting and in line with your vision.
This is the final stage of the creative process. You will elaborate ideas and realize them into any creative product according to your skills.
This series of processes will be better if you document it, either in writing, pictures, etc. This will help you to go through other creative processes in the future.
Based on these stages, how long will the creative process take? Basically there are no definite provisions for how long it will take you to go through a creative process. However, if you have high sensitivity or sensitivity, this could happen faster. Sensitivity can be interpreted as your ability to grasp solutions to respond to a situation. You can practice it by paying more attention to everything around you. Try to see various things that you may have missed.
Well, besides sensitivity, there are several other habits that you need to practice so that your creative process runs optimally, including originality, ability to elaborate, flexibility and fluency. This will perfect the creative process so that the resulting product is truly attractive.
That's a review of the creative process that creative workers generally go through. By knowing the process and stages, you can go through it more clearly and planfully.