How The Creative Process Works

Lying on my yoga mat, focussing on my breathing, focussing on releasing the almost crippling tension in my neck and shoulders – suddenly it comes together. Dots join. It’s like a little explosion in my head. It happens instantaneously. That’s the creative process. I could never have arrived here by logical, linear thought. Only when you’re relaxed and in a reverie can this process take place.

The fascinating non-fiction book I’m currently reading comes into my mind. Then another non-fiction book I read a while ago.  In one quantum moment, connections are made. And suddenly, they meld with a projected key part of my second novel (still mostly in note form) in one exciting gestalt.

That’s it. That’s what it needs. That’s what happens when my main character is in a coma in the hospital.

I have to leap (well, heave myself) off my mat to scribble it down with a thick marker in the hopes it will be legible later.

Lie down again. Breathe. Relax. And then there’s another flash, and a set of ideas from the first non-fiction book connects with the build-up to the end of the first novel I’ve almost finished.

That’s it! That’s exactly what was missing to deepen the transformational experience of my main character. Yes!

This is the easy part, if you allow it to happen. This is creation. But now comes the grunt work, to bring the gestalt into linear form: words on a page.

So nurture this process. Read and learn and think widely. Get out of your genre and your reading comfort zone. Feed your creative mind. Then let it do its job. Relax, listen to it, take note. Then do your job. Write.