Inside the creative process of Allen Gannett, author of The Creative Curve
Every month, I interview a writer about her or his artistic process. This month, I’m featuring Allen Gannett. If you don’t know Allen, you will. He’s the next seriously big thinker in business. When you see him keynoting megastadiums, remember you heard it here first.
Allen is CEO of TrackMaven and author of a wonderful book called The Creative Curve: How To Find The Right Idea At The Right Time. I’ll let you learn about it here and just leave my review at this: I couldn’t put it down.
Here’s how he writes:
What’s your process for a big writing project like THE CREATIVE CURVE?
AG: This was my first book, so I cannot claim that my process was a particularly good one. It also changed throughout the multiple years of writing. The final version of my process looked something like this.
First, the ingestion phase. I did lots and lots of interviews with the creative geniuses I was studying, read thousands of pages of peer reviewed research, and spoke with the leading academics in the space. I transcribed every interview using a third-party service to save on time.
From there I started bringing together a framework of the concepts that would become the book. This was essentially a giant, detailed outline.
Once I had that, I started to do more interviews and research to fill in gaps I had or questions that opened up.
I kept adding more details to the outline. Doing this was a highly iterative process. As I scoped out the book, I would find new avenues I wanted to pursue.
Only once the outline was “complete,” did I start actually writing the text. As sections came together, I got huge amounts of feedback from readers, other authors, my agent, and my editor.
This may sound somewhat linear, but the really process was much more elliptical. I would bounce between these steps and slowly getting to a point where I realized the tweaks I was making were so small that I was probably done!
I know the book is about how inherent, magical creativity is a myth, but what’s something you’re really NOT creative at?
AG: Well, I don’t think creativity is static. So I’ll say that currently I am a terrible painter/drawer/etc. But, as I describe in the book, the science truly does show us that almost everyone can develop skills in any creative field. Now this isn’t as simple as Malcom Gladwell’s “10,000 hours principle” which doesn’t live up to scientific examination. Rather, there is a very intentional type of practice and skill development which researchers believe can bring anyone to world-class levels if done correctly.
So, one day, who knows, maybe I’ll learn to become a painter ☺.
What rituals, if any, do you have as a writer?
AG: I wrote my book primarily on Sundays for two years. On writing days, I would wake up at 8AM with the plan to sit down and start writing right at 9AM. I found that my first two hours of the morning were my most productive. By the middle of the day, I would often feel my brain turning into mush. I found that exercising acted as sort of “reset.” I would do that and then usually get another couple hours of true productivity before again turning to mush.
I also am a compulsive outliner. I would make outlines of every chapter and subsection and spent probably 60% of my writing process in outlines. I found this made it easy to get the prose out and focus on crafting the words.
What’s your writing toolkit?
AG: I use workflowy for notes and organization. It is an amazing tool that allows you to create collapsible outlines with infinite levels. Basically, your outlines can have their own outlines that have their own outlines, etc.
For the actual writing, I use Microsoft Word. I find it to be the most reliable and has all the features I could need. I also leveraged Grammarly which was a helpful tool for catching repetitive phrases and some dumb grammar mistakes (disclosure: they’re also a client of mine).
For transcriptions, I used Rev.com. I also used an app called TapeACall for call recording which also has an integration with Rev, making it all very easy. For recording skype or Facetime calls I used ecamm. Finally, for recording in-person interviews I used my iPhone with Shure’s iOS microphone.
Where do you go for inspiration?
AG: In the book, I describe how science shows us that “inspiration” is simply, subconscious processing that goes on in the right hemisphere of our brain. Further, science shows that information consumption is critical for having, and increasing these moments.
I found that was definitely true for me. Only once I study a topic deeply do I start having “aha moments.” I like consuming information visually, so for me the main way I do that is massive amounts of reading, typically when I’m trying to fall asleep at night.
What’s your favorite thing you’ve ever written in your life?
AG: I’m not quite sure I would describe it as my “favorite,” but when my friend and mentor Harry Weller died, I wrote a small remembrance on Facebook that ending up resonating with many more people than I could have imagined. Being able to help other people through a moment of grief was a deeply meaningful writing experience for me.
What’s the first book you remember loving?
AG: The “Hardy Boy” series.
What’s your best piece of advice for writers?
AG: The book is all about improving your creativity, so my best advice comes from there. One of the most common ways to enhance your writing is to imitate. Now I don’t mean plagiarize. Rather, I mean studying the works of great writers and learning the structure of the article, story, book, etc. How do they open a piece of writing? How do they transition sections?
In the book, I tell the story of a young Andrew Ross Sorkin who learned how to write as a young New York Times reporter by finding old front-page stories and mapping out their structure. Imitating the best is a common method for quickly improving.
What do you want written on your tombstone?
AG: Good friend. Great Dad. Mediocre Comedian.
Shane Snow is author of Dream Teams and other books.
