Curtains Behind The Craft: The Psychology Behind Creativity
As a writer, when searching for a story, I place myself in different environments to generate new ideas because I believe your brain is most effective when introduced to distinct stimulants usually found in different surroundings. It’s part of my creative process.
However, the lingering question in many minds, including my own is what is the psychology behind the creative process is? While I have concluded that creativity is the procedure behind the formation of theory, I want to explore the essence behind it, the fundamentals involved and unconventional rhythm when linked to the mind.
Stages: What Is The Cycle?
Although we go through a particular set of steps to come up with unique thoughts that are useful to us, did you know fragments of these conclusions mostly float around your mind beforehand?
In Science and Method, chapter 3, Mathematical Discovery, 1914, pp.58 scientist Henri Poincare says
“It is certain that the combinations which present themselves to the mind in a kind of sudden illumination after a somewhat prolonged period of unconscious work are generally useful and fruitful combinations, which appear to be the result of a preliminary sifting.”
When the big bang strikes inside your head, and you can feel a story plot dancing in your mind, or you can see the first line in your latest poem, whichever way you got there sparks flickered intentionally to form your flame.
In the beginning, when in the preparation stage, you’re obsessed with a new concept and there’s a nagging feeling inside of you, usually, at this point, you do your homework. Search for resources and pull together data.
Afterwards, you move on to incubation. In my opinion, creatives this is where we procrastinate. We’re still in love with our ideas, and even though we’re feeling too lazy to type down a chapter or get to a sketch, the image of what we’re creating is still in our present minds. Good News! This is perfect!
During those days when you’re contemplating what step you’ll take next, you also ponder over the progress you’ve made so far. The voice that usually reminds you of your ongoing project is part of what encourages you to finish it. Not only this, but your mind also opens up to a world of possibilities, giving room for new underlying ideas to come forth, which leads to illumination/insight.
It is entirely possible that for some of us, this is where the approach to the beginning of a story becomes crystal clear! The green light is on so you can start writing.
According to psychologists Graham Wallas and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, this is usually the moment when a light bulb goes off in your head. Any ideas that were incubating now carry on forward from your subconscious to your conscious mind. Personally, this is where the ending of my stories commonly present themselves, especially if there is a twist.
Finally, verification, is your idea accurate? Are you able to communicate it to others?
To my understanding, this is where beta readers might come in or where you repeatedly go over your stories trying to see if the plot makes sense if your characters are well developed and the intended themes are present.
Poets, here is where you’ll want to question what your readers take away from your piece if the speaker is clearly communicating your message and perhaps if your diction well translates the tone and mood of your work.
The Essence Of Creativity
What makes something creative? What do we do to become creative?
I have always felt that a notion or a design that departs from conventional wisdom is said to be creative. Your ‘out of the box’ thinking is what makes you original and unique. Nevertheless, there is so much more to this.
Firstly, fluency, the quantity of your ideas matters!
In an article found on psychology today, professor Sarah Rose Cavanaugh wrote that Creative geniuses often produce their best works at their times of greatest output, and some of their worst work also mark these times.
“In poetry, when we recite Maya Angelou’s classic poem Still I Rise, we tend to forget that she wrote 165 others; we remember her moving memoir I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings and pay less attention to her 6 other autobiographies.” — Adam Grant.
To sum it up, the more you invent, the higher the chances of you inventing your masterpiece.
Secondly, we must look at how flexible your ideas are. I’d say this comes through experiences because as writer and poet, my work is brought about by 80% of distinct experiences. It forms a variety of ideas, and that’s what I need.
“The personality trait most tied to creativity is that of Openness to Experience, summed up by a willingness to try new foods, music, entertainment, modes of thinking.”−Professor Sarah Rose Cavanaugh
Writers, poets, artists I know a lot of us are introverts or at least have high introversive intuition, but we must be open to experiencing things around or with other people, in different places because it could make for a great story!
Additionally, originality and elaboration are important. Not only do designs need to be unique, but they should have supportive details.
This speaks out to dystopian and fantasy writers the most, when weaving together a new world you’re looking to make a place that is outside of reality nonetheless, I think it is wise to latch on to a few aspects from the real world for your story to be a little bit more believable. For example, ever notice that in fantasy and dystopian books, humans are described or perceived as ordinary. That is the reality. Whether you have giants, elves or vampires, their abilities are flexible, but for humans, we stay the same, and that makes stories more acceptable. After all, if a human were to possess some kind of power, then they wouldn’t be human anymore.
Irregular Rhythm
“Great artists are often outsiders: they don’t behave like us, they don’t look like us, and they don’t think like us.” –Psychologist Jeremy Dean
I think the number one tell that someone is creative is their level of extraordinary. Don’t get me wrong we’re all unique, but creativity is synonymous with unusual. When you’re driven towards a potential image in your mind by a force you cannot explain, often you’ll do a lot of things that make little to no sense.
I first started writing stories when I was 13 years old; I woke up every day at 3 am and wrote until the sun came up, even on school nights. I didn’t understand why and neither did anyone else. All I knew was that for those few hours, I was in a world of my own and by myself. The more I wrote, the more I had to write.
“Creativity or talent, like electricity, is something I don’t understand but something I’m able to harness and use. While electricity remains a mystery, I know I can plug into it and light up a cathedral or a synagogue or an operating room and use it to help save a life. Or I can use it to electrocute someone. Like electricity, creativity makes no judgment. I can use it productively or destructively. The important thing is to use it. You can’t use up creativity. The more you use it, the more you have.” −Maya Angelou
You may not be able to summon powerhouse ideas out of nowhere but the potential of discovering them exists. In many ways, our ability to forge theory is like a bottomless pit of magic that we want to master; every day that we create we tap into it.
A popular question I always find myself asking fellow creatives is why do we do it?
Some say it’s merely part of who they are, being creative is a piece of yourself you don’t want to deny because it proves you’re beautiful on the inside and you want to express that. Others want to fall into that abyss of magic because they’re looking for something that they haven’t found in reality and they are hoping that the wonders of fiction will bare answers.
For storytellers like me, we always have something to say. There’s a message we’re always trying to relay to a potential audience and every time our creative process strikes we’re drowning in magic. We are addicted to innovation. It’s the beat of a song only we can hear and we don’t want it to stop, we dance to its weird rhythm then recreate the melody in our point of view for everyone else to listen. When it’s all over, we crave for it to start again.
In conclusion, the creative process is a loop of insatiable madness, silently recurring in your head. We chase it not only for the satisfaction of expression but because it’s an unseen power that moves and inspires. It’s a talent that lives, but without developing it like a skill, it won’t grow.
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