My Really, Really Boring Yet Awesome Creative Process

I grew up my whole life thinking I was not a creative person. I was the kid who colored specifically in the lines in a coloring book. There was no such thing as freestyle art when I was 6. I would trace the images from books ever so carefully as not to miss a thing. When writing notes to my parents or friends in crayon, I would first draw lines on the page to keep my writing straight. My mother used to tell me I barely had a creative bone in my body.

This belief was engrained in me through childhood until I began to realize that "creative" didn't really mean what I thought it did. Creative wasn't necessarily about art or music. In fact, I was and am a creative person. I am a creative thinker. My creative lives in the world of ideas, of words written in straight lines on paper or scrawled on a whiteboard.

In her book, Twyla Tharp speaks about walking into a white room. My white room is usually more of a blank page. I recently took the full length Meyers-Brigg test to find my personality type. I discovered that I am an ENFP which means I am extroverted, intuitive, feeling and perceptive. Generally the intuitive part means I am a big picture person, and that is the beginning of my creative process.

1. I see a blank page. I see the big picture. I title said blank page with said big picture.

Then comes the most difficult and agonizing part for me. I have to find out how to make the big picture happen. This is generally when I have to stop myself from getting too wrapped up and carried away with one big idea. I had a professor once who was in creative advertising. He told me he had the same problem. His solution was to go see a movie or two to clear his head and come back to the problem. I prefer to try my best to not think about the project or big picture at all.

Everyone knows the feeling a person gets when they have something on the tip of their tongue and they simply cannot come up with it until their mind is miles away and then it just pops up. That is how my creative process works. My subconscious does my best thinking.

2. Let my subconscious thinking handle the idea-making.

People often say they get their best ideas in the shower. For me, my best ideas have the nasty habit of coming to me right before I fall asleep. Luckily, I always have my iPhone handy to write down the note to myself.

3. Try to fall asleep. Wake up to idea. Write it down. Spend next hours trying to get back to sleep.

Once ideas start flowing and I become sleep deprived enough, I add all of the ideas together under the big picture and fill up the blank page. Then it is just a matter of prioritizing, reordering, discussing with others, etc. and the best ideas will come to the forefront and Voila! 

4. Organize and prioritize.

It may not be the most interesting creative process. It involves a lot of napping. However, this is my own way of coming up with the best ideas and thinking creatively. It's just a matter of following these steps without getting too distracted or discouraged.