The Creative Process

I learned something interesting yesterday. Apparently all artists, regardless of medium, go through a similar creative process.

I suppose that makes sense, although, to be honest, it never occurred to me that painters did (I met a painter who goes through this process, which is how this all started). I’d always thought that painters knew precisely what they were going to paint when they began a canvas. I imagined that they had the picture already created in their mind’s eye.

Apparently they don’t. No more so than a writer who writes by the seat of her pants knows exactly how her book is going to go when she sits down to write.

I guess that means that there are probably seat of your pants painters and those who do have the whole thing planned out, just as there are writers who know how their story is going to go when they begin to write and those who don’t.

So, what is this process? And since all artists seem to go through it, is there a reason for the madness?

Well, it seems as though, we all start out with an idea that we love–if we didn’t we probably wouldn’t start the whole process.

We then become worried that perhaps it wasn’t such a great idea after all–this would be when the reality of just how difficult it is to bring this idea to fruition hits us. This is the stage where we realize that creation is actually hard work after all. But we persist, because we’re a pretty stubborn lot and it was a good idea to begin with, so maybe there’s hope.

And, indeed, once we’ve continue to work at our project, we see that, yes, it was a good idea and this will work out after all… Until it doesn’t.

Yes, just like our stories, our creative process must have a black moment when all is lost and there is just no way this is going to work. For me, that’s either the part where I am right now in my WIP when I’ve reached the midpoint of my book but I am no where near the midpoint of my intended word count. Goodness only knows how I’m going to stretch this out to be as long as I feel it should be. Do I have to go back and replot out my whole book? Maybe I should just give up, the whole idea? But wait, I can’t do that, move told too many people what I’m working on. Argh! If I don’t finish it… Well, there’s no choice I’ve got to slog on. I’ve got to figure something out!

So I continue on and figure that I’ll add in a subplot after I’m through writing the whole book… Or something.

Soon enough I’m sailing along in my writing. Things are progressing in my story and I’m on a roll. This is great! I’m so thrilled with myself and my writing… Until I start to worry about length once more, or I hit the black moment in my story and get my characters into such a jam that even I have no idea how to get them out again. So I back up, do some more character analysis, figure things out and get them out of that horrible moment.

And then, wham! The book is done before I know it, but I’ve got to force myself to draw that ending out, to write those feel good, mushy scenes. I usually spend a day or two agonizing over how to end the book in order to leave my reader satisfied and my characters with their happily ever after.

The artist in me needs to be satisfied too, but for that to happen I need to do a few rounds of editing first, read through the story a number of times, add a few touches with my “paint bush” and liberally apply my eraser as well.

And then I’ll sit back and really wonder if it’s any good at all.  It’s at that point that I need to take that leap of faith and send it off to others to read and hope that they like it (I honestly never know whether what I write is any good until I get that feed back).

So why do we do this? Why all these ups and downs in the creative process? Is there a purpose to the highs and lows? The only reason I can see is that we’re putting ourselves out there, baring our souls and our creativity for the world to see and criticize and, frankly, we’re a pretty insecure lot who fear being told that our art stinks.

The thing is, if we didn’t do this, we wouldn’t even have a chance at creating something beautiful. This process is necessary. This process is what makes our art special and unique and fascinating and enticing to others who don’t have the ability to create.

Yes, it can be painful. Yes, it’s frustrating at times. But in the end it truly is wonderful—even all those head-banging moments.

We feel, therefore we create, therefore we are artists.

What’s your process like? Is it anything like mine?