The creative process can be broken down in many stages, but in its essence creativity is about connecting ideas (Clear, 2018).

Preparation, incubation, illumination, evaluation, and implementation.

Gathering material, intensely working over the material in your mind, stepping away from the problem, allowing the idea to come back to you naturally, and testing your idea in the real world and adjusting it based on feedback (Young).

This process is what I used to create my project and how I overcome obstacles. Due to my lack of experience, I spent a considerable amount of time gathering new material and studying the works of others. I would learn just enough to take the next step. For example, write a proposal or develop a story line or sketch a storyboard panel. After working with the material and exploring any new insights, I sent my ideas to my peers and advisers for feedback. Success would be coupled with flaws and I would seek new material to overcome these new problems. It feels cyclic, but with an increasing momentum. Sometimes, I speed through the edits. Other times, I make major changes that cause the entire project to slow down, but will ensure a higher quality product.

This approach is similar to how I interact with academic concepts, but different with how I learn in the class room. In my science classes, I am not encouraged to combine information in new and unique ways. I solve these problems more methodically and the knowledge necessary is more concise. In both cases, I search for the tools needed and employ them in different ways to produce results. In my classes, there is usually a correct answer. In creating, there never is.

Citation: Clear, James. “For a More Creative Brain, Follow These 5 Steps.” James Clear, 8 June 2018, jamesclear.com/five-step-creative-process.