
The four stages of the creative process:
- Stage 1: Preparation. The creative process begins with preparation: gathering information and materials, identifying sources of inspiration, and acquiring knowledge about the project or problem at hand.
- Stage 2: Incubation.
- Stage 3: Illumination.
- Stage 4: Verification.
- Stage 1: Preparation. The creative process begins with preparation: gathering information and materials, identifying sources of inspiration, and acquiring knowledge about the project or problem at hand. ...
- Stage 2: Incubation. ...
- Stage 3: Illumination. ...
- Stage 4: Verification.
What are the five stages of creative process?
Stages. Part conscious and part unconscious thought, the creative process can be broken down into five key stages, including: preparation, incubation, illumination, evaluation, and implementation.
What are the four stages in the creative process?
The processes are:
- Preparation
- Incubation
- Illumination
- Implementation
What are the five steps in the creative process?
- Incubation. This is the step that will take time. ...
- Illumination. This is the “Aha!” moment, the lightbulb moment, the “Eureka!” moment when the perfect idea hits you. ...
- Evaluation. ...
- Is it worth pursuing?
- Is it new enough or has it been many times before?
- Are there changes I could make?
- What do my colleagues, superiors, client think of the idea?
- Implementation. ...
What are the steps in the creative process?
What are the steps involved in creative problem solving?
- Identify the goal. Before solving the problem, you need to fully understand the problem you’re trying to solve. …
- Gather data. …
- Formulate challenge questions. …
- Explore ideas. …
- Come up with solutions. …
- Create an action plan. …
- Take action.
What is the four stage model of the creative process?
What does the creative process look like?
How can we bring order to the creative process?
What is the stage 3 of aha moment?
What is stage 3 in art?
Is creativity a complex process?
See 3 more
About this website

What are the 4 components of creativity?
Paul Torrance's work in Creativity. Torrance, the “Father of Creativity” talked about four elements to creativity: Fluency (# of ideas), Flexibility (variety of ideas), Originality (uniqueness of ideas), and Elaboration (details of ideas).
What are the 5 stages of creative process?
The 5-Step Creative ProcessStage One: Preparation. The preparation stage is the brainstorming stage. ... Stage Two: Incubation. ... Stage Three: Illumination. ... Stage Four: Evaluation. ... Stage Five: Verification.
What is the creative phase?
The Creative Phase is an opportunity for the team to use their creativity and produce alternate means of performing the functions associated with the product, service or project. The goal is to generate as many ideas as possible in a short period of time. This can be accomplished through Function-based Brainstorming.
What are the creative process?
The creative process involves critical thinking and problem-solving skills. From songwriters to television producers, creative individuals generally go through five steps to bring their ideas to fruition—preparation, incubation, illumination, evaluation, and verification.
What are the 3 stages of creative process?
A creative project is a process that starts with an idea and has many different stages. The stages of a creative project will vary, depending on the type of work being done. These 3 stages can be seen in almost every creative project: Concept, Vision, and Production. In the first stage, a concept of work is created.
What is an example of a creative process?
The implementation of an idea or solution in the creative process model is when an individual begins the process of transforming her thoughts into a final product. For example, during this step, a painter may begin outlining shapes on a canvas with charcoal before applying oil paints to the medium.
Why is the creative process important?
Creativity play a big role in how a solution to a problem is outlined, what alternatives can be chosen, and how to identify new ways of looking at the problem. It is the ability to create new ideas to design new perspectives on existing ones.
What are the types of creativity?
There are 4 types of creativity: deliberate, cognitive; deliberate, emotional; spontaneous, cognitive; and spontaneous, emotional (Dietrich 2004).
How can creativity improve the 5 stages of the creative process?
The 5 Stages of the Creative ProcessPreparation: The Inspiration Phase.Incubation: Absorbing and Processing.Insight: The “Eureka” Moment.Evaluation: Putting Your Idea Through the Wringer.Elaboration: Putting Pen to Paper (So to Speak)
What are the types of creativity?
There are 4 types of creativity: deliberate, cognitive; deliberate, emotional; spontaneous, cognitive; and spontaneous, emotional (Dietrich 2004).
What is the creative process by James Baldwin about?
One of his most famous essays is aptly titled 'The Creative Process'. In it, Baldwin depicts his interpretation of what it means to create and what it means to be an artist, and of course, both of these tenets are inherently bound to what it means to be human.
What is a creative process in art?
The creative process is defined as a succession of thoughts and actions leading to original and appropriate productions (Lubart, 2001; Lubart et al., 2015).
What is the first stage of the creative process?
The first stage of the creative process is where you define the need, desire, or problem, and collect data and relating topics as much as possible.
What is illumination in a creative process?
Illumination is the stage in which the idea in incubation suddenly takes shape. It is that profound moment of realization. It often happens when you don’t actively think of a creative idea or solution. Usually, that Eureka or Aha moment occurs just when you are busy with something else such as driving, taking a shower, exercising, or while resting.
What skills do you need to vetting an idea?
You should use your critical and analytical thinking skills for vetting your idea. You might have to start all over again if the solution or idea doesn’t work. But, if it is acceptable or only minor changes are necessary, the creative process will be complete.
What is an emotional joyous reaction?
An emotional joyous reaction takes place knowing that you have finally discovered the solution or idea that you have long been looking for. What used to be vague has now become clear.
What is the four stage model of the creative process?
One of the most illuminating things I’ve found is a popular four-stage model of the creative process developed in the 1920s. In his book The Art of Thought, British psychologist Graham Wallas outlined a theory of the creative process based on many years of observing and studying accounts of inventors and other creative types at work.
What does the creative process look like?
The creative process tends to look more like a zigzag or spiral than a straight line . The model certainly has its limitations, but it can offer a road map of sorts for our own creative journey, offering a direction, if not a destination.
What are the stages of the unconscious mind?
Stages 2 and 3 are all about inspiration: dreaming, reflecting, imagining, opening up to inspiration, and allowing the unconscious mind to do its work. Stages 1 and 4, meanwhile, are about generation: doing the external work of research, planning, execution, and collaboration.
What is stage 3 in art?
The artist uses critical thinking and aesthetic judgement skills to hone and refine the work, and then communicate its value to others. Of course, these stages don’t always play out in such an orderly, linear fashion.
Is creativity a complex process?
What the science does show is that creative people are complex and contradictory. Their creative processes tend to be chaotic and non-linear—which seems to mirror what’s going on in their brains. Contrary to the ‘right-brain myth’, creativity doesn’ t just involve a single brain region or even a single side of the brain.
How many stages of a creative process are there?
Of course, these four stages don’t always happen in order. Like any creative process, they could be happening all at once.
What is the preparation stage?
In the preparation stage, you’re accumulating all the resources you need. You are doing fully conscious work. You’re researching, planning, outlining, and creating the first draft. It’s important to cultivate curiosity, openness, and acceptance in this stage.
How to get creative?
For creativity, open-sense meditation is ideal. Pay attention to all the thoughts arising in your mind without engaging. Notice the birds singing and the traffic noise outside. The smell of food cooking in the kitchen and whatever else comes up.
What is the stage of unconscious processing?
Incubation is the stage of unconscious processing—the time when you step away from the work of writing your blog post. I have no idea how this works, but when you step away from consciously working on a problem, something inside you continues the work — your unconscious mind.
When do new ideas come?
New ideas tend to come when I am a bit stuck or need something new or better for my writing. Now I leave my notebook nearby when I meditate.
Can you access creativity?
The problem is, you can’t consciously access it. But if you learn to get out of its way, it will bring you gifts of creativity you didn’t know possible.
What are the four creative processes?
We’ve known for a long time that the creative process can be broken down into four distinct processes, most of which can be fostered and augmented. The processes are: 1 Preparation 2 Incubation 3 Illumination 4 Implementation
What is the first phase of a creative process?
This is the first phase, which most people call “work.” A writer, for example, prepares by writing, by reading, or by revising earlier work. A musician plays scales, chords, or songs; a painter messes with paints or visits an art gallery; an entrepreneur researches problems to solve; a programmer plays with code. In each example, the creative is going through relatively mundane processes.
What separates good creatives from dormant creatives?
What separates good creatives (or dormant creatives who get lucky) is that they’ve learned how to walk through the creative process. ( Tweet this.) The irony is that most of them don’t know that there is a documented process, yet they’ve developed habits that allow them to walk through it.
How many good ideas do you need to live a life of greatness?
Here’s something I want you to keep in mind and it’s why I’m so adamant about your understanding your creative process and understanding that your livelihood depends on your leveraging your creativity: all it takes is one or two good ideas, well executed, for you to live the life of greatness. Most of the influential creatives throughout history – including present ones – started with one really good idea. The rest of their life was spent either working on that idea or living off of the fruit of that idea. You may be incubating that great idea, or you may be one step away from it, and I want you to get it out so we can all enjoy it.
Why is creativity a problem?
A large part of the problem is that there is an air of mystery and mysticism around the creative process. Because people assume and reinforce the idea that some people have creative potential and others don’t, those who do harness their potential and work through the process become all the more “different.” And because so few of us see that leveraging our creativity is inextricably linked to how we make money , we let our creative process devolve into a daily crapshoot.
What is the mystical process?
This would be the mystical process, if there were one, because you often don’t know that you’re incubating an idea, or if you do know you’re working on one, you don’t know when it’s going to come out. It’s during this phase that your conscious and subconscious minds are working on the idea, making new connections, separating out unnecessary ideas, and grabbing for other ideas.
What is the best IQ for creative thinking?
In case you want numbers, most psychologists conclude that people with an IQ of 120 or above have plenty of potential to pursue creative thinking and lifestyles, and under that, they’ll struggle. There’s also very little correlation between education and intelligence, so don’t think you can’t be creative because you didn’t go to college or grad school. Some of the smartest people I know never attended college.
What is the second phase of creative process?
The second phase of the creative process, according to Graham Wallas, involves, “not consciously thinking about the problem.” Instead, it involves consciously letting go of the problem and relaxing your mind. You might want to go for a walk in nature, or relax in a shower.
What is the first step in the creative process?
The first step into the creative process involves research, exercises, rituals, and routines that stimulate your mind. Wallas, quoting Helmholtz, describes this as, “The stage during which the problem was ‘investigated … in all directions’.”
What are the two stages of verification?
There’s a lot that happens at this phase, so much so that in his book Creativity, Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi actually breaks this Verification stage down into two stages—evaluation and elabora tion:
How does Tharp organize her ideas?
Tharp uses a file box as the container for each creative project, in which she puts in index cards with her goals for the project, as well as the research and references she comes across. In other words, this is how she organizes her ideas, She writes, “The box is the raw index of your preparation.
Why is conscious work more fruitful?
Musing on the relationship between the conscious and unconscious parts of the brain, Henri Poincaré says, “It might be said that the conscious work has been more fruitful because it has been interrupted and the rest has given back to the mind its force and freshness. But it is more probable that this rest has been filled out with unconscious work.”
Who wrote the creative habit?
63 years before Tharp published The Creative Habit, advertising executive James Webb Young wrote a pamphlet entitled A Technique for Producing Ideas, in which he called this stage, “Gathering raw material.” David Lynch writes of a similar concept in Catching the Big Fish; he’s always trying to gather “firewood,” which he simply describes as, “piles of things I can go to and see if they’ll work.” I use my notes with the Zettelkasten method to manage my piles of things.
Is creative process flexible?
These days, the idea of a process may call to mind a corporate “standard operating process”—where each step is laid out in very concrete terms—but the creative process is much more flexible than that.
How many phases are there in the creative process?
There are several approaches in this regard. However, one of the best known is that proposed by Graham Wallas. He suggested that there are four phases of the creative process
What is the first phase of a problem?
The first phase seeks to identify a problem in a given context. It includes the compilation of much of the information already available. Furthermore, it requires a conscious and voluntary effort of understanding and analysis.
Why is patience necessary in creative process?
Therefore, patience is always necessary in order for the creative idea to end up becoming an application with real results.
What is the ability to generate new concepts or ideas, starting from existing ones?
Creativity is the ability to generate new concepts or ideas, starting from existing ones. It usually seeks to solve a problem. This involves constructive imagination and divergent thinking.
What is the illumination phase?
Of all the phases of the creative process, illumination is the time when ideas begin to take shape. It corresponds to the moment in which options for solving the initial problem start to appear. Some authors call this “the eureka moment.” It’s the stage where the idea actually materializes into something concrete.
Why do people drop out of creative work?
In some cases, it’s at this stage that many people drop out because they lose patience. This puts an end to the creative process.
What is the purpose of the verification stage?
During the verification stage, the aim is to evaluate the results in order to correct or improve certain aspects of the final result. Similarly, it’s the point when the creator verifies whether the creative process has actually yielded its fruits and whether it meets their expectations, having followed the necessary phases of the creative process.
What are the stages of creativity?
The creative process model has traditionally been broken down into the following five stages of creativity: preparation, incubation, insight, evaluation, and elaboration (although creatives’ definition of each step, and occasionally the names, can vary). These terms themselves likely won’t do much for your creative spirit (they admittedly sound a bit sterile), but below we’ve broken each down to help you understand and relate to them more easily.
Why is it important to know the stages of the creative process?
We believe that familiarizing yourself with stages of the creative process allows you to more easily unlock your best ideas. It gives you the creative elbow space to figure out what satisfies your spirit and what turns you off, and it provides you full permission to dive into the deepest corners of your imagination. It encourages you to scrap ideas that don’t work without damaging your ego and, most importantly, to bring you closer to yourself and create something you’re proud of.
What is the Creative Process in Art?
Simply put, the creative process is the way ideas, art, or creative thinking comes about. Contrary to popular belief, this creative process does have structure. It always begins by gathering inspiration and ultimately culminates with the finished product. While the creative process steps in the middle are apt to change according to the person—we all have our unique approach and way we process creativity—helpful, guiding structure exists here, as well.
What is the process of incubation?
Incubation: Absorbing and Processing. Now is the time to let all that information and inspiration you just breathed in soak into your very core. In this stage of the creative process, it may not even feel like you’re really doing anything since it’s your subconscious that’s actually doing all the work.
What is the first step in the creative process?
So, what is the first step of the typical creative process? Preparation . While this might sound a bit like you’re cramming for an excruciating exam you’ve got to take in the morning, the first stage of the creative process is where your best ideas are born.
Is the creative process only for the innately creative?
Though a romantic way to think of it, the notion that the creative process is only bestowed to the “innately creative” among us is rather stifling. The reality is that everyone—including you—is creative. It’s really just a matter of understanding the stages of the creative process model and tapping into those juices.
Is the creative process abstract?
The creative process may seem like an abstract concept, but it does have a structure. We break it down in stages here.
What is the four stage model of the creative process?
One of the most illuminating things I’ve found is a popular four-stage model of the creative process developed in the 1920s. In his book The Art of Thought, British psychologist Graham Wallas outlined a theory of the creative process based on many years of observing and studying accounts of inventors and other creative types at work.
What does the creative process look like?
The creative process tends to look more like a zigzag or spiral than a straight line . The model certainly has its limitations, but it can offer a road map of sorts for our own creative journey, offering a direction, if not a destination.
How can we bring order to the creative process?
By seeking a balance of these opposing forces , we can bring some order to the chaos of the creative process. And as we become dreamers who do and doers who dream, we empower ourselves to share more of our creative gifts with the world.
What is the stage 3 of aha moment?
Following the aha moment, the words get written down, the vision is committed to paint or clay, the business plan is developed . Whatever ideas and insights arose in stage 3 are fleshed out and developed. The artist uses critical thinking and aesthetic judgment skills to hone and refine the work and then communicate its value to others.
What is stage 3 in art?
The artist uses critical thinking and aesthetic judgment skills to hone and refine the work and then communicate its value to others. Of course, these stages don’t always play out in such an orderly, linear fashion.
Is creativity a complex process?
What the science does show is that creative people are complex and contradictory. Their creative processes tend to be chaotic and nonlinear—which seems to mirror what’s going on in their brains. Contrary to the “right-brain myth,” creativity doesn’ t just involve a single brain region or even a single side of the brain.
