the stream

3 phases of creative production — a hypothesis about the structure of a creative process

Gathering raw materials

Through reading and consuming media, listening to others, thinking aloud in conversations, or just pure contemplation, we gather a bundle of ideas and related experiences that start to point to some insight or further idea.
A lot of creative value comes from this very unstructured stage of creation where ideas are gathered without any goal directed work. I call this "simmering".

Active thinking

In the active thinking phase, the we look at the gathered raw materials and try to form structure out of them to produce something that's coherent and clear and perhaps even actionable.
This implies and requires a "sense-making" process, of going from unstructured information to emerging a structure out of it.
In the process of active thinking, we might find the need to collect even more raw materials. But this time, we're looking for information in a more goal-directed way. Information may also be discarded or deemed no longer relevant.

Production/drafting

For us to create some creative work/output from ideas or insights gathered during active thinking, we need to crystallize it into a form that can facilitate communication. I call this "drafting" or "production".
This stage is about serializing thought into media. Production may often also serve the role of communicating with ourselves, i.e. when taking notes for my future self, to remember my past thoughts.