Content flow: from idea to essay

March 20, 2021

To create content consistently, creators follow a process well-tuned to their craft and themselves. The purpose of such a process is to provide direction when there is confusion or darkness.

A creator’s process is always evolving. By observing and changing their own creative process, creators further the state of the art and leave their own indelible signatures on it. Others see this, learn from it and continue the tradition.

Creators are not a select few among us. Within each of us is a creator with an infinite capacity for creativity. Some of us resist it, others embrace it. Still others, unbeknown to themselves create barriers to output.

How creators develop themselves

Of prolific creators, there is one common trait — the realisation that they must get out of the way of their own flourishing minds, bursting with ideas to be developed.

To promote creativity actively, creators may go through any number of these steps:

observing their environment with keen interest rather than rushing from one fleeting moment to the next
having a go at various forms of creative outlet until they find resonance
giving themselves the permission to fail at any and all of them
remembering that before they began this creative endeavour, they weren’t succeeding at any craft anyway
remembering that they are doing this for fun
defining their own (grounded) process for the pursuit of a craft
discovering a suitable cadence for their practice based on what works best for them
finding an audience (even the smallest possible one) to draw strength from, to entertain and to serve
learning their craft actively, documenting these learnings and making them available to others
finding other creators, connecting with them, learning from and supporting them; becoming an active member of the community
recognising the process for creating content, identifying the steps in one’s own craft and revisiting them often until the point where it becomes second nature

Current content flow setup

This is the basic structure for my process to get from idea to essay.

Step 01: collect

collect thoughts all the time
store them in one place
tag them with keywords

Step 02: develop

review them in batches
furnish details for clarity
develop many in parallel

Step 03: assemble

assemble layers of ideas
construct a narrative
create content

When essays are ready, they are published on my blog. Every weekend I publish a newsletter to revisit the inspiration and thoughts behind essays published during the week.

At times, I also share details about other unpublished ideas. These are usually being explored in the 'develop' stage of the creative process. This may be illuminated with the help of a concept map under construction or an excerpt from a conversation during the exploration of such ideas.

#creativity #iteration #writing