Describe your Creative Process!

[ame-chan]

So how do you go about making your work? (Be it writing, music or art). Do you make doodles, take notes, listen to other musicians? How do you find inspiration? Do you proofread? And how do you push through to the finish line? I have a problem finishing things but I've heard some people say it's difficult for them to start. Tell me all about your creative process from brain fart to opus!

 

[whitesphere]

I've found tvtropes.org has a wealth of interesting ideas.  

When I do writing, I don't proofread much.  As for RPGs, I find it very easy to get sucked into the details and lose sight of the bigger picture.

As for stories?  When I have an interesting idea, I try to explore it and see what logically flows from that.

 

[ame-chan]

I love tvtropes too! Sometimes I can't control myself from clicking tho haha. That website is a blackhole!

How do you explore your ideas? I find lists and note making helpful. How about you?

 

[whitesphere]

I talk the ideas through, to myself.  For example, my current game starts with the protagonist being exiled from home.  He wants so badly to go home --- but has no idea where that is...

He crashed to the town in, well, a meteor (although the characters don't know that, I make it blindingly obvious with an impact crater and about half of the starting town severely damaged).  His true home is a different plane of existence.  So, I do something like:

"How would he get home?"

"Well, he can't get to another plane by himself.  At least, not yet.  He needs help."

"Help might come from the incarnations of various elemental forces.  Said incarnations would help him."

"Why?"

"Because they've been forced to by the protagonist's father."

"So, is the protagonist good or evil?"

"I think it would be more fun to have the game be all about shades of grey.  Good noble people doing horrible things, and horrible acts sometimes having great outcomes.  Just like real life."

So I basically bounce ideas back and forth.  Often, I find what seems a good idea completely changes when I go to implement it in the game.  At first, there would be 3 Knight types the player can become (White, Grey and Black) through a specific choice.  Now, I've decided instead the player can choose to join various Guilds and change class, such as from a Knight to an Assassin.  And he can be Blessed even as an Assassin, giving him new skills...

All of those flow nicely into my original idea of shades of grey.  Why can't an Assassin be Blessed if he partially atones?  And who says a Knight's typical tasks are always Good?  Even a just ruler must make hard decisions. 

I rambled on quite a bit there, but that's basically how my thought process goes.

 

[Sharm]

I'm going to explain this in artistic terms but the process is pretty similar if I'm writing or crafting or whatever too.

Inspiration - This is usually something simple like "I want to draw that" or "I bet it's possible to do this in tiles". Either that or someone hires me and tells me what to do. If it's a commission I'll usually sit and brainstorm on it for a bit until I find something inspiring or interesting about it.
Experiment - I shouldn't do this as often as I do but I'll usually start drawing right after inspiration hits. I try hard not to do this part for long, it's just an experiment with the idea, to see if it's as fun as I think it would be or if my idea actually works.
To Do List - I'll stop drawing long enough to get a rough idea of what's involved in making this new project. I'll write down things I want to accomplish with it and random ideas that would be fun to include.
Research - This is where I feel the work aspect really begins. I'll find references for style, color, the object I'm trying to recreate. I'll look through my morgue, links, tutorials or whatever and see how others tackled the same problems I'm about to tackle and decide how I want to tackle it. This stage usually leads to more notes in my to do list as I work out my thoughts. If what I'm doing requires me to learn something new I will take the time and learn it at this stage. Even though I'm a professional I believe very strongly in always learning and growing and not being afraid to start over if necessary.
Drawing - I'll have my reference images open and easily accessible and get to work. If I'm in Photoshop I'll have my art on the left and the references on the right. Usually I'll have a bunch more open in my image viewer and loads of references pulled up in browser tabs.
Refocus - Usually I'll do this right after I finish something like a group of tiles. I'll check it off my to do list, figure out what I want to do next and adjust the list to fit the project's current direction. Then I'll just go back to the "to do list" stage and repeat until I'm done with the project. The original plan almost never survives even one pass, usually I only know how much work something is going to be after I'm a good ways into it and sometimes my inspiration shifts as I realize it wasn't so interesting as I thought but something I thought was boring is actually really fun.
Search for Ego Boosts - I've got some horrible self esteem issues so I'll often go to communities like this and show off my work or help other people out whenever I start to stall or wear out. This will happen randomly through the process and almost never actually helps me feel any better. Not surprising though, it's an internal issue so looking externally for a fix isn't going to do anything. Sometimes though, I'll get a good critique or suggestion and that will get me refocused just long enough for me to work out my issues myself.
Get Critique - This isn't the same as showing off, I do this in a completely different frame of mind when I'm stuck or think I can do better but just don't see how. Most of you won't see these posts, they're usually done through PM's or at critique centered forums. Often this will end up happening in the middle of the refocus stage. My art wouldn't be half as good as it is without this stage. Even if I don't actually end up using the advice given, just hearing about it from someone else's point of view can help me re-frame the issue and go at it from a better position.

Potangko: I have troubles finishing things too. It helps me a lot if I'm constantly trying to scale back or do things as simply as possible. I overcomplicate things naturally so it tends to even out.

 

[Penny77]

I'm going to explain this in artistic terms but the process is pretty similar if I'm writing or crafting or whatever too.

Inspiration - This is usually something simple like "I want to draw that" or "I bet it's possible to do this in tiles". Either that or someone hires me and tells me what to do. If it's a commission I'll usually sit and brainstorm on it for a bit until I find something inspiring or interesting about it.

Experiment - I shouldn't do this as often as I do but I'll usually start drawing right after inspiration hits. I try hard not to do this part for long, it's just an experiment with the idea, to see if it's as fun as I think it would be or if my idea actually works.

To Do List - I'll stop drawing long enough to get a rough idea of what's involved in making this new project. I'll write down things I want to accomplish with it and random ideas that would be fun to include.

Research - This is where I feel the work aspect really begins. I'll find references for style, color, the object I'm trying to recreate. I'll look through my morgue, links, tutorials or whatever and see how others tackled the same problems I'm about to tackle and decide how I want to tackle it. This stage usually leads to more notes in my to do list as I work out my thoughts. If what I'm doing requires me to learn something new I will take the time and learn it at this stage. Even though I'm a professional I believe very strongly in always learning and growing and not being afraid to start over if necessary.

Drawing - I'll have my reference images open and easily accessible and get to work. If I'm in Photoshop I'll have my art on the left and the references on the right. Usually I'll have a bunch more open in my image viewer and loads of references pulled up in browser tabs.

Refocus - Usually I'll do this right after I finish something like a group of tiles. I'll check it off my to do list, figure out what I want to do next and adjust the list to fit the project's current direction. Then I'll just go back to the "to do list" stage and repeat until I'm done with the project. The original plan almost never survives even one pass, usually I only know how much work something is going to be after I'm a good ways into it and sometimes my inspiration shifts as I realize it wasn't so interesting as I thought but something I thought was boring is actually really fun.

Search for Ego Boosts - I've got some horrible self esteem issues so I'll often go to communities like this and show off my work or help other people out whenever I start to stall or wear out. This will happen randomly through the process and almost never actually helps me feel any better. Not surprising though, it's an internal issue so looking externally for a fix isn't going to do anything. Sometimes though, I'll get a good critique or suggestion and that will get me refocused just long enough for me to work out my issues myself.

Get Critique - This isn't the same as showing off, I do this in a completely different frame of mind when I'm stuck or think I can do better but just don't see how. Most of you won't see these posts, they're usually done through PM's or at critique centered forums. Often this will end up happening in the middle of the refocus stage. My art wouldn't be half as good as it is without this stage. Even if I don't actually end up using the advice given, just hearing about it from someone else's point of view can help me re-frame the issue and go at it from a better position.

Potangko: I have troubles finishing things too. It helps me a lot if I'm constantly trying to scale back or do things as simply as possible. I overcomplicate things naturally so it tends to even out.

This is a really cool and useful process. I usually don't have problems with inspiration I'm just a little lost on what to do after the idea has sparked. 

 

[Ms Littlefish]

I write music. When it comes to writing my music I am a highly disorganized, 0-60 mph disaster. I can sit down and start writing melodies, rhythms, and what not. But, I rarely start at the beginning of my song (if that makes any sense) or sleep in between the beginning and end of staring/finishing a piece. I do my best stuff in the morning or at times of utter sleep deprivation. Then I'll do some revisions after a good night's sleep, get critique, and polish it off. But the raw material is produced in what I can only describe as mental chaos.

Actually, every thing I do is pretty disorganized. For a second I was going to pretend that my word documents were done in a different fashion. Granted, I know exactly where every thing is (as it tends to be for messy people), but nothing is in order and I'm in the process of putting all my word documents in order to share with my developing partner.

Basically, I just produce as the ideas come into my head and worry about refining it later. I get a point A and a point B, and then I tinsel the tree.

 

[Cyreides]

My creative process is usually just me putting things together in FL at random until I hear something that I think works or sounds good, although I do spend a whole lot of my time listening to other music for inspiration and I try and incorporate elements of what I hear into my own music. However, it usually comes out nothing like what I intended. Sometimes I do have certain things in my head and I actually know what I want to do with a song but its usually not that often and I still have a hard time creating what I imagine.

I don't know what else there is to my music. I just work at it whatever way I find doable at that time until eventually, weeks later I finish it lol. Most of my music I have a really bad habit of producing about 45 sec-1:20 min. worth of at one time and then walking away from it and not coming back to finish it until weeks/months later. Sometimes though, I can bust out an entire song in a day or two and then I just spend all that time tweaking things and trying to improve it, but that's rare.