From Imagination to Reality
Sorry to tell you this! Our definition of creativity was deceptively simple. In fact, a bit like Schrodinger’s Cat, it can be both simple and complicated at the same time. In the previous article we looked at what creativity actually means. You imagine something that doesn’t exist, explore the possibility and then do something with it. Easy Peasy! Let’s get on an do it. That sounds straightforward enough, but “Hey, hang on a minute!” I can hear you saying. “If turning it into something real is simple, why aren’t I doing it every day?”
Ideas come to you all the time. You probably have far more of them than you realise. Some vanish almost as quickly as they arrive, while others, like that annoying, needy friend, hang around for years. You may even have one or two ideas that have been keeping you company for so long that they’ve practically become members of the family. You keep telling yourself that one day you’ll do something about them, but somehow that day never arrives.
So, what turns an idea into a creation? At some point we have to stop simply imagining and start doing something, and that’s what we are going to examine here.
Everything Exists Twice
Look around you for a moment. Almost everything you can see existed in somebody’s imagination before it existed in the physical world.
The chair you’re sitting on had to be imagined before somebody could make it. The computer or phone you’re reading this on began as an idea. The buildings in your street were conceived by an architect before they were built. Even this article existed in my mind, admittedly in a rather untidy form, before the words appeared on the screen.
That’s a fascinating concept.
It means that in a sense, the things we create exist twice. First they exist in our mind as possibilities and then, if somebody does something about them, they begin to exist in reality.
Of course, the reality version doesn’t always look much like the imagined one. Most people who have ever tried to make something will tell you that. What seems wonderfully clear in your imagination can become surprisingly awkward once you try to turn it into something real.
That’s where the interesting part begins.
An Idea Doesn’t Have to Be Fully Formed
First we must clear away a common misconception. The belief that we need to know exactly what we’re going to create before we begin.
We don’t.
An idea can be incredibly vague. You might think, “I’d like to write something about that,” without knowing whether it will become an article, a short story or a book. You might fancy making something with wood without having the faintest idea what it will eventually look like. Perhaps you have an idea for an online project but haven’t yet worked out exactly what it will do.
Those vague thoughts enough to begin with.
Expecting an idea to arrive fully formed is probably asking rather a lot of your imagination. Ideas often reveal themselves as we work with them. One thought leads to another, something doesn’t work quite as expected, a new possibility appears and gradually the thing begins to take shape.
Sometimes you discover that the idea you started with wasn’t really the idea at all. It was simply the doorway that led you to something better.
Give your Idea A Home
One of the simplest things you can do with an idea is get it out of your head.
Write it down.
That doesn’t sound terribly exciting, does it? You were probably expecting something rather more profound from an article about creativity. But ideas are slippery little things. They have an annoying habit of appearing at inconvenient moments and disappearing when you finally have time to think about them.
I’m sure I’m not the only person who has had a wonderful idea just before going to sleep and thought, “I’ll remember that in the morning.” Morning arrives and the wonderful idea has vanished. Occasionally I can remember that I had a brilliant idea, which somehow makes not remembering the idea itself even more irritating.
You don’t need an elaborate system. A notebook will do. So will a document on your computer or the notes app on your phone. The important thing is to give the idea somewhere to live outside your memory.
Once it’s there, you can come back to it.
And, what is more, dear unsuspecting reader, you have started a Process.
Harping back to our opening paragraph. You have started to make things simple. Following a process makes the project simple, trying to do it without one makes it complicated.
Don’t Ask Too Much of It Too Soon
OK, so you’ve written down an idea. What happens next?
This is often the point where you get bogged down before you have really started. You now have something tangible; it is written down in front of you. You immediately start interrogating the poor little thing. Is it original? Is it practical? Will anybody like it? Could I make money from it? Has somebody already done it? Am I capable of doing it?
Give it a chance!
A new idea doesn’t necessarily need evaluating straight away. Sometimes it needs playing with. Otherwise, it will wither up and die before you have had a chance to develop it.
Ask what else it could become. Add something to it. Take something away. Combine it with another idea. Imagine an exaggerated version of it. Imagine a ridiculously simple version. Turn it upside down and see what happens.
You aren’t committing yourself to anything. You’re exploring.
There’s a big difference between saying, “This is what I’m going to create,” and saying, “I wonder where this idea could go.”
The second gives you room to manoeuvre.
Start Making It Real
Eventually, though, something has to happen.
You can think about writing a story for twenty years and still not have a story. You can imagine a painting in exquisite detail, but until paint touches a surface it remains an imagined painting. You can have the greatest product idea in history, but if it never gets beyond your head nobody else will ever know about it.
So, don’t just sit there thinking about it. Do something!
That first step towards making something real can be ridiculously small.
Write the first paragraph. Make a rough sketch. Take a photograph. Create a folder and give the project a name. Build an ugly first version. Record thirty seconds of audio. Put two pieces of material together and see what happens.
Don’t worry about producing something impressive. At this stage you’re simply crossing an important boundary. You’re taking something that existed only in your imagination and giving it some form in the outside world.
Once you’ve done that, you have something you can work with.
Your First Attempt Is Allowed to Be Awful
Actually, let’s go a little further. Your first attempt probably will be awful, and that’s a good thing. In fact, you should be worried if it is not.
One of the easiest ways to stop creating is to expect the first version to look like the finished version. We compare the rough thing we’re making with somebody else’s polished creation and wonder why ours isn’t as good. That’s hardly a fair comparison.
The first draft of a book isn’t the book you eventually read. A designer may produce dozens of sketches before settling on a final design. An inventor might build prototype after prototype. A musician can play with a melody for weeks before it becomes the version everybody else hears.
The rough version has a job to do. Its job is not to impress anybody. Its job is to give you something to work on and improve.
At least you now have something tangible to work on. It’s almost impossible to improve something that still exists only in your imagination.
Reality Pushes Back
Something interesting happens when you begin making an idea real. A little Devil suddenly appears, and he is usually hiding in the detail. Reality starts throwing you curve balls.
In your imagination everything can work perfectly. The pieces fit together, the words flow beautifully and nothing goes wrong. Unfortunately, reality isn’t always so cooperative.
You try something and discover that it doesn’t work. You realise you’ve forgotten something important. What looked simple turns out to be difficult, while something you expected to be difficult proves surprisingly easy.
This isn’t creativity failing. This is part of creativity.
You now know something you didn’t know before.
Perhaps you change direction. Maybe the problem forces you to come up with another idea. You might even discover something by accident that turns out to be better than what you originally intended.
The creation begins to influence the creator.
Don’t Be Too Precious About the Original Idea
This is where it helps not to become too attached to the picture you had in your head.
Your original idea got you started, and that’s important, but it doesn’t have to dictate everything that follows. If the project begins developing in a more interesting direction, let it.
I’ve often started writing something believing I knew exactly where it was going, only to find that another thought appears halfway through and changes the direction completely. Sometimes that’s inconvenient to say the least, I have other less polite phrases for it. Sometimes it turns out to be the best thing that could have happened.
Creativity isn’t simply issuing instructions to reality until reality finally gives in. It’s a conversation between what you imagined and what happens when you try to make it real.
Be prepared to listen to both sides.
Give Something a Try
We said from the beginning that the Product Creation Academy isn’t going to be somewhere you simply read about creativity. At some point you have to use it, so here’s something you can try.
Think of something you’ve imagined doing or making. It doesn’t need to be important and please don’t spend half an hour trying to choose the perfect idea. Perhaps there’s something you’ve thought about writing, drawing, designing, building, changing or experimenting with.
Now give it a physical existence of some kind.
Write a paragraph about it. Draw it badly. Make a rough plan. Record yourself talking about it. Collect a few things that might be useful. Create a document and start putting ideas into it.
Spend ten minutes on it if that’s all you have.
The object isn’t to finish anything. It isn’t even to produce anything particularly good. You’re simply taking a thought and moving it across that invisible boundary between imagination and reality.
You might decide afterwards that the idea isn’t worth pursuing. That’s fine. You’ve still created something and learned something in the process.
On the other hand, you might find yourself wondering what would happen if you carried on.
That’s How Things Begin
We could make creativity sound terribly grand if we’re not careful, but most of the time it’s simply not like that. Great ideas, great works, great inventions and great achievements certainly have their place, but they can also make our own little ideas seem rather insignificant. Don’t underestimate little ideas.
A few words written on a blank page can become a book. A rough sketch can become a design. A casual experiment can become a hobby, and a hobby can become something you share with other people. An irritating problem can lead to a useful solution. A simple “I wonder if…” can take you somewhere you never expected to go.
You don’t need to know where your idea will eventually lead before you begin.
You just need to make the first part of it real.
And once we start doing that, another question becomes rather important. Where do all these ideas come from in the first place?
