Conscious and Unconscious Thought in the Creative Process

As part of playing the Feelings Collector this year, I read widely about the creative process, which led to developing the Rock Tumbler metaphor. I’m still working out the kinks with the metaphor, but it is a useful image to help remember Graham Wallis’s famous four-stage model of: (1) preparation/saturation, (2) incubation, (3) illumination, and (4) verification/implementation.

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Unfinished projects

Having settled into my new life in Istanbul, I have returned from the (mental) vacation that was preparing to move, leaving the city and friends that I love so dearly, traveling, arriving and getting my bearings in a new and exciting place. My re-entry into having a routine has been less than smooth, but I think I’ve managed to get the rock tumbler turning again. I had been filling it with ideas all along, but I badly needed to find a metaphorical outlet converter and a dedicated space to let it do its work.

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I haven't been feeling creative much lately

I intended only to take a short break from blogging, sculpting, and playing the Feelings Collector, but it turns out I really needed the distance, so I took more of it. I found myself in a place where I was losing enthusiasm for most of my pursuits, which happens from time to time. I’m glad I noticed what was happening and acted on it.

But, it took a bit more effort to get back in the saddle than I had thought it would. Part of my lack of interest in spending my evenings fully engaged in one thing or another was that I began to exert myself more during the workday and it left me more drained than I had anticipated. Either way, I spent quite a few evenings careening from one thing to another, not able to focus for more than ten or fifteen minutes at a time. Naturally, after a week of such evenings, I began to panic. Eventually, I remembered that browsing Julia Cameron’s books helped me out in similar situations earlier in the year and set myself down to read.

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