When I meet other writers, who are at the beginning stages of their first book, there is often a conversation about “writer’s block.” Usually, this is when a writer reaches a certain stage in their writing or has a few ideas planned out and then . . . nothing.
They can’t seem to find a way to continue their story, connect their ideas or they can be unsure how to begin and become stuck. I can often feel this way too at the beginning, when I am staring at a blank page or I need some inspired idea to connect the plot lines of my story.
If a writer becomes stuck and finds they are not making the progress they expect, then this can lead to the writer losing confidence in their story and giving up. This blog post will detail the creative process according to Graham Wallas and hopefully through understanding the process, it will alleviate some of the self-doubt for any writers currently in this position of “writer’s block.”
“Yet just as creativity is an intrinsic part of who we are; so too is the difficulty in actually working through the creative process. “Creative Block” seems to be utterly tied with creativity, and we will all have encountered it in some form.”
Professor Wu: Turning ideas into reality: the four stages of creativity
The creative process, according to Graham Wallas has 4 discernible stages. Wallas, the founder of the London School of Economics, details these stages in his 1926 book, The Art of Thought. In his book, Wallas questions how thoughts and ideas once conceived are able to move from the realm of imagination to actual physical realisation. Wallas, proposed a theory based on “the four stages” of the creative process. Understanding these four processes will help a writer gain clarity in their own creative process and perhaps help them to recognize where they are in the journey and to feel reassured that further creativity will come.
Firstly, preparation. You decide to write a book. You have an idea: something you want to share or communicate with the world. This is the time to clarify your thinking. Perhaps do some research on the topics you want to write about: a decade or a profession, for example. Think through the top line of the story: How will it begin? How will it end? How will you get there? Who are the characters? What do you need to know?
Once a writer has done as much preparation as they can, the process will move onto the incubation stage as the mind works on some of the more complicated aspects of the story and onto answers it does not have. . . yet.
A personal example is an idea I had for a book, where the central theme revolved around a wedding. I guess this idea came from the fact that I recently met a friend of an ex-boyfriend at a wedding and it reminded me of the time we used to all hang out together. Then I wondered: what if an ex-boyfriend went to his ex-girlfriend’s wedding? What could happen? I asked myself questions: Is he invited or not? What if there was some old unresolved history? What could that be? Are they friends? Why did they split up? I could imagine some of the story already and I had some ideas of how the story could proceed as I thought about it, but that was about it.
Secondly, incubation. This stage can also be called procrastination, particularly for a writer. Steven Johnson would describe this as the time the idea is forming a network in your mind, constantly expanding the idea and making connections to external stimuli as it subconsciously works on the story. Creating the threads, the connections, the flow, finding the voice of the story, the answers to any problems there maybe in terms of content, character development or relationships, direction, plot lines, readability, “writers block.”
These answers may not necessarily be found internally, but from the world around us, through talking with others, sharing ideas, research, life experience. The thoughts will connect, stimulating the creative process as the network continues to be strengthened and expanded through time.
“We can often get more result in the same way by beginning several problems in succession, and voluntarily leaving them unfinished while we turn to others, than by finishing our work on each problem at one sitting.” Graham Wallas
Professor Wu: Turning ideas into reality: the four stages of creativity
A great piece of advice: If you can’t move forward in the story, write the end, the middle, another part of the story. It does not matter if a writer does not have all the answers for the story straight away. It’s OK. Write what you can and then leave it alone, let it incubate again, for as long as your mind needs. As long as there is the intention to return, these problems will work away in your mind and will ultimately lead to illumination.
Third, illumination. That eureka moment when a writer knows they have a great story to write. They find the solutions to the problems in the story development. Finally, there is a flash of genius and the excitement builds as the writer can see the story clearly coming together.
“Sometimes the successful train seems to consist of a single leap of association, or of successive leaps which are so rapid as to be almost instantaneous.” Graham Wallas
Professor Wu: Turning ideas into reality: the four stages of creativity
Fouth, Verification. The realisation of the idea into a story. Once the writer has undergone the previous three stages, the preparation, planning, thinking and realising the ideas that will ultimately create a brilliant story. It is time to elaborate these flashes of genius, the previous research and the parts of the story already developed with words upon words. Adding the flesh to the bones of the story. This is where the really hard work comes in. The story must be written, rewritten, rehashed, edited and proofread and lastly published to the reception of others.
The great thing about these four stages:
“In the daily stream of thought these four different stages constantly overlap each other as we explore different problems.…Yet, even when success in thought means the creation of something felt to be beautiful and true rather than the solution of a prescribed problem, the four stages of Preparation, Incubation, Illumination, and the Verification of the final result can generally be distinguished from each other.” Graham Wallas
Professor Wu: Turning ideas into reality: the four stages of creativity
If people didn’t believe the impossible ideas conjured from their imagination or believed in themselves that they could make these impossible ideas happen by utilising what they found around them, then there would be no progress. By talking to others, sharing knowledge and by doing so, giving the ideas time to develop, to get worked around in the mind, to reach that eureka moment and to know the idea can be realised, the story can be written. This moment coming perhaps many days, months, years of possibly having all the pieces of the puzzle, but not being able to fit them together just yet. If people didn’t believe that their ideas could be realised then there wouldn’t be the evolution of ideas or thinking. We would be stagnant.
We all have the capacity to realise the imaginings of our mind. The mind already knows or will find the answer – trust in it to do this for you.
Everything, everything, including a plot line or a difficult character can be figured out.