Effective Creative Processes

What’s an effective process for completing creative work?

Last updated 2023 March 18

Sub-questions

• How do reading, writing, and thinking fit together?
• How do I decide what to work on?
• How can I make progress on multiple projects at once?
• How can I make progress on long-term projects while making time for short-term projects?

Bookshelf

Related books I’ve read since 2021. Links go to my book review.

The 12 Week Year for Writers 👍
by Trevor Thrall
(non-fiction, writing)
2022-12-19

2k to 10k* 👍
by Rachel Aaron
(non-fiction, writing)
self-pub
2022-09-18

Finish
by John Acuff
(non-fiction, productivity)
2022-07-06

Indistractable
by Nir Eyal
(non-fiction, self-improvement)
2022-01-11

Never Say You Can’t Survive 👍
by Charlie Jane Anders
(non-fiction, writing)
trans author
2021-09-03

Four Thousand Weeks
👍👍
by Oliver Burkeman
(non-fiction, productivity)
2021-08-30

Several Short Sentences About Writing 👍
by Verlyn Klinkenborg
(non-fiction, writing)
2021-08-09

How to Do Things
by David Caine
(non-fiction, creative work)
2021-06-25

The Practice
by Seth Godin
(non-fiction, creative work)
2021-03-29

Workshops, podcasts + videos

• Designing your system for creativity: Outputs
• Designing your system for creativity: Inputs
• Listened to Tender Discipline on Hurry Slowly Podcast
• Make Progress by Being Underambitious
• Watched Plan Your 2023 Writing Year
• Listened to Learning to Reverse Engineer a Book
• Flights of Foundry: Where to Start and How to Navigate Developmental Editing

Articles

Articles or longer responses I’ve written.

National Novel Writing Month 2022 recap

Meta Annual Planning

The reckoning of the to-do list

Personal Process Improvements

Writing Metrics and Capitalism

SFF writing critique method

Notes

Bookmarks and quotes from articles I’ve read.

Work process

• Dailyish
• Non Zero Days
• Choose the Day’s Highlight at the Start of the Day
• Article pairing: don’t let habits get in the way
• Fail Small, Not Big
• The Daily Grind vs. Sprint Cycles
• It’s Not Really About Being a Writer

Work + rest

• Three or Four Hours
• Rest ethic
• Breaks scale up with project duration
• Monk Mode: time-limited commitments

What to work on

• What will be a relief to finish?
• Crack open projects you don’t know where to start
• Decide before doing
• What does your project need?
• Work that lasts and work of the moment
• Rules for New Projects
• Investing time in longform writing
• Legacy Projects

Project planning

• Memos to Yourself
• Defining done
• Minimum Viable Creativity
• Reflection is Key to Progress

Psychology of work

• Feeling like You’re Making Progress on Big Projects
• A Gift for the Future
• Actualizing Our Tasks
• The Importance of Maintenance

Fiction writing process

• The Goldilocks word count
• Make a punch list of edits
• Developmental edits on your own work
• Get your computer to read to you
• Write yourself an edit letter
• Using a comic style script as outline
• A Playful Writing Exercise for Description
• C.L. Polk’s Scene Outlining Process
• Getting Unstuck in Your Story
• Reverse Outlining to Gauge the Status of a Draft

Resources

• Meeting structure templates
• DIY Business Card To Do Lists