How to Get Your Creative Groove On is an original series by Perch. In this week’s post, we discuss finding leverage points in the creative process, the Curse of Knowledge, and the potential in starting over.
Week 10: Starting Over
IIf you’ve hit a creative roadblock with the project you’re working on, consider starting over… conceptually. Sometimes it is possible to identify a leverage point in the process and start over from there. Other times a completely fresh approach may be best, requiring you to forget what you know and tackle the problem from a different perspective.
Take a minute and ask yourself the following questions.
- If you could start over, or do it over again, what would you do differently?
- What would you keep the same?
- Were you missing any tools or resources that you needed? If so, can you acquire them?
- Can you substitute? If you substituted, did it work?
- Is there a missing element that needs to be added?
- Is there an element you can subtract?
Visioneering
Envision the path you’re on in your mind. You’ve set a plan of action, and you know the steps you’re going to take. Where will this plan take you? What is the desired end result? Is the path you’re on going to get you there? What roadblocks are you facing? If the plan is taking you straight toward a wall, you may need to backtrack.
Backtracking
Sometimes starting over is not as simple as pulling a sheet out of the typewriter, tossing it, and inserting a new one. Sometimes there’s no delete button, no backspace, or Ctrl+Z. If backtracking is not feasible practically, try backtracking in the process. If you can identify a point where a change of direction might have helped and backtrack to that point, you may be able to overcome your creative roadblock.
The Curse of Knowledge
Simply put, it’s hard to remember what it’s like not to know. But sometimes that’s what you must do in order to overcome a creative block. In the epilogue of their book Made to Stick, authors Chip Heath and Dan Heath explain it this way:
“To get the Answer, you need expertise, but you can’t dissociate expertise from the Curse of Knowledge. You know things that others don’t know, and you can’t remember what it was like not to know those things. So when you get around to sharing the Answer, you’ll tend to communicate as if your audience were you.”
You’ve learned so much in the process of working on your Answer that it is impossible to not know what you know. Instead, try remember what it was like before you knew. If you feel like you’ve always known and been faced with a certain set of variables, consider an outsider’s perspective. What questions might they ask? What possibilities might those questions open up? If you dismissed them before, now might be the time to revisit.
Beginning Again
Discovering you must start over is the least fun part of the creative process. It’s especially frustrating if you’re working under a deadline. If you can find a way to start over conceptually when you hit a roadblock, it may prevent needing to start over physically later in the process. Envisioning the path you’re on, identifying roadblocks, and addressing the Curse of Knowledge can help you find leverage points in the creative process.
As always, I’d love to hear your feedback. Please share your stories and thoughts on this topic in the comments.
Related posts:
- Get Your Creative Groove On. Week 14: Forget What You Know
- Get Your Creative Groove On. Week 16: Ask a Novice
- Get Your Creative Groove On. Week 19: Zero In
- Get Your Creative Groove On. Week 15: Ask an Expert
- How to Get Your Creative Groove On. Week 7: Overcome Obstacles
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