How to Kickstart the Creative Process and Reenergize

“In the case of good books, the point is not to see how many of them you can get through, but rather how many can get through to you.” ~ Mortimer J. Adler

I can’t imagine living without books.

But I’ve heard rumors about people who do just that.

I don’t know any of them though.

My kids gifted me with two books for Christmas.

One is called The Imagineering Process: Using the Disney theme park design process to bring your creative ideas to life by Louis J. Prosperi.

I love what Walt Disney created during his lifetime and what continues to be created by people following his vision.

Just look at his accomplishments: short cartoons, full-length cartoons, cartoons that have the depth of movies, he gave new life to fairy tales, he built actual magical kingdoms and imaginary worlds (and he was adamant about good customer service but that’s a post for probably a whole different blog).

And it all started with a mouse! (Or possibly a rabbit.)

Admittedly, in Walt’s early days, the creation process wasn’t so process-y.

Now there are seven stages to the process.

Stage 1 is Prologue: define your needs, requirements and constraints.

Stage 2 is Blue Sky: brainstorm ideas!

Stage 3 is Concept Development: where you flesh out your vision with enough detail to decide if you’ve got something to work with.

Stage 4 is Design: develop your ideas; use the Story Board method.

Stage 5 is Construction: here’s where you’re actually going to do the thing, write the story, build the She Shed, paint the mural.

Stage 6 is Models: the goal here is to test and validate what you’ve done; edit, revise, redo—what went right, what went wrong. Poke the walls and make sure the whole thing doesn’t fall apart like a house of cards.

Stage 7 is Epilogue: this is the scary part where you offer your baby to an actual audience for evaluation by trying it out, slamming the doors, reading it.

There’s more to this process, of course.

I know, because I have the book.

You should get it, too, so you can bring your ideas to life just like Walt did.

Prosperi’s book is for creatives of all kinds.

The other book is The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows by John Koenig.

It’s a dictionary of words I’ve never heard of.

But they’re poetic and thought-provoking, inspiring and beautiful.

During any journey towards a goal, it’s important to refill your creative source.

I like to use books to do that.

This one is perfect for me.

Maybe for you too?

Here is a smattering of the obscure words.

Ringlorn: adjective, the wish that the modern world felt as epic as the one depicted in old stories and folktales.

Ghough: noun, a hollow place in your psyche that can never be filled; a bottomless hunger for more—more food, more stories, more joy, more sunshine, more years of your life.

Harmonia: noun, an itchy sense of dread when life feels just a hint too peaceful.

Ozurie: adjective, feeling torn between the life you want and the life you have.

Slipfast: adjective, longing to disappear completely; to melt into a crowd and become invisible, so you can take in the world without having to take part in it.

Mahpiohanzia: noun, the frustration of being unable to fly, unable to stretch out your arms and vault into the air, having finally shrugged off the burden of your own weight, which you’ve been carrying your entire life without a second thought.

Anyway, I just wanted to share these books with you and to say I hope you’re making headway on your creative goals for 2023.

Until next time,

~ Gail

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