People often follow a certain process when being creative - such as when solving a problem, painting a picture, writing a book or whatever. They go through the process of opening-up and closing-down. Let’s explore how this works in practice.

1) You can start by ‘opening-up’.

Imagine you want to write a book. So far you have done two things. First, you have settled on the topic - maybe even choosing a title. Second, you have sketched-out the various chapter headings. Now you want to construct the first chapter. How to make this happen? You start by opening-up. Different people do this in different ways. They may, for example:

* Gather lots more information through reading or other kinds of exploration.

* Relax and do some ‘slow thinking’, letting their mind wander.

* Dialogue with other people - bouncing ideas around.

* Brainstorm lots of ideas.

* Begin making a road-map – outlining what they must do on the road towards achieving their goals.

If you are constructing the first chapter of a book, perhaps you brainstorm the ‘key messages’ you want to give the reader. Pursuing these themes, you add further topics. Eventually you will feel ‘full-up’ and have enough material for the first chapter.

2) You can move-on to ‘closing-down’.

Exploration is fun, but eventually you say: “Enough. Now I need to focus.” You will act on this closing-down process in most creative activities - whether constructing a chapter, solving a problem or guiding a group towards agreeing a conclusion. It’s time to translate thoughts into action. Returning to the book, you sift through the plethora of ideas and settle-on the key messages for the first chapter. Then comes the next stage.

3) You continue the process of ‘opening-up’ and ‘closing-down’ until you have completed your creative project.

Writing the book you now have two options. a) You can go onto the second chapter - then repeat the process of opening-up and closing-down; b) You can flesh out the first chapter by revisiting each key message - which again involves expanding and sharpening the material. You will choose the approach that fits your creative style.

Try tackling the exercise on this theme. First, describe a specific creative project that you want to tackle. Second, describe the specific things you can do to open-up and close-down throughout the various stages of the project. Third, describe the specific things you can do to ensure the creative project is finally closed-down and completed successfully.

The specific creative project I plan to tackle is:

*

The specific steps I will need to take to: a) open-up
and; b) close-down, throughout the project will be to:

*

*

*

The specific things I can then do to ensure the creative
project is closed-down and completed properly are:

*

*

*

Your creative brain often develops as you get older. This is partly because you discover how to improve the stages of opening-up and closing-down. Opening-up calls for using many different vehicles - such as talking, listening, reading, reflecting, visualising, drawing, writing, seeking stimulating environments and using right brain activities. Closing-down calls for being tough. So sometimes be prepared to say: “That is enough. It’s time to settle on version 1.0. All the new ideas can go into version 2.0.” Creative people get the right balance between opening-up and closing-down.

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