Creative Writing VS. Architecture [WIP]

CHAPTER 1: THE CREATIVE PROCESS

In any form of art, including architecture among such fields, both creative writing and architecture require and endure a certain amount of hardships and/or challenges.

Why? We need challenges to help us gain the experience of transforming imagery visions into tangible ideas or design solutions. One goes through such a process, and this process is called a creative process.

There are two forms of processes: logical and creative processes. You don't know what to confuse them, as they are quite different in their approaches. Most may gain similar results.

The logical process, according to Cleverism, is the ability to think in an organised way and search for scientific evidence to prove an idea or a theory. It is a systematic way of thinking, where one could organise their ideas in a chronological way, or may use the process of elimination to find a credible source of information, to name a few.

While the creative process has a more non-linear approach. What does it mean? According to, Skillshare Blog, it refers to ‌creativity. It means that one generates, explores, challenges, and induces innovative ideas that aren't traditionally practised in the market.

Here are several pictures that I hope to illustrate the difference between logic and creative processes.

Figure 1 illustrates the logical process from A to B.

Figure 2 illustrates the creative process from A to B.

According to these two diagrams, one can deduce that logical processes are more straightforward. A process that takes you from point A to B. Simple? Not necessarily, it may have its own bumpy roads. It has its challenges, and one can be as equally stuck in a logical loop as creatives. However, their approaches are they, the logical thinkers, can solve practically more enduringly.

However, the creative process does not have a singular replicated path.

Creative processes are usually when you start any form of art, in this case, writing and architecture, and one learns to do the work, change, gain feedback, and then reiterate their creative process. It means that in the creative process, we are bound to feedback and to reiterate (change) ideas and enhance them accordingly. For example, think of writing a book and what the process entails. Now think of what happens when you receive professional feedback from editors, established authors and mentors. We cannot ignore the difference between your book prior to and after feedback. Why? It's caused by the creative process where one sought the desired advice and challenged the proposed ideas while tweaking adjustments, in this case, one's book. The same applies to an architecture project, where one receives feedback from a professor, mentor, coworker or supervisor and changes the project accordingly.

Now, this is a very vital note. Not all feedback is true; however, all are valid. This means that one feedback or advice may not apply to a particular book or project; however, it can be used in another project. One must learn how to navigate and place necessary feedback on one's own project ideas, which will be discussed in later chapters on how to receive feedback.

In a creative process, the room for improvement is close to constant. Therefore, when one wonders why some methods may work for one person but not the other, it's because no two creative approaches are identical. Although we may ground that our roads ahead are bumpy and unwavering; however, that does not show any means of similarities or similar experiences.

Are you intimidated? It is a natural response. We can apply the creative process in various practices; however, for the sake of this book, I will only focus on creative writing and architecture.

Both fields require intensive creative and remodification of their creative processes. Creative Writing, though translated through words, and Architecture in visual drawings; however, both require an adequate amount of research to tackle the desired topic. Each requires an amount of drafting, planning, seeking guidance, and critical thinking skills. Each allows room for embodied improvement and portrayal of their natural form. What does that mean? It simply means that even though their means of representation differ, both fields endure similar preparation, researching, drafting, and analysing phases.

The intensity of process iteration, meaning revision and modification, may vary according to the need of each person, whether an author or an architect. Understanding that the process is a never-ending cycle is crucial for one's creative development to embrace its challenges.

This means that when you are taken out of your comfort zone, you may either choose to challenge the unknown or return to a studied confinement space, which we call a safe zone. Both are natural responses to various persons, though it is recommended that the effects of challenging one's comfort zone are more desirable in one's creative process journey. We need it to grasp the speculations revolving around the creative design process.

What are those speculations?

The unresolved potentiality of each field has either been overlooked or overshadowed by trends.

Unfortunately, trends may affect how one can apply and perceive the creative processes and their respective application progress. This means that sometimes, whilst indeed desirable to an extent, trends may do more harm to one's creative process and creative development than benefit them.

How so?

Trend relies mostly on the now, which can vary between weeks, months, and more often than not seasons. However, for one's creative development, one should develop some analytical skills to differentiate what the market wants, what the market needs and the opportunities to bridge them. Somewhat similar to the saying "hitting two birds with one stone," if I may add, for the sake of clarification.

Caution

One can easily fall into the trap of creative loops.

What are those? The problem with creative loops is that they may show that you are experimenting with different methods to find different results; however, they end up giving you the same results. This could be quite a challenge, especially if you are stuck in your development or implementation phase. Therefore, we seek feedback to break such loops.

How and types of feedback are discussed in the next chapter.


Kindly note the images above are from Google Images.