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Notes from the creative process

Articles.

Short observations on ideas, attention, communication, and the work it takes to make something worth remembering.

Article 01
A creative team viewing a glowing prototype during a meeting

Creativity at work

Let Your Idea Be Seen

In a meeting, you share an idea you genuinely believe in. You explain it with energy and try to make the picture in your head clear, but someone is still unconvinced. You explain it again from another angle. A new objection appears. Before long, you are spending more time defending the idea than developing it.

Maybe the idea needs something people can actually see.

In The 48 Laws of Power, Robert Greene writes about persuading through action rather than getting trapped in endless argument. There is a useful creative lesson in that principle: let people see what you mean before asking them to judge it.

If you are proposing a different style for a video, a rough test shot may replace ten minutes of explanation. If you are suggesting a new visual direction, apply it to one design. Words such as “bold” or “unconventional” may mean one thing to you and something entirely different to everyone else in the room.

A first version gives the conversation a shared reference point. The questions become more precise: Does the pace work? Is the message clear? What needs to change? You may also discover that part of what felt brilliant in your imagination does not work quite as well on screen.

Explanation still matters. But when there is something visible to examine, it becomes easier to identify the problem and improve the idea. Even resistance becomes useful because it is now directed at a detail you can review and revise.

When the discussion starts going in circles, ask: What is the smallest version I can make so we can understand the idea together?

Sometimes a single frame or a rough prototype gives an idea the momentum that words could not.

Inspired by The 48 Laws of Power.
Article 02
A creative professional pulled between filming, editing, design, and writing

Focus in creative work

Distraction Drains Your Strength

You begin the day with too many things you want to do: a project that needs finishing, an idea you want to test, and a skill you have been promising yourself you will learn. You move between them all day. By night, you are exhausted. But when you ask, “What did I actually finish?” the answer is uncomfortable: you started everything and completed nothing.

Each task took a little from you, but none received the time it truly needed.

In the twenty-third law, Robert Greene writes about concentrating effort where it can have the greatest effect. Applied to an ordinary workday, the question becomes simple: What deserves my energy right now?

Beginnings are exciting. A new project gives you a rush. A new skill opens up possibilities. A sudden idea feels as though it must be made today. Then the details arrive: revisions, experiments, mistakes, and work that requires patience. That is often when another idea begins to look more attractive—because starting again feels easier than finishing what is already in your hands.

Imagine that you want to improve your creative work. You begin learning photography, then editing, then design, then writing. Months pass and you have collected a great deal of information, yet your portfolio is still waiting for one finished piece. If you had completed a single project, it might have shown you exactly what you were missing—and what you truly needed to learn next.

Focus requires a choice. It also requires postponing things you genuinely want to do. That is difficult, especially when every opportunity feels as though it may disappear.

Before you begin something new, return to what you already started. Which piece of work would make you feel that you had truly moved forward if you finished it?

That may be the work that deserves a clear space on tomorrow’s calendar—and your attention until it is done.

Inspired by The 48 Laws of Power.
Article 03
A person scrolling while surrounded by selected moments of other people's success

Comparison and social media

Did Everyone Get Ahead of Me?

You open your phone feeling perfectly fine. Ten minutes later, it seems as though your entire life needs to be reconsidered.

One person has landed an incredible job. Another is travelling. A third has launched a business. You are still sitting in the same place, watching and thinking, “What about me?”

The strange part is that, before opening the app, you did not feel behind.

As you scroll, you collect achievements from different people and place them beside your own life: one person’s career, another person’s trip, someone else’s relationship, and somebody else’s success. Without noticing, you build an imaginary person who is winning at everything—and compare yourself with them. But that person does not exist. They are a composite made from everyone you saw on your feed.

You also know every detail of your own day: the delays, the attempts that failed, and the ordinary hours that did not feel worth documenting. From other people, you usually see the moment they chose to publish. Their happiness may be real, but the image cannot show everything they went through to reach it.

Even when we understand this, comparison returns. The image is visible; the effort behind it usually is not.

Notice what happens to your mood after you close the app. Some accounts leave you with an idea or a sense of possibility. Others make everything in your life feel insufficient. You can reduce how often those accounts appear, follow people who share the process as well as the result, and give yourself time to live your own day without measuring it against someone else’s.

When the question “Why is everyone ahead of me?” returns, be precise: Who is “everyone,” and where exactly am I supposed to have arrived?

You may have been content with your next step—until you saw everyone else’s steps gathered on a single screen.
Article 04
A communications campaign reaching different audiences across phones, websites, and messages

Channels and the audience journey

Your Audience Isn’t All on the Same App

Relying on one platform can make a campaign look successful while leaving an important part of its audience completely outside it.

You prepare a campaign and choose the platform your team knows best. The design looks good, the video works, and the campaign goes live.

But some of the people you need to reach may not use that platform at all.

We often choose communication channels because they are familiar, because they produce attractive numbers, or because they worked for a previous campaign. But audiences change with the subject, and the same person uses each channel differently.

Someone may notice a quick Instagram ad, visit the website for the details, and then need a reminder before the event.

Reaching them with the ad was not the end of the journey. It was the beginning.

Suppose you are promoting a professional gathering. Some people follow your account every day. Others depend on email. Some have never heard of you, but may discover the event through a trusted specialist partner.

If you use only one channel, you are relying on one habit to reach all of them.

Using multiple channels does not mean copying the same content everywhere. It means understanding who needs the information, where they look for it, and what will help them act on it.

Then give each channel a role: a post earns attention, a landing page holds the details, and a message reminds registered attendees.

Each platform also has its own rhythm. A short video cannot carry every condition and detail, but it should point clearly to where they can be found. An email needs a subject line that communicates value immediately, giving the reader a reason to open it.

Remember the people who find digital tools or dense information difficult to use. They may need a simpler route, a clearer format, or direct help from another person.

Before saying, “The campaign reached people,” ask a more useful question: Who did it actually reach?

The numbers may be impressive while people who matter to the campaign still have not heard about it.

Inspired by research on communication strategies, channel diversity, access, and public participation.