10 Barriers to Creativity

From author Linda Merton of BestBooks.com comes this interesting and practical list:

1. Believing you have to be an artist
   Even if you don’t have artistic talent, you can learn to create successfully. Don’t let your perceived lack of artistic talent cause you to avoid creative projects. Creativity is as much skill as talent. You can learn and develop your creative skills.
2. Not learning the fundamentals
   Every type of creation is based on fundamental principles that have been developed over years of analysis. You need to know these fundamentals so well that thinking about them doesn’t interfere with your creativity.

   For instance, if you’re a writer, your grasp of grammar and mechanics are basic fundamentals. It’s difficult to write creatively if you are worrying about where to put commas or how to spell words. Or if you’re a designer, your knowledge of balance, emphasis, consistency and other design principles must be developed to the point that you don’t have to think about them as you design.

3. Not collecting samples of favorite creative projects.
   Another part of learning is learning from others. If you collect samples of creative projects that you like, then you will have creative ideas at your fingertips. By reviewing your samples and your accompanying notes, you’ll begin seeing possibilities for your creation. This must not involve copying or stealing others’ ideas, but learning from and adapting potential creative solutions.
4. Waiting for your muse.
   Do you think that creativity is an elusive condition or burst of insight that comes and goes of its own accord? If so, then you likely procrastinate while waiting for inspiration. Although it’s true that sometimes creative insights burst upon you, more often creativity evolves from gathering information, making decisions, and systematically planning projects. Creativity is a problem solving process.
5. Failing to take a systematic approach
   This problem solving process requires a systematic approach that gets you started. You start by analyzing your target public, purpose and key message. Then you apply what you’ve learned about fundamentals, the emotional connotations evoked by different treatments, and your publics’ preferences for those treatments.
6. Not learning about your target public
   Visual communication research has found that good design evolves from the relationship between the item, the creator and the intended audience. For instance, if you are designing a publication, it is the item. You are the creator, and the intended audience is your public.

   Just as your relationship with friends improve as you learn more about them, relationships with publics improve with knowledge. To create effectively, you must learn as much as possible about the public for your creation.

7. Not understanding your purpose
   Every creation has a purpose. Until you gather information about our purpose, your attempts at creating a solution are premature. You need to identify your purpose, understand the difficulties in meeting it, and the problem behind it. To create effectively, you must first know the goal of your creation.
8. Not knowing your key message
   Next you need to know the information and the emotion that you want to communicate to the target public. Called a key message, this includes what you want them to do. Before you start writing or designing, you should be able to write a concise sentence stating the key message.
9. Letting your conscious do all the work
   Creativity requires a combination of conscious and unconscious work. Start the conscious work by gathering information about your public, purpose and key message. After you’ve done this analysis, allow yourself time for the subconscious to work.

   Take a break, do something that relaxes you, or sleep on it. This will enable your subconscious to work. That’s why you’ll be most creative when you work on even small projects for at least a couple of days. Now, this isn’t as time intensive as it may first seem because you can work on several projects at a time. Just don’t rush any project to the point that you don’t give your subconscious time to work on it.

10. Settling for your first attempts
    Time is also necessary to allow you multiple attempts at creating the most effective solution. You may be willing to settle for one of your first attempts that will provide a satisfactory solution. However, after multiple attempts, you may create a great solution.

    To make the most of your time as you work on that great solution, you evaluate the potential of each option without taking the time to produce each completely. Then choose two or three best options and develop them in more detail, possibly blending options until you get that great solution.

    For instance, if you’re writing, you can use outlines for different approaches to an article. The outlines provide multiple solutions without you having to write multiple articles. Likewise, if you’re designing, you can produce thumbnails of different designs. Thumbnails are quick sketches that enable you to visualize designs with minimal effort.