Column: Creative Process

A lot of people, especially my readers, almost always ask me about my creative process. As defined, "the creative process is the evolution of an idea into its final form through a progression of thoughts and actions." I've pondered on this question very deeply, determined to answer it in the most extensive way possible, only to find out that I have no definite answer to my literary madness.

But what I can tell you is how I develop an idea into a complex plot. Before I start articulating on that, allow me to say that a "creative process" differs from one author or artist to another. Nobody can say for certain what "thoughts and actions" were needed to write the whole novel, or some of its parts, and elements, or for how long this whole process entails.

Literary agents often advocate the need of writing the blurb or the working synopsis before starting to write the manuscript, and I do the same thing. I often start with an attention grabbing writing prompt, where the conflict is clearly encoded, then write the opening chapter. From there, I try to creatively find a "back story" for every element of the writing prompt. 

For example, if the writing prompt mentions a kingdom, I often start by imagining what this kingdom will look like, what is the role of this kingdom in the story, whether it is willing to be a protagonist or a villain, and so forth.

The writing's beauty deeply depends on the coherence of the story idea, and how it is encoded and presented with a well-crafted aesthetic precision, which aims to hook the reader. Language's creativeness is really important. How many times have we read a book where we did not enjoy the plot, but because of the way it was written made us stay, and finish the book?

Needless to say, I cannot emphasize enough the importance of crafting your sentences into a coherent, glorious form of art. As it flows, characters must be developed as heroes, or as villainous traitors. Readers must care about what will happen next, and the plot should make sense. The stakes must be high enough for us to fall into a trap, where an escape seems impossible, without getting at the end of the story and find out for ourselves.

And when our minds become pre-occupied with the story even after we have finished the book, we know that the book must be really good. Then the whole process repeats itself on to the next bestseller.

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