Life-transforming ideas have always come to me through books. ~bell hooks, O Magazine, December 2003
Creative journeys are often portrayed as lonely missions where the creator is expected to generate something totally original from their own mind, the outcome emerging fully-formed.
Maybe that's how creative journeys work for some folks, but for me I want to start a journey with one fun hour of exploring resources. My creative journeys are sparked by an idea and I fan the flame with books and other information sources.
These days my hour of exploring begins with a search engine. I like to find Wikipedia articles, TED Talks, YouTube videos, and Pinterest boards. They provide background and inspiration on the theme of my journey. I will learn things about my project and find people who have completed similar creative journeys.
Next, I search the on-line catalog of my local library and request a few books, sometimes ones that I learned about in my earlier search. The bibliography of a Wikipedia article often points me in the right direction. Sometimes, I'll find the book written by a person who gave a TED Talk or was interviewed on NPR's Fresh Air. A few days later, I'll pick up the books and spend another fun hour looking through them.
I'm a librarian. I love research. In the past, I sometimes spent all the energy I had for a project on the research. I never managed to work on the project itself. Research for its own sake can be fun and exciting - but that's a research journey, not a creative journey. To make it a creative journey, I want something to show for it, something that I made that I can keep or share - a kind of souvenir.
At the beginning of a creative journey, I limit myself to an hour or two of research so that I don't get bogged down and forget to return to the original idea. I want to understand what resources are available, but I don't need to look at all of them until I have a better handle on how the information will flow into my project.
How much research is the right amount for you to do at the beginning of a creative journey?
About Joy Weese Moll
a librarian writing about books