An Intro and Overview

The Past, Present, and Future of The Creativity Quest

The idea of The Creativity Quest began to reveal itself to me in late 2016. I found myself, in my new editing business, being a first-hand witness to the myriad challenges my clients were facing in their attempts to get words on the page and share their writing. The more writers I worked with, the more curious I grew about what I saw as two sides of the same coin: each person’s unique experience of the creative journey, and also the commonalities in their experience of it. I wanted to understand the hows and the whys of those differences and similarities.

Always the helper, I set out determined to find ways the creative journey could be less struggle and more joy. In looking for tools and techniques to help my clients, I earned certification as a Creativity Coach, became a Licensed WomanSpeak Circle Leader, endlessly studied the writing and creative processes.

I couldn’t help but see myself in many of my clients’ experiences. As a writer also, I grappled with the creative process, too, and longed for ease, grace, more enjoyment in the writing and all that goes with that. So I leaned into the full creative experience as observer and participant. Examining creativity from both the outside in and the inside out, I sought to better understand what the journey looks like and how we experience it, individually and collectively.

I’m a believer that if you want to fully comprehend something, break it down. Understand the disparate components and the similar parts, see how they collide and interrelate, and you can then better make sense of the whole.

Additionally, I’m an advocate of bettering oneself by becoming your own best coach. That requires a willingness to observe oneself with neutrality and cultivate the purest in self-honesty. Not easy tasks, but the possibilities behind them are limitless.

I’ve applied these two principles—breaking down a thing to understand it and self-coaching to reach your greatest potential—to the development of The Creativity Quest.

What is The Creativity Quest, Anyway?

At its most basic, The Creativity Quest represents a charting of my clients’ experiences, as well as my own journey in, around, and through the creative process. While everyone’s potential looks different, and we have to get there in our own way, it’s useful to have a framework within which to define your own path, identify what you need (and don’t), gauge how far you’ve come and how much farther you must go to get where you want to be. Toward that end, I’ve defined ten milestones that we encounter on the journey.

The Ten Milestones

Starting in 2024, I’ll share about each milestone, in turn. Although I’ll write about them in the order listed below, creativity is not a linear endeavor. Nor is it cyclical; however, we do often “circle back” to places we have been before (more on that to come).

On your unique path, you may encounter the ten milestones in an order different than you’ll see here; you may revisit some or all of them, many times; and you may even experience several milestones simultaneously. This is a break from the ordered depictions of the creative journey in other existing models, so The Creativity Quest may feel disorienting at first. But I wholeheartedly believe it is a realistic rendering, with all the inherent variances, of what creative people experience.

The forthcoming essays will be written largely with the life of “the writer” in mind, but The Creativity Quest applies to all types of artists and creators. The milestones I’ll share with you in the coming months are:

Carrying Inner Disquiet

This is an introspective time when the creator is not creating, despite a longing to. There’s a recognition, consciously or subconsciously, that something is off-kilter; there’s an internal misalignment between their yearning to create and their actions.

Releasing Restraints

This milestone is characterized by a sense of letting go, releasing what is holding them back so they can begin (or recommit to) creating. Restraints might include resistance, clutter, distractions, and other “nouns” (people, places, things) in our lives.

Emulating and Mirroring

This is the muscle-building, learning, absorbing milestone. In this stage, the creator emulates and learns from those they respect in their chosen artistic field. This is an important first step in the exploration toward finding their true voice and most authentic expression.

Assessing Growth

The artist is now beginning to recognize their own creative voice. This milestone requires an assessment of their growth thus far and how much more they have to learn. Because this stage requires self-evaluation and intensive self-honesty, it can be quite uncomfortable.

Transitioning to Autonomy

In this stage, the artist is shifting further away from mentors and teachers and ever closer to authentic self-expression. The artist is able to consider the idea: “I’m the one I’ve been waiting for.”

Inviting New Perspectives

This stage is the artist’s forays into sharing more of their work, celebrating more, and accepting the outcomes of their creative work. They are stepping more fully into the creative life they’ve been exploring in previous stages with an openness to new experiences and approaches to their creative work.

Validating Strengths and Supporters

In this stage, the creator starts to identify and embrace their allies and supporters; they parse them from their challengers and doubters. This is a time when the artist’s creative resolve is tested and their skills continue to strengthen.

Integrating Creative Identity

During this period, creativity is no longer compartmentalized from the rest of the artist’s life. Fusing the creative self with the rest of their everyday existence, the artist commits to their identity as a creative person in their chosen field, specifically as a writer, a painter, a dancer, a sculptor, etc.

Trusting the Process

In this part of the journey, resilience and perseverance must be called upon to carry the artist to the brink of their ideal creative life. This phase simultaneously demands courage and surrender—the will and determination to continue and a “giving in,” like never before, to the creative process.

Yielding Mastery

At this milepost, the artist takes full ownership of their creative life. This stage is marked by massive productivity and visibility. While the artist feels deep satisfaction in their creative development, they have no illusions of having finished the journey. They have an optimistic and realistic mindset with desire to get better still.

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Every stage in our journey requires us to deal with both inner and outer forces—forces within ourselves and with other people and circumstances, often beyond our control. As we delve into the milestones, you’ll discover the five that demand primarily inner work (they’re the first five listed above). These are stages when we’re exploring what writing means to us and why, building our skills, wrestling with our voices of resistance, shame, and fear. The other five milestones demand more outer work: showing our creations, engaging with readers, setting boundaries with the people in our lives, receiving feedback and judgment from others.

Additionally, at each stage we either develop momentum forward or, in the worst of times, become stuck or regress. We’ll touch on both aspects.

Creating in Public Together

Keep in mind that this take on the creative journey is just one woman’s perspective, and it has transformed over time. Since 2016, I’ve taught The Creativity Quest in workshops and at retreats, talked about it in depth with my co-hosts on the Around the Writer’s Table podcast, and now, I’m writing about it here. Each of these has been/will be another opportunity for me to refine, confirm, and expand upon the concepts within this model.

Just as the overall concept has evolved, the language I’ve used to discuss the model has been tweaked, too. For example, in the podcast, I refer to the stages of the process as “guideposts,” which never felt quite accurate. In the upcoming essays, I call them “milestones.” The names for some milestones also have changed to more accurately convey the experience of them. (One thing that hasn’t changed—maybe you noticed: the first letters of these milestone names come together to create the acronym CREATIVITY.)

All of this is to say, this project is truly a “drafting in public” effort. Thank you for the opportunity to further explore this model out in the open, as I believe that’s the best way to expand our knowledge, widen the possibilities, and learn from one another. The intention is that the essays I’ll share in the coming months will be the first, very raw drafts for a future book.

As I share a new milestone, I would love to know what your experience has been or is in that stage of your creative journey. Please, share your stories. Comment or email me directly, as I truly want to hear from you about your creative life.