To the people on here who write or do art, how does your creative process work?

Question

To the artists and writers here what gets those creative ideas flowing through you?

this is how it works for me. I listen to a lot of video game music and depending on the piece my mind starts to imagine settings or scenarios.

so right now this song from a video game

makes me think of a serene waltz through a fantasy world at night.

To the people on here who write or do art, how does your creative process work?

And ill write out anything that comes to me.

Apulu_backagain · Accepted Answer

It's my first time being mentioned in a post! Yayyy

First off all, clap for me everyone because my high school finals are finally over, today was the last one and WE ARE PASSING. I don't know about good grades but WE'RE GETTING ABOVE B2 GRADE.

I usually get inspiration from my surroundings, things people say, music I listen to, other art (can be dance, music, painting, books).

Like once when I was 13, me and my family were going somewhere (I don't remember, it was covid) in car. The roads were pretty empty. And I saw a guy crying while smoking just by the street. And it was a weird scene, you don't see people crying on streets over here unless they are abused. I said, "what a sad life he must have to be crying and smoking". And my mom said, "You should avoid people who smoke".

And I wanted to reply back something but I didn't, talking back to elders is bad manners here.

So I just wrote a poem:

A Sad Man

It was one of the rare days,

When I was let out of home,

The world was locked,

So were my eyes.

The car I was sitting in,

It was rolling really speedy on the uneven ground,

And as it was rolling,

I saw a sad man standing near the footpath.

His wrinkled face said he saw a lot of seasons,

There was a cigarette between his finger,

Smoke escaping from its tip,

His eyes weren't visible to me, for he was gazing down.

My mom said that smokers are bad people,

But all I saw was a sad man,

Who will probably be helped by no one,

Because everyone's mom taught them that smoker men are bad people.

***

Now that I think of it, most of my good written pieces are result of me not being able to speak back at the moment. Like I was raised up in a way where saying anything opposite to what your elders believe is extremely rebellious, and being rebellious is not what daughters of nice families do. And it was not only my parents raising me like that, it was the whole society. It was so bad that I used to agree to every homophobic misogynistic thing this elder cousin of mine would say, even though I wanted to punch my face after agreeing to him. I was a big people pleaser.

So writing poems is a way I vent, say my side of the argument to that google document and be satisfied by my work and sleep peacefully.

And I write a lot of poems on people I love. Sometimes when I have a romantic interest on someone then I am confused whether I am romantically invested on that person or whether that person is just my muse.

And I am not all sophisticated, I write really quirky and weird pieces too which are my 3 AM thoughts. Like this one:

What if…

What if…we are actually lice on someone's head?

Don't judge me yet!

Hear me out!

What if this world is actually someone's head and all the dust and soil are actually dandruff of their head? What if the volcanoes are the pimple or acne of their scalp? And what if mountains are residual builds of psoriasis? What if all the trees are the fungal build up because they disappear when not given moisture and seas and water bodies are simply sweat drops collected in some area?

Tsunami and floods occur when the person having this head is doing some serious workout and earthquake occurs when the person scratches their scalp?

What if other planets are simply other heads!

*

This quirky side came after attending that "Design and Thinking" workshop that once took place in our school. It was a 3-day workshop where this Design professor from Michigan University came to our school and taught us basics of building a prototype.

And he taught us one thing which really sat with me. It was to not only think with purpose, not to create products only with a purpose. Just put together an idea or thought not matter how weird it is, that's what you need to do to think out of the box.

And thus I started writing out of the pocket narratives lol.

thegreenyogi · Accepted Answer

It happens in many different ways... the novel I am currently working on came to me while listening to a song over over and I the face of one of the main characters just appeared in my head and I could just see the opening scene to the story. And from there I just kept on listening to different music. It doesn't happen immediately, it's like an after thought. And sometimes when I can't see what happens next I literally speak to my characters and ask them to speak to me. This might appear crazy to some but it's how it works for me. Also my first draft is always written down on paper not on computer because it takes away my inspiration and I usually write late afternoon or before going to bed in semi darkness.

msmissydc · Answer

So I dont write fiction, so its less on the art side. Which means the process is different. Generally I look for a current topic and build around it.
Something easy and quick to explain and than I use this as a step into something bigger. Not rarely I use current research from sociology, Specificly social media sociology to bring facts and studies into it.
The process is mostly based around keeping my eyes open for something new. Than look at my already preworked works and find a link between them. It shouldn't be far fetched, so sometimes I have to do new research. The research for future topics I mostly do on interviews with researcher and than fill in the gaps by reading into the sources for their work. I dont do scientific studies myself and my goal is already to explain things going on, and not start a debate. So I often stay on the top level part and dont dig much into the research for the writing. If I dig deeper its more for my own interest, which I often do.

When I am really missing an introductory part I also have some questions from readers letters I can take as food for thoughs. Generally though social media and internet in general, is so fast paced that there is something new every other week at least.

Maybe_Maybe_not · Answer

When it's about writing, my process is quite random since I never push writing on me, I mean I don't really want to write, it just happens and when it happens it looks like my mind is remixing many previous ideas heard or read and events experienced. Sometimes I can trace back what these ideas are. I don't write lengthily though, it's contained, it's always going to be a mini story, a mini essay, a poem, a dialogue then I'm done.

When it's about digital art, video game music is a must, vgm, be it original or remixed, puts me in introspective, "feelings" mode which brings visuals, images, scenery or sensations of scenery crossing my mind. Sometimes they're visions directly coming from video game in question, sometimes I don't even know of the video game I'm listening to, but its music still creates something within me because music is music.

Ms_Facesitter · Answer

Drawing characters.

FFXIV for example they all have different races there. Some have tails, other elf ears, tall, short, ... . I like those races and would picture. No music for me but I do imagine scenarios. They all get some medieval mmorpg aesthetic or like DnD. One is a mage, another a rogue, one's a paladin. It's always battle focused one way or another. Never like casual. A friend of mine asked "if you could make an anime character, what would that look like?" That was years ago. It keeps changing. :( I have an idea, put it together, change my mind, repeat. Pretty done with this, but I'm not giving up.

Simslover92 · Answer

My writing process is quite simple. When I get an idea in my head, I think about the characters and setting and the soundtrack to where that's going to take place and how the songs will represent my characters. The last book I wrote was set in the 80s and the current decade so I tried to find lots of 80s songs as well as lots of current music that fit my characters and the setting.

Music is the key for me in writing something I feel will be good. I think for me, without it, it may not be as good.

Because when I think about my writing, I do think about it one day becoming a movie and what is a good movie without a good soundtrack.

petitedollbabee · Answer

As a painter, my biggest motivation is difficulty in life or trauma. Painting is a coping mechanism for me in the same way that some people write their feelings in a journal, I express myself through pictures. I can’t paint, nor do I have the motivation, if I’m in a good headspace.

queenofcardio · Answer

I'm not a writer. Interesting.

To the people on here who write or do art, how does your creative process work?

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