The Harvard Business Review Blog, which is a little better than you may expect, is definitely worth checking out; among the articles ranked among the top five was a piece about what businesses can learn from organized crime, how KFC is faring in China, and how life can be measured. The post I took the most interest in centered around the topic of creativity. 

The post’s writer, Tony Schwartz, writes about creativity in terms of the left brain and the right brain. The left brain is more language-based and the right side of the brain is more focused on images. He then lays out four main points about how the different sides of the brain affect creativity and the ability to write well. He credits Betty Edwards with the ideas of how both sides of the brain are crucial to the creative process. 

Tony Schwartz’s first stage that fosters creativity is saturation. He claims that saturation in other written material is a necessary part of the creative process. If writers immerse themselves in great writing that has already been written, the writers will often reap the benefits. In part, he says, “For me, it involves reading widely and deeply, and then sorting, evaluating, organizing, outlining, and prioritizing.”

The second creativity stage that Tony Schwartz describes is incubation. When a writer--or anyone else for that matter--is faced with a problem, it’s necessary to step away from the problem to give the left brain a break. He recommends writing for a period of time and then taking a break to exercise. 

The third strategy Tony Schwartz writes about is illumination. This is the creative spark or burst of ideas that can get us through our dry spells. These ideas often come to people when they are doing something other than writing. 

Tony Schwartz explains that the final stage of creativity is verification. As he explains it, the verification stage can often be the most difficult part of the creative process and engages the left side of the brain. The verification step of the creative process is when the idea manifests itself into a reality. Obviously, this is the part where the writer has to take the idea and make something out of it on the written page, the scientist has to test the hypothesis, or the sculptor has to shape whatever medium is being used. 

The hard part for most of us is seeing our ideas through to fruition; others have a hard time generating ideas in the first place. Fortunately, there are lots of resources for those wanting to be more creative in any aspect of their lives. 

One extremely useful for promoting creativity include Julia Cameron’s, The Artist’s Way; in The Artist’s Way, Julia Cameron recommends writing “morning pages” each day. The “morning pages” are three handwritten pages written without thought each day. The purpose of the pages is to de-clutter the brain, so that real breakthroughs can happen.