Let me make my point by talking about something that all “creative” people love to talk about when they have nothing else to say, The Creative Process™. Let’s specifically talk about copywriting since I’m a copywriter and I don’t know anything else.
BRIEFS
The process starts with a brief. You get a brief and it is usually either too brief or not brief at all. So, you have to ask again to get some clarity. That’s standard procedure, that’s what always happens. Nobody knows how to give a brief properly and nobody knows how to pay attention while somebody else is giving it.
INSIGHTS
Moving on to the second step, getting an insight. This is the step where your brain will betray you by going completely blank. Then entails a lot of doodling and procrastinating to avoid facing the blank screen. You’ll scroll endlessly on your phone in hopes of getting an idea but your brain will refuse to think a single thought.
You lose hope. You finally accept that you’re an imposter and all this time you’ve managed to fool people into thinking that you are an extremely creative person. You prepare to pack your bags and leave this industry forever because it’s for creative people, not for you. You’re a fraud. This is exactly when an idea hits you. You run back to your desk as you scramble for your diary. You quickly write down the idea, you open your laptop and type away.
ACTUAL WRITING
Then comes the step where you write and rewrite. You read and reread. You just can’t seem to find the right words. After a whole lot of staring at your words, pressing backspace, staring at the blank screen, Ctrl + Z, you decide to give up. You realise you just don’t know enough words, you don’t know any grammar, and you have the smallest vocabulary. You seemed to write perfectly well yesterday but today is the day your skills and creativity finally run out. Time to pack all your stuff and move to a remote island where nobody knows that you don’t know how commas are supposed to be used. Before leaving though, you give it a last try. You try to delete that exclamation mark and put a full stop instead. And…
Voila! You’ve hit the nail on the head! You’ve done it! There is your perfect copy! You send it for approval. Of course, it’ll get approved. It is the epitome of creativity. Shakespeare would be jealous if he were alive today. As you’re about to close the laptop and go make a cup of coffee to celebrate, you get an email. Not Approved.
APPROVALS
You realise you’re a hack. You don’t know how to write at all. You can’t channel your ‘creativity’, if you even have it in the first place. You think of that remote island where people don’t know that you’re a loser. You are about to book your flight tickets to escape and you get called into the cabin. They’re gonna fire you, you think. And you know you deserve it.
Apparently, you’ve deviated from the brief. You revert it to the first draft, show it to your boss and suddenly the copy fits the brief and it gets approved. And you’ve finally done it! You were only 2 hours late!
CELEBRATION!!!
You wonder why you’re so anxious all the time, as you proceed to make the 5th cup of coffee for the day to celebrate.
You drink it while you get another brief for writing a blog. As you’re listening, you think of why your friends don’t text you anymore. Nobody knows how to pay attention while getting a brief.
You ask again and go back to your desk to think of ideas, you realise that you don’t really have any original opinions or any substantial knowledge to share so you write on some random topic like “The Creative Process”, trying too hard to be funny and you title it something radical like “Why Creativity is a Myth” as a clickbait. And lastly for SEO purposes, you end the blog with all the keywords: Rioconn, Advertising, Creative Agency.
This Blog Originally Posted Here: https://rioconn.in/why-creativity-is-a-myth/
