I’ve recently stumbled upon a concept that directly relates to which creative processes work for which people. This certainly applies to me, and maybe other people will find it helpful. Here goes …
I think we all can agree that everyone’s brain is on a spectrum between order and chaos. WE call this the left brain/right brain thing, but the left/right construct is a fallacy that is not actually how the brain is constructed or how it operates. But there do tend to be people who are more naturally organized or not, which I call orderly and chaotic.
It is important to note that this is a spectrum, not a binary. There are no orderly people and chaotic people, just tendencies we lean into. This is on a slider and can be different for individual situations.
Creative processes tend to be orderly or chaotic as well. We call this the Pantser/Plotter dichotomy in writing. I’m sure other disciplines have their own terms. Do you tend to feel your way intuitively through a project or do you need to make a plan? Once again, this is a spectrum, not a binary. You don’t have to pick a side; you can be somewhere in between.
Here’s the thing that is interesting. People might assume that if you are more chaotic, you need a chaotic process to get you through the project. Same thing with orderly people needing an orderly process. However, I think this is wrong. We have it backwards.
Every successful creative project is a balance between order and chaos. If you have an orderly brain, and you plan, you will get bored halfway through because the project won’t feel alive. You need a chaotic process because you already have internal order. And if you are chaotic and don’t plan, there’s nothing to keep you from going off the side of a cliff when you’re trying to make your way up the mountain. Your process needs to give you the balance of what you don’t have naturally.
This is certainly how it works for me. My combination of adhd and autism makes me around 60% chaotic, 40% orderly. Therefore, the process that works for me is being 60% plotter, 40% pantser. I have a plan for the major story beats of my books, but I kind of discovery write my way between them. I call this ‘Chaos on Rails.’ I’ve finished fourteen books in the six years since I’ve discovered this, so it must be working.
So, if you’re struggling to finish projects, figure out where you are on the orderly-chaotic spectrum. You probably already have an internal sense of this, then let your process give you what you don’t naturally have. It might make all the difference.