The 5 Stages of Creative eBook Writing

In the late 19th century, a German physiologist named Herman Helmholtz began to describe distinct phases to humankind’s creative acts. Why this became the work of a physiologist I would love to know, but nonetheless he described three distinct stages and named them saturation, incubation and illumination.

As the 20th century progressed, other researchers and members of the scientific community that concern themselves with such things tacked on two more phases: first insight and verification.

Great, you’re asking me, so what?

These five stages jumped out at me as I read the Power of Full Engagement — a book I’m currently enjoying immensely (though I’m not so in love with the Kindle on which I’m reading it). It occurred to me that these are precisely the phases you go through when writing and producing an eBook, as much as you would go through them if you were composing an opera or painting a canvas.

But before you feel stressed out about having to learn anything…

You don’t have to do anything.

The five stages are not something you do, rather they are something to understand. We progress naturally through them in our projects, whether we realize it or not. But when we understand the pattern that is unfolding, it’s likely we can be more patient with our process and even be more effective in helping it along.

First Insight
This is the flash of inspiration. The what if I wrote about… moment. Wheels begin to turn, visions of eBooks dance in your head. For the more analytical among us, this is formulating the problem or raising a new and interesting question.

Tip for first insight: Let your subconscious out to play. Try techniques such as freewriting (writing stream of consciousness), sketching/doodling and mind mapping.

Saturation
In the Sticky eBook Formula I call this stage “gathering” because that’s precisely what you’re out to do. You’ve hit on some insight, however humble, and now you find all of the information, ideas, random musings, anecdotes, hearsay, images — anything that touches your new project in any way. Saturation implies that you want to over-fill your well, really soak up everything you can. As you feed your searching brain information, it will naturally begin to connect concepts and notice patterns.

Tip for saturation.: Set a timer for an hour or two (otherwise your whole day could disappear) and google google google. Let the links lead you where they may. It’s handy to use a web-clipping application like Evernote so you can snip relevant bits of information as you find them.

Incubation
Stop searching, thinking and trying and take a nap or listen to music (avoid informational absorption in the form of TV or work-related books). This is the part where you’ve put all of your recipe’s ingredients in the pot and you need to walk away for awhile. This is like when you forgot what you were going to say, and as soon as you switch to a different topic of conversation it comes popping back to mind? Our brains are mysterious machines and they work best when out of the spotlight of our conscious worries and expectations.

Tip for incubation: Carry index cards with you. As your brain is out taking a walk with you or going to yoga class, some great ideas will bubble up and you’ll want to jot them down and then get right back to your downward dog.

Illumination
It’s my opinion that illumination can come after or during the verification stage. Contrary to popular myth, illumination may be more like a slow dawn than a sharp moment of “eureka!” This is how we see the how we’ll finally figure out the problem or structure the eBook or invent the time machine. I think of it less as a breakthrough moment of genius (too much pressure) but more as if the light goes on and you can see the project as a whole, it becomes clear how this thing will be built, written, executed.

Tip for illumination: Don’t wait for this. When and if it comes, record your insights immediately before they evaporate from the heat of daily life. If you feel stuck and as if illumination will never come, go back to incubation, work on a different project for awhile, or simply forge ahead into the next phase and wait for illumination to catch up (it will).

Verification
This is just a fancy word for execution. You’re taking your combination of insight and inspiration out into the world and testing it. You’ve glimpsed the blueprint and now you must build the house. I found that when I wrote my eBook I was feeling very muddled about the structure and exactly what I wanted to say (illumination) but I kept writing and rewriting, revising and getting feedback (verification) until the pieces clicked.

Tip for verification: Test on safe audiences first. Ask at least one person who you respect and who is supportive of you to look at your final draft or your design. If you want to see if your boat is seaworthy, test it in a little pond first.

Of course, sometimes we go through this cycle in fits and starts.

And I’ve noticed that it appears almost within itself — writing a chapter of an eBook may go through the same four stages as the entire concept of the eBook as a whole. Now that I notice this, it’s become much easier to flow with the natural oscillation between input and output activities.

Which stage of the creative process are you in with your eBook?