How does ‘Essential Glanside’ work?

Essential Glanside is a process with which Creative Thinking Techniques are exploited and their use controlled in the development of a creative work.

Essential Glanside consists of two components.

The first component is a The Creative Substructure with which creative ideas are managed and developed.  The Substructure is designed to take you from a blank sheet of paper or blank screen to a first outline of a creative work.

The second component is The Creative Framework.  The Framework is the process that builds the outline ideas into a developed creative work, starting from the specific (the direction, material, concept or theme that you wish to investigate or dissect) and moving to the general (the creative possibilities that result from the use of creating thinking techniques and processes).

How is ‘Essential Glanside’ deployed?

Component A: The Creative Substructure

There are six elements that make up The Creative Substructure

Element 1 – The Hoard

Establish a place/process for hoarding ideas that are generated from thinking-for-creativity techniques.

In Glanside creative thinking the quality of creative output is linked to the quantity of creative ideas generated.

Within the creative process there must be a place where ideas generated from Glanside techniques are assembled, allowing you to pick through them and select interesting ideas for further development.

You need to be able to sieve through the ideas you have generated, selecting those ideas that meet your initial criteria or warrant further development given the creative task at hand. The ideas that remain can be hoarded for future use in other sections of your creative project.

Element 2 – Build from Specific Ideas

Creative direction flows from the specific to the general. Begin with specific ideas: a clear direction, belief, material, concept or theme that you wish to investigate or dissect.

The establishment of these specific ideas – on or with which the work will be constructed – is part of White Hat Thinking using De Bono’s 6 Thinking Hats approach.

The chosen combination of specific ideas is crucial to the creative process. The manner in which you define the problem to be investigated, and the ideas you mix in order to embody that problem, is an essential part of the creative development of your work.

Element 3 – Introducing General Ideas to trigger creativity.

At the core of creative thinking is a reaction in which different ideas combine and coalesce to form intriguing new material. Creativity comes from the mix and combination of diverse, different and disparate ideas (termed general ideas), together with the specific ideas you chose as your starting point.

The aim of the use of Creative Thinking Techniques is to generate general ideas that can be used to develop a creative work through a reaction with specific ideas on which you are building.

Element 4 – Fragments

Ideas are often hidden. So don’t be afraid to gather fragments – that is ‘snippets’ of material that can lead to ideas.

When you revisit these fragments you will suddenly see combinations of fragments that can lead in new creative directions.

It is often the case that the more obscure and unexpected the idea combination, the greater will be the creative appeal of the work. Revisit the diverse fragments of text, picture or object that you have collected and notice how the mind picks-over and picks-out creative connections and patterns as you work.

Element 5 – ‘Points-of-Departure’

Through the use of Creative Thinking Techniques to combine and further develop specific and general ideas you will create Points-of-Departure.

Points-of-Departure are phrases (or ideas expressed in any other media) which capture an idea that can be developed into a creative text passage or sketch.

Points-of-Departure are like burning pieces of kindling that can be positioned and combined into larger creative flames until the creative fire takes hold.

In using Glanside Creative Thinking Techniques to find new and interesting combinations of ideas, you will find that yourself taking a mental step sideways in your thinking. It is this sideways step that takes you to new points-of-departure. You are now ready to apply ‘forwards thinking’ again – working forward from these new points-of-departure eventually to the finished creative work.

Element 6 – Patterns

Look for patterns and logical or creative connections amongst these creative points-of-departure. By annotating, evolving, broadening, adapting (etc) of points-of-departure and, of course, rejecting them if they are not taking your work in the right direction, a first draft of a creative work is produced.

How is ‘Essential Glanside’ deployed?

Component B: The Creative Framework.

The creative framework weaves the ideas generated (i.e. points-of-departure) in the creative thinking stage – Green Hat Thinking using De Bono’s 6 Thinking Hats approach – into a developed creative work that is ready for final touches and finishing.

There are four elements that make up the Creative Framework.

Element 1 – The Warp

The weaving of ideas into a woven creative fabric is a good metaphor for Creativity Thinking

The Warp consists of the basic idea threads that hold the whole creative work together.

Often the best way of producing the Warp is to spread out the idea combinations (i.e. the points-of-departure) that you have produced – and just begin working from these points of departure.

It is important at the Warp stage to capture the essential work in a rough format.

Describe in simple sentences – or through outline sketches etc – the ideas you want to incorporate at that moment in the development of your work.

The Warp sets the strand-and-structure for the work, and holds everything together. It is a difficult stage: but remember that the human is a creative being.  This is where the external Glanside creative processes and the internal workings of the mind will come together.

Never lose a good idea. When building the Warp you often find a new creative point-of-departure that you are not able to incorporate at that moment.  Place any such idea in your ‘Hoard’ to be revisited later.

Element 2 – The Weft

The Weft provides the depth and suppleness of shade, colour and texture to the weave of your creative work.

The purpose of the Glanside website is to offer Creative Thinking Techniques that can help to drive the creative Weft of your work.  Different creative techniques will unearth different creative possibilities.

Quality of creative work always comes through the quantity of creative ideas generated.  Different Techniques lead to different outcomes.  Different people will find that there are different techniques that are the most effective in bringing highly creative ideas to their work.

Component 3 – Drafts

The creative Warp and Weft will lead to a developed draft of your creative work – i.e. a woven fabric of creative ideas.  You are very lucky if this developed draft meets all the conscious or unconscious objectives that you have set yourself.

If your work of art is not moving in the right direction, Essential Glanside provides a process and workflow with which you can redraft and recombine different sections of your work, until you obtain creative work that you know to be both precise and true to your objectives.

Component 4 – Play-back

The processes in the Creative Substructure and the Creative Framework are not sequential.  Mix any and all of the components of the Essential Glanside process as required.