What’s involved in creativity? Solo, or Group?


Factors involved in Creativity

Making an Effort: mental, physical, emotional and spiritual.

Courage: to take risks.

Stamina: not to give up, to revise and redraft many times.

Perfect Imperfection: knowing when to stop.

Mentors: to follow, and to rebel against.

Style: it’s not just what you say but how you say it.

Surprise: walking the unexpected, deviation from norms, serendipity

Flow: an intense state of mind when you deliver peak performance

Skills and Tools: to build and develop projects

Confidence: to aspire and to avoid destructive thoughts and negative outlook

Team work: ability and willingness to collaborate effectively and to respect others

Solo or Group?

It is often forgotten that creativity is not just individual, it can exist within a group or a community. Typically a small group will develop more ideas than a person working alone. That's why everyone is getting into co-creation now, from wiki, to games, free source and life hacking. But is there also a danger of group-think compromises and weak statements?

On or Off

Do you have the ability to just turn on the creativity switch?
Yes. It is a kind of skill that can be learned by anyone, in my view. But there is always room for improvement, and some days (and times) are better than others.
Resistance also takes many forms and need to be deconstructed and analysed.

Do you need a Moment of Inspiration?

No. That's the myth of romantic genius that appeared in the late eighteenth century. I don’t want to deny that there is a spark of inspiration. Rather, you need plenty of fuel to sustain and to develop your fire in a sustainable and memorable way.

Do you have to focus and create the mood for creativity to happen ?

Focus is good, but if you try too hard for too long you come up with what has been done before. 

When you say mood I'd suggest that it helps if you are contented rather than disabled by the worst kinds of depression.

Or is it out of your control?

This sounds dangerous. Part of creativity involves a faith in yourself, the ability to take risks, a sense of playfulness, and the cultivation of spontaneity. Spontaneity can be developed by doing things that are unusual or out o character. Again that comes down to confidence in yourself.

Source(s):

Film, collaboration and creativity link
The 32 dangers of collaboration link


General Discussion of the Topic

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creativity

Books

Mihaly Cskszentmihalyi. Flow.
Mihaly Cskszentmihalyi. Creativity and  the Psychology of Discovery and Invention

Notes

In the Wallas stage model, creative insights and illuminations may be explained by a process consisting of 5 stages:

(i) preparation (preparatory work on a problem that focuses the individual's mind on the problem and explores the problem's dimensions),
(ii) incubation (where the problem is internalized into the unconscious mind and nothing appears externally to be happening),
(iii) intimation (the creative person gets a "feeling" that a solution is on its way),
(iv) illumination or insight (where the creative idea bursts forth from its preconscious processing into conscious awareness); and
(v) verification (where the idea is consciously verified, elaborated, and then applied).

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