On Day 10 of the first draft of my book Productive Writer (which I announced I will finish in 10 days) frantically cutting out the stuff I had so painstakingly written just a few days before. Normally I would have agonized a lot over “killing my darlings,” but after having written four books, I now know that it is part of the process.
I started off by collecting and writing several techniques, stories, ideas, and suggestions over the years. There is a concept called divergence and convergence. As creators, we play the balancing act of divergence and convergence all the time.
If you look at the process of creating anything, it begins with an act of divergence. We look at hundreds of possibilities and consider as many options as possible. We begin gathering inspiration, expose ourselves to new influences, and explore new paths. We are diverging from your starting point.
Divergence is the classic brainstorming stage — whiteboard covered in sketches, the writer’s wastepaper basket filled with crumpled-up drafts, hundreds of photos laid across the floor.
The purpose of divergence is to generate new ideas. It is spontaneous, chaotic, and messy. There is no way you can plan when you’re in divergence mode, and you shouldn’t try. This is the time to wander.
As powerful and necessary as divergence is, it has to end. At some point, we must start discarding possibilities and converge toward a solution. Otherwise, we will never finish anything.
Convergence forces us to eliminate options, make trade-offs and decide what is truly essential. It is about narrowing the range so that you can progress forward and end up with a final result you are proud of.
Convergence allows our work to take on a life of its own and become something separate from ourselves.
The model of divergence and convergence is so fundamental to all creative work, we can see it present in any creative field.
In the video below, an author and illustrator, Debra Fraiser, shares her process of creating the book This Is the Planet Where I Live. Watch it to see how clear her divergence and convergence are, that too over five years.
On Day 10 of the first draft of my book Productive Writer (which I announced I will finish in 10 days) frantically cutting out the stuff I had so painstakingly written just a few days before. Normally I would have agonized a lot over “killing my darlings,” but after having written four books, I now know that it is part of the process.
I started off by collecting and writing several techniques, stories, ideas, and suggestions over the years. There is a concept called divergence and convergence. As creators, we play the balancing act of divergence and convergence all the time.
If you look at the process of creating anything, it begins with an act of divergence. We look at hundreds of possibilities and consider as many options as possible. We begin gathering inspiration, expose ourselves to new influences, and explore new paths. We are diverging from your starting point.
Divergence is the classic brainstorming stage — whiteboard covered in sketches, the writer’s wastepaper basket filled with crumpled-up drafts, hundreds of photos laid across the floor.
The purpose of divergence is to generate new ideas. It is spontaneous, chaotic, and messy. There is no way you can plan when you’re in divergence mode, and you shouldn’t try. This is the time to wander.
As powerful and necessary as divergence is, it has to end. At some point, we must start discarding possibilities and converge toward a solution. Otherwise, we will never finish anything.
Convergence forces us to eliminate options, make trade-offs and decide what is truly essential. It is about narrowing the range so that you can progress forward and end up with a final result you are proud of.
Convergence allows our work to take on a life of its own and become something separate from ourselves.
The model of divergence and convergence is so fundamental to all creative work, we can see it present in any creative field.
Towards the middle of the video, she talks about how critical her journal is to her process, how it’s “this active space where a kind of magic happens… it’s not a scrapbook, it’s not a diary, it’s this place.”
For me, that place is my personal knowledge management system (PKMS), which has become the focal point of my book Productive Writer. It is something we knowledge workers can’t afford not-to have. It doesn’t matter what your PKMS looks like, what matters is how it helps you create.
Here is an aerial view of mine.
