In which you focus on your goals.
Key questions are:
- What am I trying to achieve here?
- What am I trying to say?
- What exactly is the problem I am trying to solve?
- What would I like the finished work to be like?
And in more open ended work:
- How could I exploit the ideas I have had?
- Where could this idea take me – what could I make of it?
The aim here is to clarify the purpose or objective of the work. It is easy to lose your sense of direction while dealing with detailed difficulties in creative work. So you need occasionally to disengage from these obstacles and ask “what exactly am I trying to do?”.
If you’get stuck’ in the middle of a project, then rather than dreaming up a stream of alternatives you need to clarify where exactly you want to go. How to get there is then often straight-forward, or even blindingly obvious.Clarification gets you out of the mire, but it is also required when say, an artist or designer agonises between two or more equally attractive approaches. Such decisions require a clear sense of purpose.
If you feel lost, stuck, bogged down, confused, or uncertain about how to proceed, then clarification is what you need. In this clarification phase you have your eye on the ball, you are being strategic and logical, focussing on how the finished work will look.It is very common for those inexperienced in creative work to fail to clarify. Clarification is a process, not an event. It should take place at frequent intervals while you work.
Clarification mind set
In order to clarify what you are trying to achieve you need to be:
- Strategic
- Unhurried
- Impertinent
That is analytic, logical, and clear minded, and not afraid to ask difficult questions. Many people fail to clarify, they fail to achieve their goals because they don’t know what they are.
