The Creativity Deck
To explore the creative process
CLICK, DISCOVER, PLAY, CREATE
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Open your eyes to the world around you. Let curiosity be your guide as you seek inspiration, research, and connection. Creativity begins with paying attention.
In the beginning there was light, and then... A catalyst is a person, condition or event that causes a change or reaction. It is the spark that ignites every creative journey.
Every story has a threshold—doorways, wells, and wormholes are portals into the unknown. As you cross them, you are altered in ways both large and small.
Practice is rooting powder for your creativity. It grounds your craft, strengthens discipline, and helps your imagination bloom. Learn, make mistakes, and grow through challenge.
Sketch, outline, map. Planning primes your awareness and helps to focus your attention. A plan offers direction, reveals obstacles, and invites low-stakes experimentation.
Sketch, outline, map. Planning primes your awareness and helps to focus your attention. A plan offers direction, reveals obstacles, and invites low-stakes experimentation.
Flow lives between challenge and ease. In its current, effort dissolves and time softens. Criticism and anxiety fade, leaving only the rhythm of doing.
Courage tells you to feel the fear, then jump anyway; to trust your convictions and the unseen net that appears mid-fall. Every brave act begins with a heartbeat of doubt.
Breathe out. Stop planning, researching, and waiting for perfection. Exhale and begin—write the draft, throw the paint, take the first step.
Now is the time to choose. Whether at the beginning, middle, or end, you will need to make thoughtful decisions. But every choice demands a kind of surrender — to move in one direction is to release another.
Refine, but don’t rush. Editing too soon can stall momentum and dim joy. The key is timing. Revise when your inner critic becomes your ally, not your saboteur.
Keep going. The final stretch feels endless, but endurance is its own art form. Breathe deep, take one more step, and the path will rise to meet you
There be dragons ahead. Fear loves to linger in the shadows, so face the darkness and slay those beasties. And remember, the monsters always follow, but they’re really not THAT scary.
A creative life demands compassion—for yourself, for others, for your work, and for the world. Kindness keeps the creative flame alive when judgment threatens to snuff it out.
Logic is steady and sincere—a loyal companion and occasional curmudgeon. Though risk-averse, Logic cuts through chaos. Sometimes, clarity is exactly what you need.
Hope tempers logic’s cynicism and fuels the will to create. Even in the darkest universe, hope joyfully shines a light.
Patience stands like an ancient statue, unmoved by storms or kings. Stars patiently deliver their light. And the universe waits patiently for all the stars to go out. Trust that what is meant to shine, will do so eventually.
At times, the path disappears—fog, fear, and confusion blur your way. When darkness surrounds you, look for the light. And let your creative compass guide you home.
When you’re blocked, hit pause. Set the work aside, and rest. Suspension isn’t stagnation—floating can be as freeing as flight.
From above, the world is a collection of abstract shapes. Descend, and the familiar reappears. When you’re stuck, change your perspective and confusion becomes clarity.
Even heroes need allies. Reach out when your energy wanes and let others lift you up. Support wears many faces—friend, mentor, muse, or a moment of grace.
Intuition finds patterns where others see noise. Intuition embraces ambiguity and leaps before reason catches up. When Intuition and Logic work together, creativity blooms.
It’s turtles all the way down. A paradox is something that seems impossible yet reveals a deeper truth. From para (“beyond”) and dokein (“to think”), it reminds us that creativity begins when we move beyond what makes sense.
Every creative work has its rhythm and season. Timing shapes both art and outcome. Whether time is linear or circular, in or out of our hands, we cannot escape its pull.
You are done. Know when to stop, when more fussing only muddies the work. Release it into the world and let chance play its part—creation is a dance between control and surrender.