MY CREATIVE PROCESS | HOW I CREATE CONTENT!

If I had a dollar for every time someone asked me what my creative process was, I’d have bought a house by now. 

Some people on social media have found it difficult to understand what exactly a blogger does, what value they bring or in the least what work they actually do. 

In this day and age, one would have thought quarantine was enough to explain to people how much work goes into just dressing up and showing up not to talk of taking pictures and this is for “isn’t all they do just wear clothes” and take pictures” school of thought. 

But no, we don’t just wear clothes mindlessly and take pictures so here’s a break down nobody asked but definitely needs on what a creative process of a blogger looks like. 

Using myself creating styling content as an example, my typical creative process usually looks like this. See example below:

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Inspiration

This is the bed rock of any content you’ve ever seen from me. There are days I get inspired by things and events happening around me and there are times that even if I tried, I won’t get a thing but I still have to create so I search for inspiration. 

This is the research stage where I make sure to identify a goal. What I am trying to achieve, who my audience is and the value I’m giving.

Typically, this means a few hours scrolling on Pinterest or instagram, reading blogs, trying on clothes, peeping through my shopping cart that I never check out or even taking a walk. These things always work for me because they are connected to my why… they remind me of why I started blogging and what my goals are. 

On the lowest of days, I go through my old content and read peoples feedback which is why giving feedback on a work you appreciate matters a lot. Some days all I need is a yassss queen or fry me, I’m your dodo but there are other times that I need carefully thought out feedbacks that analyze my content and clearly states the value gained or suggests what they’d like me to create. 

Moodboard

Pinterest is my go to app for a moodboard, all thanks to secret boards. I create secret boards for my campaigns and save all my ideas in there. This guide helps me know if I need to shop some items or reach out to a brand. Basically, this helps me plan better towards creating content aka gathering insights. 

You can also do this on your phone. Create a separate album on the project you’re working on and save all your ideas in there. This makes it easy for you to stay on track and not get lost in all your ideas. 

Mood-boards are great because they consist of ideas that you want to recreate or take inspiration from.

Planning

The planning stage usually involves scouting shoot locations, communicating with a photographer or videographer. If I have to shoot my content at home, I figure out a set up appropriate for my project. I also make purchases that I’ve outlined from my mood-board at this stage. 

One peculiar thing at this stage is identifying the challenges I have or might encounter and finding a way to solve them all in preparation for the big day or days. 

The set up

Here I activate all the plans from my planning stage and actually test them out to see if they work perfectly.

Execution

At this point everything else is in place and I kickstart creating content. This is highly dependent on what type of fashion content I’m creating but it usually takes anything from 3hours to days. 

Post production

Post production is that part of the work that brings out the beauty and professionalism in the content I have created. Typically, I edit pictures, videos, create graphics, make voiceovers and also write out captions. This stage might require investing in the right apps or softwares to get the best quality for my work. 

Feed plan

Usually I shoot at least 2 different content in a weekday but more on weekends. This means I do all the previous steps multiple times. In this stage I plan my feed in the preview app to make sure the whole feel of my page fits into the brand I’m creating. 

Post

Here I put out my content to the world. This involves optimizing my content for various platforms if that was the plan. However if it’s for just instagram or my blog, I’d just put it up on there and further do a cross promotion of my work on all social platforms I own to make sure I get enough people to see. 

This stage is just as important as all other stages because people would only see what you show them so I make sure I don’t take chances with this. Sometimes I share my content all through the days of week and post reminders so people remember to check it out. 

Then, I rinse and repeat for every single content. Although this is not the process for every type of content I create but it’s the most basic one. 

I made this post hoping to answer anyone’s question about what a creative process often looks like. I hope this answers your questions. 

What were your previous thoughts on what a creative process feels like? Let’s chat below. 

Find me on instagram here. 

#MJConsistencyChallenge #MJConsistencyPays

Love,Meedah!