The Art of Planting Creative Seeds

Welcome to Creatives Anonymous, a weekly newsletter that explores creativity, culture, and the trends shaping how we work, think, and make through essays, interviews, and commentary.

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Every creative idea we have starts out as a seed. A seed represents a starting point. A means of inspiration. An inkling. Anything that strikes our interest. 

Collecting seeds is more about letting the ideas come to us rather than us going out to find them. All we have to do is be receptive. 

It’s our job as creatives to collect the seeds, plant them, and water them to see what they grow into. 

Once we have our seeds, it’s up to us to decide which ones we want to cultivate. 

So, how do you know a seed is good and worth pursuing? Simple: you get excited about it. When things come together in the way they should, it arouses delight in us. We want to continue to follow the energy. That’s when we know our work is in alignment. 

This is where experimentation comes into play. There are no stakes, only countless directions to explore. In this stage, we’re looking for what ideas hold the most promise, not which can be created the fastest. This is an important distinction, especially in the era of AI, where it seems like the only thing that matters is speed.

However, we can’t force the end product; we have to let it evolve naturally on its own. And sometimes, it might take a completely different path than we initially thought. That’s why we have to focus on cultivating possibilities instead of eliminating them. 

Having a specific guide for how the seed can take shape can be helpful as the idea develops, but in the early stages, it can limit the possibilities for what path it can take. As we create, we need to let go of the expectations we have for the work and just let it take shape naturally instead of forcing it into a box.

In other words, the work reveals itself as you go. 

And this is when it surprises us. We don’t know how the final product will look or how it will evolve along the way. All we can do is follow our curiosity. The beauty in creating something lies in the discoveries and epiphanies we make along the way, whether in ourselves or in the work. 

That said, ideas need time to marinate. Not all seeds are meant to grow when they’re collected. Sometimes, they’ll lie dormant until they reach the season with the right growing conditions to flourish. 

And sometimes, we come up with ideas that we start experimenting with, but then we lose momentum. It’s not because it’s a bad seed, but rather we haven’t found the right experiment for it yet. It’s just an indicator that we need to step away from it and shift our perspective around it. 

Sometimes you need to step back from an idea to move forward with it. The idea might be there, but you’re not in a season to cultivate it yet. And it might take years and a different version of you to get there. 

Until one day, it all clicks. The right experiment at the right time on the right idea. 

That’s pure creative magic. 

If there is an idea we really want to cultivate, we can’t be afraid to keep testing, experimenting, and iterating on it. We have to keep exploring the possibilities and the paths while keeping an open mind to the shape it could take. Because more likely than not, it’s better than what we could ever imagine for it.

Creative Corner

• 🎞️ What I’m Consuming: Rewatching Project Runway Junior, otherwise known as the best version of Project Runway.

• 💡 What I’m Loving: Clothing rental! I started renting through Armoire, a Seattle-based clothing rental service, and I’m obsessed.

• 🎨 What I’m Working On: Starting my slow read of War and Peace.

• 💭 Weekly Musing:

Thank you 💕

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I’m so grateful for all of your support!

Alexa Phillips is a writer, content strategist, and multi-passionate creative. She is the founder of Bright Eyes Creative, a Seattle-based brand consultancy that helps B2B founders and brands stand out and scale with editorial-driven content marketing.

Where to find me:

• Learn more about my services 

• Listen to my recent podcast episodes.

• Grab the GTM Content Workbook, designed to help founders build the foundation they need to build and scale a successful GTM-aligned content marketing program.