Winner of a 2021 Silver Nautilus Award for Creativity & Innovation
Welcome to the Syncreate book, your guide the creative process. Syncreate is both a noun and a verb; it’s about the synergy of co-creation; it embodies the spirit of collaboration. We’re excited that you’re taking this journey with us.
Based on our experiences as artists, educators, and coaches, we felt inspired to write a book to help others understand and have better facility with the process. We’ve spent many years researching, discussing, and thinking through the creative process, and developed a framework for moving through it from ideation to completion, from inspiration to finished product.
We hope it will help get your artistic juices flowing. Think of it as an approach to creative project management that can be used by anyone from students to artists and individuals to organizational teams.
Based on our experiences as artists, educators, and coaches, we felt inspired to write a book to help others understand and have better facility with the process. We’ve spent many years researching, discussing, and thinking through the creative process, and developed a framework for moving through it from ideation to completion, from inspiration to finished product.
We hope it will help get your artistic juices flowing. Think of it as an approach to creative project management that can be used by anyone from students to artists and individuals to organizational teams.
Videos from our book launch presentations:
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How Do We Syncreate?
Consider this book your ally as you move deeper into the adventure of creativity. Through our years of helping others complete their imaginative projects, we have found that the most common barriers to completion arrive with the following questions:
Where do I start?
What do I do next?
How do I finish?
Consider this book your ally as you move deeper into the adventure of creativity. Through our years of helping others complete their imaginative projects, we have found that the most common barriers to completion arrive with the following questions:
Where do I start?
What do I do next?
How do I finish?
The Syncreate approach tackles each of these questions by breaking the creative process down into three main components: Play, Plan, and Produce. The stages of Plan, Play and Produce can help us to achieve our macro-level or big picture goals as well as our daily, micro-level activities. Whether we’re talking about the project as a whole or the incremental steps we’re taking to get there, we need to plan and play before we can produce, both on a small and on a large scale. This is an iterative (and re-iterative) process, all the way through.
view this video for a quick preview of the book:
PRAISE FOR SYNCREATE
"Developing better right-brain functionality can be incredibly difficult without some kind of easy-to-follow process. Enter "Syncreate," a simple but sophisticated twelve-chapter guide for individuals, teams and communities who want to more successfully steer their creative journey."
—Hugh Forrest, South by Southwest (SXSW) | Chief Programming Officer, sxsw.com
"Syncreate is a clear and nicely organized gem of a book, from multidisciplinary talented and experienced guides and role models. You will become creatively empowered, individually and in community. Highly recommended."
—Ruth Richards, M.D. Ph.D., Author of Everyday Creativity and the Healthy Mind: Dynamic New Paths for Self and Society
"The syncreate process looks at everything important: the individual, team and community process of creativity in a practical, yet poignant manner. It would be hard for anyone to finish this text and not play, plan and produce."
—Diana Rivera, MA, PCC, PhD, Creative Empowerment Coach and Facilitator, creativeempowermentcoaching.com
—Hugh Forrest, South by Southwest (SXSW) | Chief Programming Officer, sxsw.com
"Syncreate is a clear and nicely organized gem of a book, from multidisciplinary talented and experienced guides and role models. You will become creatively empowered, individually and in community. Highly recommended."
—Ruth Richards, M.D. Ph.D., Author of Everyday Creativity and the Healthy Mind: Dynamic New Paths for Self and Society
"The syncreate process looks at everything important: the individual, team and community process of creativity in a practical, yet poignant manner. It would be hard for anyone to finish this text and not play, plan and produce."
—Diana Rivera, MA, PCC, PhD, Creative Empowerment Coach and Facilitator, creativeempowermentcoaching.com
about the authors
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Charlotte Gullick grew up in a very rural town in Northern California, among the redwoods and the heavy rains of Mendocino County. She is the first in her family to graduate from college, and she holds a BA in English/Literature, a MA in English/Creative Writing from UC Davis, and a MFA in Creative Nonfiction from the Institute of American Indian Arts. Charlotte writes fiction, memoir, and nonfiction and is Chair of the Creative Writing Department at Austin Community College.
Her work has been published in Brevity, The Rumpus, The Best of Brevity, and Dogwood: A Journal of Poetry and Prose, among others. She has won the Evergreen State College Teaching Excellence Award, a NISOD Teaching Award, the Gold Star for Teaching and Mentorship from American Short Fiction, a Colorado Council on the Arts Poetry Fellowship, a Christopher Isherwood Fiction Fellowship, and writing residencies from MacDowell, Ragdale, and San Ysidro. |
Melinda Rothouse is a creativity, career, and leadership development coach and consultant, as well as an educator, facilitator, and public speaker. She is also a singer, songwriter, and bass player with many years of training and experience as a performing musician. Her other creative pursuits include contemplative photography and writing.
She holds a BA in biopsychology, master’s degrees in religious studies and performance studies, and a Ph.D. in psychology with a specialization in creativity studies. She is a longtime meditator and mindfulness practitioner teacher, and leads workshops and retreats in contemplative arts and creativity, both in the US and internationally. She is the author of the bestselling book A Mindful Approach to Team Creativity and Collaboration in Organizations: Creating a Culture of Innovation, published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2020. |
Dreux Carpenter (illustrator + content and editorial collaborator) is a Graphic Designer/Art Director and Writer with a BA in Art and an MFA in Writing and Consciousness. He sits on the Board of Directors for Writers’ League of Texas. Dreux currently resides in Austin, TX with his wife, daughter, dog, and two and a half cats.
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Access your creative genius
Syncreate is a user-friendly approach to accessing the creativity inside you. The narrative is warm and encouraging. It gave this reader an engaged "personal coach," including concrete steps and realistic tactics. The methods are evidence-based, which the authors combine with relatable anecdotes. The book moves the reader through the fog of the creative process to a clear and sunny place.
-- Allyson M. Herr
A friendly and down-to-earth guide to the creative process
In Syncreate, the authors, both creative people themselves, have provided those of us working on our art with a friendly and practical guide to making our dream of a work into a reality. Step by step, they lead the reader from the first stage of playing around and experimenting with our vision, to careful planning, and in the section most helpful to me as I work on a fourth draft of a novel, even helping us through getting lost and then finding our way back into a fresh vison of the work. The authors' own personal examples at each stage of the creative process are especially helpful. Brief, practical, and concrete, this is a wonderful guide to anyone daring to risk the creation of a work of art.
-- Marian O'Shea Wernicke
Demystifying Human Creativity
In Syncreate the authors offer an accessible and forthright demystification of that most mysterious human process - creativity. This presentation deconstructs the creative process into small and remarkably doable steps that go far to slay the dragon of "overwhelm" that sabotages many creative endeavors. The contents of this book will benefit the creative efforts of individuals and groups with its organized, digestible approach and clearly stated suggestions and practical exercises.
-- Karel James Bouse, Ph.D./Ph.D (Author: Neo-shamanism and Mental Health (2019); Transgenerational Colonialism: Wounding, Overcoming and the Reconstruction of Collective and Personal Identity (2021).
Great Creativity Resource
Syncreate is an excellent resource for those trying to connect with their creative selves. This accessible guide provides clear, concise reflections and specific pointers. In addition to their personal experiences and reflections, the authors offer exercises to help loosen up the mind. I find them to be extremely helpful when I suffer from writer's block. I highly recommend this book!
-- Ileenie Weenie
Syncreate is a user-friendly approach to accessing the creativity inside you. The narrative is warm and encouraging. It gave this reader an engaged "personal coach," including concrete steps and realistic tactics. The methods are evidence-based, which the authors combine with relatable anecdotes. The book moves the reader through the fog of the creative process to a clear and sunny place.
-- Allyson M. Herr
A friendly and down-to-earth guide to the creative process
In Syncreate, the authors, both creative people themselves, have provided those of us working on our art with a friendly and practical guide to making our dream of a work into a reality. Step by step, they lead the reader from the first stage of playing around and experimenting with our vision, to careful planning, and in the section most helpful to me as I work on a fourth draft of a novel, even helping us through getting lost and then finding our way back into a fresh vison of the work. The authors' own personal examples at each stage of the creative process are especially helpful. Brief, practical, and concrete, this is a wonderful guide to anyone daring to risk the creation of a work of art.
-- Marian O'Shea Wernicke
Demystifying Human Creativity
In Syncreate the authors offer an accessible and forthright demystification of that most mysterious human process - creativity. This presentation deconstructs the creative process into small and remarkably doable steps that go far to slay the dragon of "overwhelm" that sabotages many creative endeavors. The contents of this book will benefit the creative efforts of individuals and groups with its organized, digestible approach and clearly stated suggestions and practical exercises.
-- Karel James Bouse, Ph.D./Ph.D (Author: Neo-shamanism and Mental Health (2019); Transgenerational Colonialism: Wounding, Overcoming and the Reconstruction of Collective and Personal Identity (2021).
Great Creativity Resource
Syncreate is an excellent resource for those trying to connect with their creative selves. This accessible guide provides clear, concise reflections and specific pointers. In addition to their personal experiences and reflections, the authors offer exercises to help loosen up the mind. I find them to be extremely helpful when I suffer from writer's block. I highly recommend this book!
-- Ileenie Weenie
