Logic + Imagination = Creativity
Everything is on a sliding scale. With the arts, free expression and imagination are on one end of the scale, while careful planning and control are on the other. An enticing creation in the arts might be ninety percent freedom of expression—with a ten percent dab of control to corral it. Or it could be the other way round, with ninety percent precise planning and a ten percent splash of freedom—just enough to create interest. Or it could be just a soothing fifty-fifty balance. Here’s a visual representation of these different balances.
From my own perspective of this sliding scale: My initial book, Learning First in Black and White, was all about how to carefully plan designed compositions. (This book had strong guidelines for arrangement and alignment.) But in my next book, Find Your Voice in the Visual Arts, I cut loose from rules to champion the joy of plunging into blank surfaces with gusto. (This book was all about raw, untamed creativity.) Then I tried a novella, The Crow Factory. In that effort, the story was freely formed in imagination, but eventually needed to be tamed with the discipline of plot structure and character arcs. (To me, this was more like a fifty-fifty balance).