This thing has
been called a lot of different things: A hunch, a lucky guess,
a feeling in one's bones, intuition, an answer to a prayer, and
on and on.
Edison called
it "listening within." Leo Burnett, the great ad man,
called it "creative conscience." I call it the incubation
process.
Whenever I have
a problem, I input and input all the data I can, then I just
let it incubate in this great machine in my head I call a mind.
Then, one day, viola! [I know...] A light comes on and the answer
pops out.
Every one of
us has a small, underdeveloped voice inside ourselves. Call it
what you want, but to really create you have to listen to that
voice -- trust it and act on what it tells you.
Before you go
to sleep tonight, go over all the material you've collected for
that special project, then pop it into your incubator.
If the answer
doesn't pop back out in the morning, you might want to go for
a walk or a workout or otherwise keep an open and receptive mind.
If you really did do all your homework, the answer will come.
And if you
still don't get an answer, that's an answer.