Over the past few days, I’ve described six creative states—the Gatherer, Incubator, Articulator, Shaper, Offerer, and Guardian. You may already know where you are. Many people do.
What follows is optional.
This short questionnaire isn’t meant to sort you, define you, or tell you anything you don’t already sense. It’s simply a way of noticing patterns—especially if things have felt unclear or conflicted lately.
When answering, choose what feels most true right now, not what you wish were true, and not what usually describes you.
There are no good or bad results here.
How to use this
For each question, choose one answer.
You may want to jot down the letter that corresponds to each choice, or simply notice which kinds of answers you’re drawn to most often.
At the end, the pattern of answers you chose most often can point to your current creative posture. If a second pattern appears often too, it may be working alongside—or waiting nearby.
The Questions
1. Lately, your creative energy has been mostly focused on:
a. Taking things in—reading, observing, collecting
b. Letting ideas form without forcing them
c. Getting words or work out of you
d. Refining or improving something already made
e. Sharing work or preparing to share it
f. Pulling back to protect time, energy, or work
2. When you sit down to engage creatively, what most often happens first?
a. You look for something to read or study
b. You think, pace, or sit with an idea
c. You begin drafting or making immediately
d. You open an existing piece to revise
e. You prepare something for others
f. You are comfortable deciding not to engage
3. Your notes or creative materials right now are mostly:
a. Collected fragments or references
b. Half-formed ideas or outlines
c. Rough drafts
d. Marked-up revisions
e. Finished or nearly finished pieces
f. Private or intentionally limited
4. Which frustration feels most familiar lately?
a. “I’m taking in a lot, but nothing’s coming out yet.”
b. “Something is forming, but I can’t quite say it.”
c. “I’m producing, but it feels messy.”
d. “This isn’t quite as clear or strong as it could be.”
e. “I care too much about how this will be received.”
f. “I don’t want to explain or justify my work.”
5. Right now, success would feel like:
a. Discovering something that stays with you
b. Feeling an internal click or readiness
c. Finishing a draft
d. Making something clearer or more precise
e. Putting work into the world
f. Keeping something safe
6. Your relationship to audience currently feels:
a. Mostly irrelevant
b. Distant or abstract
c. Secondary to expression
d. Present and considered
e. Immediate and engaged
f. Intentionally limited
7. When a new idea appears, your instinct is to:
a. Save it
b. Sit with it
c. Act on it
d. Compare or refine it
e. Share it
f. Protect it
8. Which sentence feels closest to true right now?
a. “I’m learning what draws me in.”
b. “I’m waiting for the right form.”
c. “I need to get this out.”
d. “I want this to be better.”
e. “I want this to be seen.”
f. “I need space.”
9. Your creative rhythm lately feels:
a. Receptive
b. Charged
c. Energetic
d. Focused
e. Exposed
f. Guarded
10. When you imagine the next few weeks, you most hope to be:
a. Absorbing
b. Clarifying
c. Expressing
d. Refining
e. Sharing
f. Resting or protecting
Interpreting what you notice
If you want, count how many times you chose each letter.
The letter you chose most often can point to your current creative posture.
If another letter is close behind, it may be supporting it—or following nearby.
You don’t need to tally precisely unless you want to. Often one posture feels dominant. Sometimes two appear together. Occasionally none stands out clearly—which can itself be useful.
What matters most is not the label, but the recognition.
This reflects where you are, not who you are.
Click on the link to review the significance of what may be your dominant archetype(s) in the moment.
a - The Gatherer
b - The Incubator
c - The Articulator
d - The Shaper
e - The Offerer
f - The Guardian
You don’t need to tally precisely unless you want to.
Often, one archetype will feel dominant. Sometimes two will appear together. Occasionally, none will stand out clearly—which can itself be a useful insight.
What matters most is not the label, but the recognition.
This reflects where you are, not who you are.
Many creative lives move through all of these states—again and again, in different orders.
Side Offering
If you’d like to see how some of my favorite authors have occupied various creative states, check out: Archetypes in Conversation with Writers.
What comes next
In the next post, I’ll share a short reflection on how one writer moved through many of these creative states across a lifetime—not as a model to imitate, but as a reminder that motion, not consistency, sustains creative work.
I love how this questionnaire draws out the essences of all the archetypes. Right now my offerer is driving the articulator--I have a sharing deadline that's pushing me to make, make, make! Shaper is getting a word in here and there, but right now it's all about producing work to get out into the world.
Lol, I am all over the place. Which is exactly how I felt reading the archetypes. Some archetype systems I fall into a neat spot, or between two. Not with this one. Or maybe its just where I am at right now. Part of it is that I am doing three disticntly different projects -- fiction, history, and translation -- and they are all in very different phases -- incubation, ongoing, winding-down...
BTW, I am in process of translating Daodejing for myself, and I will indeed be launnching a "read it in the original Classical Chinese" substack this summer. I mentioned that to you a few months ago...