Before you fill it in
Keep the first pass short. A sentence or two for each prompt is enough. This is a working document you can change, not a promise you have to keep.
Creative project brief
- The idea. What are you making, and why does it interest you?
- The audience. Who is it for? Yourself is a valid answer.
- The finished thing. What could you point to and call finished?
- The materials. What do you already have? What will you need?
- The boundaries. What time, money, space, or technical limits matter?
- The experiment. What is one uncertainty you can test early?
- The next step. What small action can you take in your next session?
- The check-in. When will you look at the brief again?
Make the prompts fit the work
For a pottery project, your early test might be a glaze sample. For a recording, it might be a rough arrangement. For a novel, it might be a scene that tests the voice. Name an experiment small enough to try before you commit to the whole project.
Leave yourself a useful next step
“Work on the project” is hard to start. “Record one verse,” “sketch three handles,” or “write the opening exchange” gives the next session somewhere to begin.
Use, edit, print, or share this worksheet with attribution to Craft & System. Your completed brief and the work it describes belong to you.
Next: organize the project files